50 Fun Facts About Robert Plant

Robert Plant was born in 1948 in West Bromwich, a town in which English region?

He grew up in nearby Halesowen and still lives in Worcestershire.

Under what name was the group that became Led Zeppelin initially billed when Plant joined in 1968?

Manager Peter Grant and Jimmy Page had recruited him to keep the Yardbirds going after its other members left.

What profession did Plant briefly train for after leaving grammar school?

He quit after two weeks and left home at 16 to sing with local blues bands.

Which drummer, Plant's bandmate in the Band of Joy, did he recommend for Led Zeppelin?

The two had first met when Plant sang with the Crawling King Snakes.

Jimmy Page's first choice of singer turned him down but pointed him toward Plant. Who was he?

Plant was singing with a band called Obs-Tweedle when Page came to hear him.

Plant's 1984 side project the Honeydrippers had a top-ten hit with a cover of which 1959 song?

Jimmy Page played guitar on the Phil Phillips cover.

Plant's 2007 album with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, which won Album of the Year, was titled what?

T Bone Burnett produced it; the pair reunited for Raise the Roof in 2021.

Which Plant and Krauss track won Record of the Year at the 2009 Grammys?

Plant had first recorded it a decade earlier with Jimmy Page on their 1998 studio album.

What was the title of Plant's first solo album, released in 1982?

Phil Collins drummed on it and was, Plant said, 'a driving force' behind the record.

Which 1988 album is Plant's biggest-selling solo record, certified triple platinum?

'Tall Cool One' from the album openly sampled Led Zeppelin, a sign he was ready to revisit his past.

Page and Plant's 1994 live reunion album was subtitled what?

The album revisited the North African and Arabic influences Plant discovered in Marrakesh.

What was the only studio album of new material by Page and Plant?

'Most High' from the 1998 album won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Which author's books inspired lyrics in 'Ramble On', 'Misty Mountain Hop' and 'The Battle of Evermore'?

Norse and Welsh mythology also run through his writing.

Plant bought a sheep farm in 1973 in which country, and began taking language lessons there?

He named his first son Karac after the Welsh chieftain Caratacus and later funded a statue of Owain Glyndŵr.

Which Egyptian singer's recordings fascinated Plant in Marrakesh and shaped his later work?

He was struck by how she could hold a note while the whole orchestra waited on her; the influence resurfaces on his 2002 solo album.

Where did Plant spontaneously write most of the lyrics to 'Stairway to Heaven' in 1970?

The song was never released as a single yet has topped polls as the greatest song of all time.

Plant and his wife Maureen were seriously injured in a 1975 car crash on which Greek island?

The accident forced tour cancellations and shaped Presence, an album Plant called 'absolutely wracked with pain'.

Plant's son Karac died in 1977, aged five, of what?

Plant was touring the US with Led Zeppelin at the time; 'All My Love' is a tribute to the boy.

Karac's middle name, Pendragon, and his first name both reflect Plant's interest in what?

Karac was named for the chieftain Caratacus; Plant attends meetings of a network devoted to Owain Glyndŵr.

Phil Collins and who else drummed simultaneously behind Led Zeppelin at Live Aid in 1985?

Plant hated the set, likening reunions to 'sleeping with your ex-wife but not making love'.

Led Zeppelin's full-length 2007 reunion at London's O2 was a tribute concert to whom?

Jason Bonham drummed; afterwards Plant turned down a reported $200 million to tour.

How much was Plant reportedly offered, and declined, to tour with Led Zeppelin after the 2007 show?

He said he did not want to 'tour like a bunch of bored old men following the Rolling Stones around'.

Plant's 2010 Band of Joy revival featured which American singer, with whom he later lived in Texas?

Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott were also in the group; Plant and Griffin split in 2014.

What did Plant name the band he formed in 2012 for Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar and Carry Fire?

It grew out of Strange Sensation, the band behind his 2002 and 2005 solo albums.

Plant's 2025 album Saving Grace is co-credited to which singer?

Recorded between 2019 and 2025 in the Cotswolds and on the Welsh Borders, it came out on Nonesuch.

Plant became vice-president of which football club in 2009?

He was five when his father first took him to Molineux and Billy Wright waved at him.

Which honour did Plant receive in the 2009 New Year Honours 'for services to music'?

He was invested that July by the then Prince of Wales.

Which magazine named Plant the greatest metal vocalist of all time in 2006?

Rob Halford was second and Freddie Mercury sixth; Planet Rock listeners later voted him 'the greatest voice in rock'.

Plant's first Led Zeppelin lyric, written for his wife, was for which song on Led Zeppelin II?

Jimmy Page said it took 'a lot of ribbing' to get him writing at all.

Before Led Zeppelin, Plant laid tarmac for which construction company in Birmingham in 1967?

He also had a brief stint at Woolworths in Halesowen and cut three obscure singles for CBS.

Which British-Indian singer, whom Plant dated in the mid-1990s, sang on the 1995 Page and Plant tour?

The tour leaned into the Arabic and Indian textures Plant and Page had long admired.

Plant's daughter Carmen married which musician, his bassist on solo tours?

Plant also has a son, Jesse Lee, with Shirley Wilson, the sister of his ex-wife.

Which oddball accolade did Rock Scene magazine's readers give Plant?

He said it was hard 'to be eloquent on the subject of my chest'.

'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp' is named after what?

Bron-Yr-Aur belonged to a friend of Plant's father and also lent its name to an instrumental on Physical Graffiti.

Which fellow 1995 inductee joined Led Zeppelin for 'When the Levee Breaks' at the Rock Hall?

Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith had joined the blues medley beforehand.

Bernard MacMahon's 2025 documentary was the first made with the band's participation. What is its title?

Bernard MacMahon directed it.

On Desert Island Discs in 2022, Plant chose which luxury item?

His favourite record was Mario Lanza's 'Serenade' and his book was The Earliest English Poems.

Plant said in 2014 his split from his American partner came partly because she did not share his taste for what?

He said she used to marvel at the character he became 'after four pints of Thatchers'.

Plant's 2002 solo album that dived into North African and world-music influences was titled what?

It was made with Strange Sensation, who followed it with Mighty ReArranger in 2005.

Which Led Zeppelin song refers not to the god Thor but to a mountain named after him?

'Immigrant Song', by contrast, really is about Valhalla and Viking conquests.

As a ten-year-old hiding behind the curtains at Christmas, who did Plant try to imitate?

He told Andrew Denton in 1994 that the space between the curtains and the French windows had just the right ambience for a ten-year-old.

What was the title of Plant and Alison Krauss's 2021 reunion album?

The pair returned to North America in 2024 for the Can't Let Go tour, 14 years after their first record together.

Who produced both of Plant's albums with Alison Krauss?

Their first collaboration came out on Rounder Records, and its track 'Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)' won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

By what nickname was Plant known during his Led Zeppelin years?

Classic Rock magazine said that after a couple of US tours he developed a staggering degree of bravado and swagger.

Which Led Zeppelin song, co-written with John Paul Jones, is a tribute to Plant's son Karac?

Karac died during the band's 1977 US tour; the song appeared on In Through the Out Door in 1979.

What was Plant's second solo album, released in 1983?

Phil Collins, who drummed on Plant's debut, encouraged the quick follow-up; the record included the hit 'Big Log'.

Plant's mother, Annie Celia Cain, was of what descent?

His father was a civil engineer who served in the RAF during the Second World War; Plant grew up in Hayley Green, Halesowen.

Which band brought the young Plant into contact with drummer John Bonham?

The pair went on to play together in the Band of Joy, merging blues with the newer psychedelic trends of the late 1960s.

Plant funded a bronze statue, unveiled in Pennal in 2004, of which Welsh prince?

He is part of a network devoted to the last native-born Prince of Wales and attends meetings about him in Wales.

Which footballer waved at five-year-old Plant on his first visit to Molineux?

Plant told the Express & Star the wave sealed his devotion, long before the club made him a vice-president.