Robert Plant and His Raw Love/Passion For Music

Led Zeppelin singer and insatiable rock ‘n’ roll warrior Robert Plant bounds into his management office in North London brandishing a new CD. “Look at this,” he exclaims, pointing out a track he’s found by one of his heroes, soul legend Arthur Alexander.

After a few minutes in Plant’s company, it’s easy to see why last year’s Zep comeback lived up to the phenomenal expectations. His raw enthusiasm for music is undiminished by either his advancing age or the enduring success he’s achieved. And since Zeppelin laid waste to London’s O2 Arena in December, his focus has returned to his collaboration with country goddess Alison Krauss which produced the mesmerizing hit album Raising Sand.

“I went to Soul Jazz Records yesterday,” Plant, 59, continues excitedly, describing his excursion into the West End. “It’s like the 11th station of the cross. Going to places like that is spectacular - my pupils dilate!

“I’ve got all the symptoms of a major cocaine overdose, but in fact what it is causing it is seeing all this great New Orleans funk, Barrington Levy, dub and soul gathered in one fantastic place. They are also near another shop selling Led Zeppelin bootlegs on vinyl which are very nice too. I bought two copies of the Paris Theatre show, from London in 1972.”

But Robert, you’re the lead singer. You shouldn’t have to buy Zeppelin bootlegs - don’t you just claim ‘em?

“Well, they looked a bit sheepish,” he smiles. “When they tried to charge me full price, I said, “Don’t do that or I’m gonna send Jimmy Page round!’”

When we meet, Plant is preparing to depart in a few days for Nashville where he is rehearsing for the tour with Krauss. But despite his rock god status, he refuses to play the big star. “They phoned to make the arrangements for me to arrive,” he reveals. “It was suggested that the band might warm up for a few days before I got there. F*** that! I’m gonna be there right from the start.”

Recording Raising Sand with legendary producer

T-Bone Burnett was an experiment that turned into a unique meeting of minds and talent - the hairy Britrock beastie and the lovely, gifted harmony singing bluegrass belle. Robert cherishes the memory.

“When we got together, I didn’t even know which key to sing these things in,” he admits. “Within three hours we were off and we’d virtually got a track down. I was so at home and it was very, very, very unusual.

“I wanted to try something where I had to be free to fail and walk away. Four days we’d given ourselves, and then we’d just go and say goodbye. But everyone possessed this adaptability and the whole dynamic.

“T-Bone was in the middle of the room with his huge 6ft 4in frame, his hands and fingers moving, insinuating beats, rolling backwards and forwards. Alison and I were in the vocal booth trying not to burst into hysterics because it was so great. It was really one of the best things I’ve ever felt.”

Speaking on the phone from the other side of the Atlantic, Krauss, 36, confirms that the appreciation was mutual.

“Robert has incredible confidence - which I guess is to be expected - but he is all about what is happening right there in the studio, not living off his past,” she says.

“I enjoy the process of being in the studio, but he’s all about getting it in one performance. I thought, “What have I been doing all these years? This is great’. I’d never recorded that way and now I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the way I did it before.”

Once Robert and Alison’s world tour concludes later in the year, the clamour for Zeppelin to play more gigs will again be unrelenting. Plant certainly won’t dismiss the possibility, but he is adamant they’d have to maintain the phenomenal energy of their O2 show.

“I think it’s a conundrum,” he muses. “How do you do it again? Not will you, but how? That’s more the issue. Because it would be dreadful to reduce it to just going round and round, because then we wouldn’t be what we were. I don’t think the natural progression is to go and do it lots of times.”

The excitement at O2 was certainly unlike that at any rock show in some time.

“Before we went forward onto the stage, there were just the four of us in the half-light,” recalls Robert. “And, of course, nobody was big enough to deal with the moment. What could you say? Words didn’t mean a thing, so we just stood there. You could feel the place going “Whaaaagh!’.”

But, when it was all over, Robert could sit back safe in the knowledge that Zeppelin were still a world-beating band.

“The Gallaghers came by the dressing room and leaned on the door,” laughs Plant. “And Liam said, “You’re the f****** business you are, aren’t you? You’re the one’. And I said, “Of course I am, I always knew that. It’s just that you never switched on. You need the next door - down there on the left’.”

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