Robert Plant chatted with Rolling Stone about his past, present, and future — including his current road dates with Alison Krauss. When pressed about when he realized he had finally “made it,” the Led Zeppelin icon explained, “It was when I went to the first rehearsal with the Yardbirds, and I was 19, soon to be 20. I had suggested to Jimmy Page that the drummer that he’d lined up was just nowhere near the dynamism of John Bonham (who) was a totally different thing altogether. . . When the two of us drove down to London in John’s mum’s van, which we borrowed, in that room, on that afternoon, when we kicked in with a bunch of songs that nobody really knew, ‘Train Kept A-Rollin,” I knew that I was in a room full of giants, really, and that was it.”
Plant went on to recall, “By 1973, what happened in that one room had exploded into some of the most adventurous non-rock rock that you could ever wish to find, and it was just the sum of the parts. Those guys were just insanely good. And it was as if everybody had just been waiting for each other with whatever happened prior to that. It was just like, bang!”
He went on to talk about not only the force of Led Zeppelin — but his own particular talents at the time: “There was a panic of responsibility in the ’70s, believe it or not. There was nowhere to hide at all in a four-piece band, and so there were great days and there were days that weren’t so good, and I would have to push through. Our itineraries were pretty demanding, and sometimes it really would take it out of my voice. A lot of what I was singing was really at the top of my capacity, right at the sharp end of what I could ever possibly do with the keys that we were playing music in.”
Regarding his penchant for following his own muse since John Bonham’s death, Robert Plant revealed, “By 1980, that whole idea was long over and gone. From then on, I made a lot of departures, and I have no embarrassment about them. They were all rather silly adventures, but they kept me thinking, or just falling upon melody. Today, I’m three days off playing at the biggest festival in Europe (Glastonbury), and I’m going be pretty melodic.”
- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss North American tour dates (subject to change):
August 30 – Salt Lake City, UT – Sandy Amp
September 1 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
September 3 – Grand Prairie, TX – Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie
September 4 – Austin, TX – Moody Amphitheater
September 6 – Atlanta, GA – Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park
September 7 – Franklin, TN – FirstBank Amphitheater
September 9 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion
September 10 – Mashantucket, CT – Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino
September 12 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
SIDE NOTES
- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss second joint album, Raise The Roof, was released last November 19th and topped Billboard’s Independent Albums chart, hit Number Three on the magazine’s Top Country Albums list, and reached Number Seven on the Billboard 200.
- In October and November, Plant and latest solo band, Saving Grace, are set to play nine dates across Ireland and Scotland. In addition to Plant, Saving Grace features vocalist Suzy Dian, drummer Oli Jefferson, along with guitarists Tony Kelsey and Matt Worley.
CHECK IT OUT: Led Zeppelin on July 17th, 1977 performing “Stairway To Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love,” and “Rock And Roll” live in Seattle: