The Led Zeppelin singer revealed the story in a 2002 interview with NPR, recalling a drive through Oregon that ended with a speeding ticket \u2014 and an unusual pledge to a local community radio station.<\/p>\n
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Plant and Jimmy Page perform in the early 1970s. Page is playing a Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck guitar (Image credit: Jay Dickman\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in Portland, Oregon,\u201d Plant said. \u201cI was driving along in my car, heading for Lincoln City, which is out on the coast. I wanted to drive down to Eureka.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust before the black-and-white [the highway patrol] caught me doing 90mph, [I was listening to] KBOO.\u201d<\/p>\n
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KBOO is a volunteer-run community radio station that was founded in 1964. At the time of Plant\u2019s drive, the station had a tongue-in-cheek approach to raising money from its listeners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had this amazing music,\u201d Plant recalled. \u201cIt was kind of a mixture of sad outtakes of doo-wop and a very droll DJ, who sounded like somebody from Marin County in 1967.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then the DJ made an offer Plant couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy came on saying they were looking for sponsorships: \u2018Please send in $10\u2019 or whatever, and if people in the area did that, KBOO would promise never to play \u2018Stairway to Heaven,\u2019\u201d Plant explained. \u201cSo I called him up and pledged my money. I was one of the KBOO sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n
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(Image credit: Robert Knight Archive\/Redferns\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear exactly how much Plant paid. Some reports<\/a> have claimed he donated $10,000, but there\u2019s no concrete evidence to support that figure. Plant\u2019s own story suggests the pledge may have been closer to the station\u2019s suggested $10.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n Either way, he was apparently willing to pay to avoid hearing his own band\u2019s biggest song.<\/p>\n Plant\u2019s apparent ambivalence toward \u201cStairway to Heaven\u201d contrasts with Jimmy Page\u2019s longstanding enthusiasm for the track. Page has described wanting the song to begin with a \u201cfragile acoustic guitar<\/a>,\u201d played like \u201ca poor man\u2019s \u2018Bourr\u00e9e\u2019 by Bach,\u201d before the addition of recorders gave the opening a medieval quality. From there, the song gradually builds into a blues-rock epic before exploding into one of the most celebrated guitar solos<\/a> in rock history.<\/p>\n