The filmmakers behind the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary did what no one has done before by convincing the surviving members of the band to open up for interviews.
Led Zeppelin surviving members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones have for the first time opened up for a documentary about their iconic run with late drummer John Bonham between 1968 and 1980.
Filmmakers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty have now revealed the story behind how they convinced the members to agree to the documentary.
“When we started, we spent seven months researching, looking for every scrap or fragment of archival footage we could find,” McGourty told People.
The trio made a storyboard to pitch to the musicians.
MacMahon recalled: “Everyone we knew said, ‘You’re completely insane. They’ll never agree to do it.’ “
However, band members Page and Plant were already fans of the filmmaker’s 2017 documentary series American Epic. They then had to convince John Paul.
“John Paul Jones didn’t know it, but we were able to send to his manager the DVD, and we just said, ‘Please give this to him and ask him to watch the first 20 minutes. And if he’s not interested, you’ll never hear from us again,’ ” MacMahon added. “And he called back like two days later or something and said [Jones would] like to meet you.’ “
“He has an amazing memory — believe me, I’ve talked to everybody. I’ve checked all this stuff,” MacMahon remarked of Page.
“I’d come in with timelines of all the dates and I don’t recall him ever being wrong with something like where he is, got the wrong month or something like that. Robert and John Paul Jones were the same, really good memories,” he shared.
“They opened up their address books and gave us the telephone numbers of all the people they’d grown up with,” he added. “And we were allowed to just go and meet these people unsupervised.”
Becoming Led Zeppelin is currently in cinemas.
