Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant CBE (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980; since then he has had a successful solo career, sometimes collaborating with other artists such as Alison Krauss. Regarded by many as one of the greatest singers in rock music, he is known for his flamboyant persona and raw stage performances.
Robert Plant
- Singer
- songwriter
1965–present
-
Maureen Wilson(m. 1968; div. 1983)
4
- Vocals
- Led Zeppelin
- Band of Joy
- The Honeydrippers
- Hobbstweedle
- Page and Plant
- The Strange Sensations
Plant was born and brought up in the West Midlands area of England, where after leaving grammar school he briefly trained as a chartered accountant before leaving home at 16 years old to concentrate on singing with a series of local blues bands, including Band of Joy with John Bonham. In 1968, he was invited by Peter Grant and Jimmy Page to join The Yardbirds, which Grant and Page were attempting to keep going. The new version of The Yardbirds changed their name to Led Zeppelin, and from the late 1960s to the end of the 1970s the band enjoyed considerable success.
Plant developed a compelling image as a charismatic rock-and-roll front man, comparable to contemporaries such as Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Roger Daltrey of the Who, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Freddie Mercury of Queen.[2] After Led Zeppelin dissolved in 1980, Plant continued to perform and record continuously on a variety of solo and group projects. His first well known post-Led Zeppelin project was The Honeydrippers, alongside former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, among others. In 1988, he released the solo album Now and Zen, from which came the hit singles "Tall Cool One" and "Ship of Fools". In the 1990s, another reunion project named Page and Plant released two studio albums and a live album from an MTV Unplugged performance, as well as winning the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1998 for "Most High". In 2007, Plant began a collaboration with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, releasing the album Raising Sand, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2009 and produced the hit song "Please Read the Letter", which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year the same year. In 2010, he revived the Band of Joy (which shared its name with an early band he performed with in the 1960s), and in 2012 formed a new band, the Sensational Space Shifters, followed by a reunion with Alison Krauss in 2019.
In 1995, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[3] Rolling Stone ranked Plant as one of the 100 best singers of all time (2008);[4] and was the top pick for the greatest lead singer in a 2011 readers poll.[5] Hit Parader named Plant the "Greatest Metal Vocalist of All Time" (2006).[6] Plant was named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR. In 2009, Plant was voted "the greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by UK classic rock radio station Planet Rock.[7][8] Billboard ranked him number 4 on their list of The 50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers of All Time (2023).[9]
Personal life[edit]
Plant married Maureen Wilson on 9 November 1968. The couple had three children: daughter Carmen Jane (1968) (who later married Charlie Jones, Plant's bass player for solo tours); and sons Karac Pendragon (1972–1977), and Logan Romero (1979).[106] The couple divorced in August 1983. In 1977, during Led Zeppelin's US tour, their five-year-old son, Karac, died of a stomach illness.[107] The song "All My Love", co-written with John Paul Jones, is a tribute to him.[108]
In 1991, Plant and Shirley Wilson (sister of ex-wife Maureen) had a son, Jesse Lee.[106]
Plant is interested in Welsh history and donated money to the creation of a bronze statue of the Welsh prince Owain Glyndŵr, at Pennal Church, near Machynlleth, in Wales, unveiled in September 2004. He is also believed to have contributed funds to a slate carving of Glyndŵr's coat of arms at the Celtica museum in Machynlleth. Plant is part of a Glyndŵr network, and attends meetings about him in Wales.[109]
In the New Year Honours List 2009, Plant was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to music"[110] and on 10 July 2009 invested by then Prince of Wales King Charles III.[111]
On 14 August 2009, football club Wolverhampton Wanderers announced that Plant has become the club's third vice-president. Plant officially received the honour before kick-off at the club's first match of the season against West Ham United.[112] Plant was five years old when he first visited Molineux Stadium. He recalled in an interview with his local paper, the Express & Star, in August 2010: "I was five when my dad took me down for the first time and Billy Wright waved at me. Honest, he did. And that was it – I was hooked from that moment."[113]
In late 2010, BBC Two aired a documentary titled Robert Plant: By Myself. It features Robert Plant discussing his journey with Led Zeppelin and various projects since.[114]
In a July 2012 interview with The Independent newspaper, Plant stated he "eloped and ran off to Texas" with American singer Patty Griffin. Plant's UK-based manager later told E! News that Plant was apparently being cheeky when he used the word "eloped" to describe his home life, for "Robert has not married Patty Griffin," instead "He was just referring to the fact that he's been residing in Texas" with her. According to a July 2012 Ultimate Classic Rock article, Plant and Griffin had been dating for over a year, spending half of their time together in Austin, Texas.[115][116][117] On 23 August 2014, The Independent indicated Plant had broken up with Griffin: ""Patty and I tried a sort of zig-zag across the Atlantic," Plant told the publication, "but she didn't share my penchant for cider and she used to marvel at the Black Country character I became after four pints of Thatchers. My feelings are very much ones of sadness and regret."[118]
In early 2013, Plant contributed to a community buyout scheme to save the Bath music venue, the Bell Inn.[119][120]
He currently resides at Shatterford, near Bewdley in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire.[121][122]
In 2020, Plant donated money towards frontline medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The money went to the GoFundMe page of a small clothing manufacturer in Kidderminster, England that makes scrubs for local hospitals.[123]
Legacy[edit]
Plant has influenced the style of many of his contemporaries, including Geddy Lee, Ann Wilson,[124] Sammy Hagar,[125] and later rock vocalists such as Jeff Buckley and Jack White who imitated his performing style. Freddie Mercury of Queen, and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses were influenced by Plant.[4] Encyclopædia Britannica notes that "Exaggerating the vocal style and expressive palette of blues singers such as Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, Plant created the sound that has defined much hard rock and heavy metal singing: a high range, an abundance of distortion, loud volume, and emotional excess".[126] Plant received the Knebworth Silver Clef Award in 1990.[127]
In 2006, hard rock/heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant as No. 1 on its list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time, a list that included Rob Halford of Judas Priest (No. 2), Steven Tyler (No. 3), Freddie Mercury (No. 6), Geddy Lee (No. 13) and Paul Stanley (No. 18), all of whom were influenced by Plant.[6] In 2008, Rolling Stone named Plant the 15th-greatest singer of all time on their list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.[4] In 2009, he was voted the "greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by Planet Rock.[7][8] He was included in the Q magazine's 2009 list of "Artists of the Century" and was ranked at number 8 in their list of "100 Greatest Singers" in 2007.[128][129] In 2009, Plant also won the Outstanding Contribution to Music prize at the Q Awards.[130] He was placed at No. 3 on SPIN's list of "The 50 Greatest Rock Frontmen of All Time".[131]
On 20 September 2010 National Public Radio (NPR) named Plant as one of the "50 Great Voices" in the world.[132]
In July 2018, Plant won the Silver Cleff Integro Outstanding Award, announced by music charity Nordoff Robbins.[133]
On 15 March 2022 Plant was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. His musical choices included "I Ain't Superstitious" by Howlin' Wolf and "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. His book choice was The Earliest English Poems, translated by Michael Alexander, his luxury item was a basket containing photos of homing pigeons and his favourite musical piece was "Serenade" by Mario Lanza.[134]
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Live albums
Collaborative albums