While the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s formation is doubtlessly worth celebrating, singer Robert Plant said in a new interview that his thoughts turned more toward the death of John Bonham.

The drummer’s passing in 1980 brought an end to the band, and only a handful of standalone reunion shows having taken place since then. “It’s 50 years, but it’s not 50 years,” Plant told Mojo (via Blabbermouth). “It’s 38 years of darkness for a family. So all that hullabaloo is great, and I’m sure there’s be come great things to come out of it.”

Plant recalled his relationship with Bonham, noting that "Bonzo and I, we’d been through so many things before the big time. We kinda read each other like books – we were like brothers. But in reality, and physicality, and spiritually, losing John, obviously we ... everybody got together and said, ‘This can never work again.’”

The band’s concerns had then turned to protecting Bonham’s family from “this kind of surge of media stuff,” he said, adding that he had “experienced that a couple of years before” when his young son Karak died. “To lose John was criminal,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Plant revealed he had kept three unused Quaaludes pills from the late ‘70s or early ‘80s. “The label on the bottle says, ‘Robert Plant – for sleeplessness’ – it looks like an album cover,” he noted. “Three Rorer 714s from Schwarz Pharmacy in L.A., and I often think to myself, ‘Wow, there they are: poison!’”

Plant, who continues to tour in support of latest solo album, Carry Fire, said that he was looking forward to an upcoming Led Zeppelin archival release. “I might even get a free copy,” he joked. While no details of any official anniversary event have been announced, the singer previously reported that a meeting had been planned to discuss the possibility.

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