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Did Led Zeppelin consider having a woman in the band during the 70s? That's what former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford contends.

Ford tells Bravewords that after Robert Plant and Jimmy Page came to see a Runaways show at the Starwood in Los Angeles, the singer approached her with a proposition:

"They came upstairs and went back to the dressing room. They shook everyone's hands and a huge crowd gathered around us, and we took photographs. Robert Plant says to me, 'You're really good on guitar. Would you like to play bass for Led Zeppelin?' I thought, 'Yeah, right.' I shook it off like it was a joke, but I don't think he was joking. I didn't even try to pursue that one. I love John Paul Jones -- he's one of my favorite bass players. I just couldn't imagine me replacing him. But the fact that they thought about a female in their band was pretty cool."

We're skeptical, too, although it is known that Plant and Page did find Jones, who spent a great deal of offstage time away from the rest of the band, hard to deal with.

Ford is in the midst of writing an autobiography and is planning to release a live album, and she's hoping for a Runaways reunion -- though she says the latter is up to fellow guitarist Joan Jett.

"It's now or never," Ford says. "I would love it, but...I can't get a yes or no out of Joan, so I've kind of thrown in the towel...The ball is in (Jett's) camp. It's up to them."