After the breakup of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunited in the ’90s for an episode of MTV Unplugged and a subsequent live album, No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded.
A few years prior, in 1988, Plant confessed to being (understandably) sick of playing Zep’s most beloved song, “Stairway to Heaven.”
“I’d break out in hives if I had to sing it every show,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don’t know. It’s just not for me . . . No more ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for me.”
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But on November 10, 1994, the duo temporarily broke their “No Stairway” rule and played an acoustic version of the song at a Tokyo news station as part of a world tour of the duo’s side project, Page and Plant.
Watch above as the pair perform a dulcet and rare recording of what is considered by many to be one of the greatest rock songs ever made.
The song starts around the 2:47 mark.
“Stairway” was originally released in 1971 for the band’s untitled fourth studio album (often referred to as Led Zeppelin IV).