So for a long time I closed my eyes to the possibility of America having a white voice.

I know that bands that haven't put out a record for 10 years are playing to 20,000 people a night. But that's not the achievement.

I think I'm prone to panic.

I'd break out in hives if I had to sing (`Stairway to Heaven') in every show. 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. I sang it at the Atlantic Records show because I'm an old softie and it was my way of saying thank you to Atlantic because I've been with them for 20 years. But no more of `Stairway to Heaven' for me.

I am a reflection of what I sing. Sometimes I have to get serious because the things Ive been through are serious.

Each album has a different atmosphere. The third album and Houses of the Holy seem to be the two albums that people didn't get off on quite as strongly as the other ones. But I think they contain the basic ingredients for the further pursuance of what we're doing... the turning point to relieve the tedium of repetition.

You would find in a lot of Zep stuff that the riff was the juggernaut that careered through and I worked the lyrics around this.