SHORT TAKES : No Hidden Messages, Plant Says

Ex-Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant says his heavy metal band was wrongly accused of slipping Satanic messages in its albums long before the current Judas Priest flap.

“I mean, who on Earth would have ever thought of doing that in the first place? You’ve got to have a lot of time on your hands to even consider that people would do that,” Plant said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

Plant said if his band had used the backward masking, where the lyrics can only be heard by playing an album backwards, it might have included a message more money-driven than malicious.

“I figure if backward masking really worked, every record in the store would have ‘buy this album’ hidden in it,” Plant said.

In Reno, Nev., a judge ruled today that hidden words do exist on an album by the British rock band Judas Priest. But the judge ruled they were not placed there intentionally and the group was not responsible for a suicide pact formed by two young fans.

Washoe District Judge Jerry Carr Whitehead said the alleged words “do it” were the result of a chance combination of sounds.