Robert Plant Performs 'Stairway to Heaven' for the First Time in 16 Years

The last time Led Zeppelin performed their legendary hit "Stairway to Heaven" was during a one-off reunion show in 2007, the subject of the Celebration Day concert film. On Oct. 21, lead singer Robert Plant brought the song back from the dead for a special one-night-only performance.

Plant was invited to perform at An Evening With Andy Taylor and Special Guests, a charity concert for the Cancer Awareness Trust's Cancer Platform organized by former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor. The Led Zeppelin frontman performed as part of a star-studded musical lineup including Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley and former Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt. When he broke out into "Stairway to Heaven," it was a moment 16 years in the making.

The long wait might not have been entirely by choice on Plant's part, to be fair. The song became the center of a copyright lawsuit in 2014 and remained tied up in the U.S. legal system until a court ruled in Led Zeppelin's favor in 2020.

Still, he isn't exactly a super-fan of the iconic power ballad, and even shudders when reflecting on the song's release in 1971.

"When I hear it in isolation, I feel overwhelmed for every single reason you could imagine. There was a mood and an air of trying to make it through," he told Rolling Stone last year. "Everybody was reeling from Vietnam and the usual extra helping of corruption with politics. There were people who were really eloquent who brought it home far less pictorially and did a much better job of reaching that point."

For now, "Stairway to Heaven" remains a snapshot of its time with its fate of future performances up in the air.