Robert Plant wrote "Stairway to Heaven" with Jimmy Page when he was 22. If that had been his only noteworthy achievement, his standing in rock history would still be safe.
Of course, he accomplished much more, both with and post-Led Zeppelin. For starters, Zeppelin became the foundation for heavy metal and the group's stellar blues, folk and hard rock recordings in the '70s earned them induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Since 1982, Plant's creative output includes eight well-received solo albums and an EP with Page, Jeff Beck, Paul Shaffer and others as The Honeydrippers. He also made two LPs with Page in the 1990s (Page & Plant also updated many Zeppelin hits for a 1995 tour). While The Honeydrippers was Plant giving in to his inner Elvis, and his '80s work was generally classic hard rock, his later recordings were informed by his knowledge of Middle Eastern and Northern African music and culture.
Since 1979, Zeppelin fans have craved a reunion, and they’ve been partially satiated by occasional one-off performances. In late 2007, Plant, Page and John Paul Jones, with the late John Bonham’s son Jason, agreed to do a single concert of Led Zeppelin classics in London, leading to rampant speculation that they would finally do a full-blown tour.
As news of this Zeppelin performance was surfacing, Plant and bluegrass/country star Alison Krauss released an album of gentle Americana called Raising Sand, which featured the pair dueting beautifully on tunes from Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, The Everly Brothers and more.
Provenance: Robert Plant was born and raised in "the Black Country," near Birmingham, England.
Latest release: Raising Sand (with Alison Krauss) (2007), and he also contributed two songs to Goin' Home: A Tribute To Fats Domino, sales of which are helping to raise funds for rebuilding New Orleans
© 2007 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
Robert Plant
