Chris Squire Says Yes / Led Zeppelin Supergroup Almost Happened

Chris Squire is well known as the only person who has performed on every album put out by Yes, but the bassist almost became even more famous for a band that ended up never happening. Squire recently revealed that he and Yes drummer Alan White almost became the rhythm section of a Led Zeppelin offshoot following the tragic death of drummer John Bonham in 1980.

“One day [Jimmy Page] rang me up and said that he really couldn’t sit around not doing anything anymore and would Alan and I go over and have a play with him -- just sort of like so he could get back into playing music again,” Squire explained to Classic Rock Magazine.

“Obviously he was a bit devastated over what happened to John. We went on [playing] like that for a while, and the theory was that [Zeppelin singer] Robert [Plant] was going to come join us and do some singing. But it was all too early for him. He didn’t really wanna get back into thinking about forming another band … if Robert had come down we’d have got on with it and it would have happened.”

So, there you have it. Had this unnamed supergroup taken off, Plant and Page may have never formed the post-Zeppelin outfit the Honeydrippers, turned in a shambolic Zeppelin reunion performance in front of 1.9 billion TV viewers at Live Aid, or embarked on their mid-'90s UnLedded tour.

And Yes ... well, without Squire, Yes may never have gone on to record their 1983 hit, "Owner of a Lonely Heart." And maybe, with Squire rocking alongside the legendary Plant and Page, he could have already realized his dream of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.