#bernard macmahon

“Becoming Led Zeppelin” to Arrive in IMAX Theaters in February 2025

- Previously unheard interview with John Bonham among the threads in new picture

“The first time we played together, it was stunning - it was like a gift from heaven, wasn’t it?”

John Bonham is heard speaking these words at the tail end of the trailer for “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” the Bernard MacMahon-directed documentary that opens Feb. 5, 2025, at IMAX theaters in 18 cities before its Feb. 7 release in 200 additional theaters, IMAX only.

The never-released audio interview with the late Led Zeppelin drummer echoes contemporary interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones in which the principal members, more than 40 years removed from Bonham’s death and the band’s breakup, marvel at what they found together.

“I knew we were on the right track,” Jones says.

Soundtracked with the studio version of “Whole Lotta Love,” the trailer includes previously unseen photographs and video from the band’s early days, which, as the title suggests, is the focus of the forthcoming “hybrid doc-concert” movie, the first sanctioned by the band.

“You could tell it was going to be a good group, but people wouldn’t even book the band,” Bonham says as his “Whole Lotta Love” solo plays behind his speaking voice.

Read Sound Bites’ coverage of the long-gestating project here: https://www.tumblr.com/krispyweiss/750584999322992640/becoming-led-zeppelin-to-hit-theaters-no

2.23.25

Growing up, my personal holy trinity of heavy rock was always Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin. Everyone had their favorite, but for me, Deep Purple always edged out the other two. I have always had a soft spot for keyboards, and when Jon Lord let that Hammond organ roar, it felt like rock music had suddenly grown a cathedral-sized soul. That said, Led Zeppelin was a different beast…