Forthcoming Documentary Explores Led Zeppelin’s Early Years

"Becoming Led Zeppelin" has no release date as of yet

Led Zeppelin
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.
Redferns

When you’ve made an acclaimed documentary focusing on a fascinating and transformative moment in the history of the music industry, what do you do for an encore? For Bernard MacMahon, the answer involves one of rock music’s most fascinating and transformative groups. MacMahon is the director behind the American Epic series of films, which drew on the history of American roots music and how it was recorded in the 1920s. And his next project will take on a band who drew plenty of influence from that era: namely, Led Zeppelin.

No release date has been announced yet for the new project, titled Becoming Led Zeppelin. But it does sound like a deep dive into the band’s early years, complete with new interviews with the band’s three surviving members and a host of archival footage.

At Ultimate Classic Rock, Allison Rapp has more information on the film. Rapp notes that it’s the first fully endorsed documentary from the band, and that Page’s admiration for American Epic led to MacMahon’s involvement with the project.

“The time was right for us to tell our own story for the first time in our own words,” bassist John Paul Jones said in a statement.

Intriguingly, the summary of the documentary suggests that its focus will be on the band’s early years, beginning with Led Zeppelin’s formation and taking them through the release of their second album, which established them as a dominant force on the charts.

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