Singer Chris Cornell has said he finds the idea of a Led Zeppelin reunion tour without frontman Robert Plant “depressing”.

Cornell has been linked to the vacant singing position since it emerged that John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Jason Bonahm planned to tour minus their frontman.

Plant ruled himself out of any further performances with the group earlier in the autumn.

"I would never do anything like that whether I were approached or not,” Cornell is quoted as saying. “It just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

"I would not want to go see me performing Led Zeppelin songs with the two other guys that used to be in a band called Led Zeppelin while Robert Plant is out somewhere touring.

"That's not a ticket I would buy. God bless 'em, but that's not Led Zeppelin. I find it completely depressing.

“I'd never do anything like that. I mean just out of respect to the legacy of the band."

Calls for a full Led Zeppelin reunion tour have been relentless since the bands reunion show at the O2 Arena last December - which attracted 1 million applicants for just 9,000 pairs of tickets.

Plant said in September that he found the constant speculation around the band's future “frustrating and ridiculous”.

(by Jason Gregory)