I've had time to think about this some more, and something rather obvious occurred to me... if Jason's former band member Chas West is good enough at singing Zep vocals to fill in for Led Zepplica's Joe Retta when he's busy, well then maybe Chas West himself is our guy. It's just that I tend to think Annerin had something particular in mind when they approached Jason about the project, and they do already have this relationship with a Zep tribute, one that they spent 2 1/2 years searching for and have produced several Canadian tours for. The more I think about my theory, the more I think I might be right. But I did not research anybody's Facebook or Twitter posts or anything like that for clues that may further support or disprove anything (I figure somebody out there nuttier than me will do that, haha). I haven't even sampled Led Zeppelica and Joe Retta's vocals.
Another note: Jason might've even been scouting for talent in Zep tributes even before Annerin approached him, as I know that in March of 2009 he attended a Led Zepagain show in Los Angeles (and even sat in on one song). Incidentally, Jimmy Page had also attended one of their shows in 2004, so maybe that's how Jason heard of them. Apparently Jason is still in contact with the band, but they say they have not been approached about his project. I'm pretty sure they're also one of the bands Annerin passed over in their search for a Zep tribute years ago.
As for Jimmy Page, I have also heard he has something in the works, and that, combined with the fact that he's probably the Zep member who's closest to Jason, makes people want to believe he's involved with this, but he can't be, unless Jason's statement that he hasn't heard from Page was a cover story. But I'm quite sure none of the original Zep members are going to team up with Annerin to play in a tribute to themselves. In fact, I'm sure there are NO big names associated with this project, otherwise Jason would be using those names to his advantage, and they'd be booking larger venues. Not to say that it won't be a good show... Annerin has fairly high standards... I've always heard good things about Rain, if that's any indication of what to expect. Though I've seen the Pink Floyd Experience and I had a few problems with them (I've seen worse though).
I just gotta say, that time that I had the BCC line-up right, that information came from somebody who knew somebody who had a leak from an inside source... so that was handed to me and I just reported it. This time, my theory is based on nothing but my own research. Not even sure why I took the time to do it, as I don't have much of a personal interest in the project, aside from the fact that I'm a huge Zep fan. I guess I just got curious about a few things (like if Annerin already had any dealings with Zep tributes) and what I turned up was enough to make me keep digging further, and I can get obsessive about these things, lol.
Maybe I should add, I once thought I had the surprise headliner of the Olympic Closing Ceremonies figured out, and I was completely wrong. A historically reliable source with inside connections had inadvertently given us a misleading clue (if you saw "set the controls for the heart of the closing ceremonies", what would you think?
) and I got excited and did a bunch of online research and thought I had a lot of good evidence to support a Pink Floyd reunion. Needless to say I was wrong... it was Jimmy Page.
--Vik 