50 Fun Facts About Robert Plant

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

The Black Country, the industrial belt just west of Birmingham. Plant grew up nearby in Halesowen and left home at 16 to sing with local blues bands.

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

The New Yardbirds. The Yardbirds had split but still had concerts to honour, so Jimmy Page's new line-up played them under that name before the band was renamed Led Zeppelin.

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

Chartered accountant. He soon gave it up, and was working a day job in road construction while he fronted Midlands blues bands.

Which former Band of Joy bandmate did Plant recommend to Jimmy Page for the group that became Led Zeppelin?

John Bonham. He had already drummed behind Plant in two Midlands bands, and when Bonham died in 1980 Led Zeppelin chose not to carry on without him.

Which singer, Jimmy Page's first choice for his new band, turned him down but recommended Plant?

Terry Reid. He was under contract to open another band's tour, so he pointed Page to his friend Plant; he later turned down Deep Purple as well.

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

Sea of Love. With Jimmy Page on guitar, the Phil Phillips cover reached No. 3 in the US, one place higher than any Led Zeppelin single ever managed.

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

Raising Sand. Plant was still on the road with it in 2008 when he publicly ruled out a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, saying he would not tour or record with the band.

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

Please Read the Letter was a remake: Plant had co-written and first recorded it with Jimmy Page for their 1998 studio album.

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

Pictures at Eleven. With Led Zeppelin over, Plant leaned on Genesis drummer Phil Collins, who played on most of the album and encouraged him to keep going.

Which 1988 Plant solo album, certified triple platinum in the US, featured the hit 'Tall Cool One'?

Now and Zen. 'Tall Cool One' stitched in samples of Led Zeppelin riffs, and Jimmy Page himself played guitar on the track.

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

Unledded, a pun on MTV's Unplugged, the series that staged the reunion. Bassist John Paul Jones was left out and was not even told it was happening.

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

Walking into Clarksdale, named for the Mississippi Delta town tied to the birth of the blues. After its 1998 tour Plant walked away and the partnership ended.

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

J. R. R. Tolkien. 'Ramble On' name-checks Gollum and Mordor, and Plant reportedly named his dog Strider after Aragorn's alias.

Plant bought a farm in which country, whose legends and history became a lifelong fascination?

Wales. Its past gripped him so much that he later helped pay for a bronze statue of a medieval rebel prince there.

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

Umm Kulthum. What gripped him was her control: the whole orchestra, he said, would hold a note until she decided to change.

Where did Plant write most of the 'Stairway to Heaven' lyrics, sitting beside an evening log fire?

Headley Grange. In the run-down former workhouse in Hampshire, Jimmy Page strummed the chords while Plant scribbled most of the words with pencil and paper.

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

Rhodes. The crash forced Led Zeppelin to cancel a tour, and a still-injured Plant sang the next album, Presence, from a wheelchair.

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

A stomach virus. Plant was on tour in the United States when he heard, and Led Zeppelin cancelled the remaining dates at once.

Plant's reported cry of 'I am a golden god!' from a Los Angeles hotel balcony was borrowed by which film?

Almost Famous. Director Cameron Crowe, who had covered Led Zeppelin as a teenage Rolling Stone reporter, gave the line to a guitarist about to leap off a roof into a pool.

Which drummer played alongside Phil Collins behind Led Zeppelin at Live Aid in 1985?

Tony Thompson. With barely any rehearsal the set went so badly that Led Zeppelin later refused to let it appear on the official Live Aid DVD.

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

Ahmet Ertegun. He co-founded Atlantic Records, the label that signed the band in 1968, and the show was their first full-length concert in almost three decades.

The film of Led Zeppelin's 2007 reunion concert at London's O2 borrowed which of the band's song titles?

Celebration Day. More than a million people applied for tickets to the one-off show, yet Plant declined to turn it into a tour, so the 2012 film is as close as most fans got.

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

Patty Griffin. The pair set up home in Austin after making the album, and when Plant moved back to England he wrote songs about the break-up.

Which band, formed in 2012, backed Plant on the albums Carry Fire and Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar?

The Sensational Space Shifters. They grew out of his earlier band Strange Sensation, yet their first studio album together left the group's name off the front cover.

Which 2025 Plant album, credited with Suzi Dian, is named after their band?

Saving Grace. Plant had played with the band for six years before releasing it, a set of covers steeped in folk, blues and spirituals, far from Led Zeppelin's swagger.

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

Wolverhampton Wanderers. Though born in West Bromwich, home of rivals Albion, he was hooked on Wolves at five, when England captain Billy Wright waved at him at his first match.

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

CBE. It ranks one step above the OBE given to Jimmy Page in 2005, and Page's was awarded for his charity work with children in Brazil, not for music.

How did Plant respond when a Portland radio station offered never to play 'Stairway to Heaven' again?

Called in a donation. He was driving through Oregon, enjoying the station's offbeat music, when the DJ made the pledge-drive offer, so he called up and became one of its sponsors.

Which Led Zeppelin II song did Plant write as a love song to his wife, Maureen?

Thank You. Jimmy Page had been urging Plant to write lyrics, and this was the song he asked to take on himself, writing every word.

Which blues songwriter won a credit on 'Whole Lotta Love' after suing over lines Plant had borrowed?

Willie Dixon. Plant had adapted lyrics from Dixon's 'You Need Love', and after an out-of-court settlement in the 1980s Dixon's name was added to the credits.

Which folk singer duets with Plant on 'The Battle of Evermore', the only Led Zeppelin song with a guest vocalist?

Sandy Denny. Plant felt the story needed a second voice, so the former Fairport Convention singer answered his lines, and the band thanked her with a symbol of her own on the sleeve.

Which symbol did Plant choose to represent himself on Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album?

A feather in a circle. The four members' symbols took the place of any title or band name on the sleeve, which is why the album is known as Led Zeppelin IV only by habit.

Which Led Zeppelin song is named after a nameless Labrador that wandered the grounds where the band was recording?

Black Dog. The Labrador gave the song only its title: Plant's lyric is about a man obsessed with a woman.

Led Zeppelin's 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp' takes its name from what?

A remote cottage. Bron-Yr-Aur had no electricity or running water when Page and Plant retreated there in 1970 to write, yet the song is about walking in the woods with Plant's dog.

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.

Which 2025 documentary by Bernard MacMahon was the first made with Plant, Page and Jones all taking part?

Becoming Led Zeppelin. The band had turned down every earlier documentary proposal, and this one covers only their formation and first year.

Besides singing, which instrument does Plant play on Led Zeppelin's 'When the Levee Breaks'?

Harmonica. He was already playing it on the first studio track all four future members cut together, as hired hands on a P. J. Proby album.

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

Cider. He joked that she used to marvel at the character he turned into after four pints of Thatchers, and said his feelings were ones of sadness and regret.

Which 2002 Plant album mixed his own songs with Bob Dylan and Tim Buckley covers?

Dreamland. Plant returned to the folk and blues he started out with, and his famous wail gave way to a restrained, melancholy delivery.

Which Led Zeppelin song did Plant write after the band opened a 1970 tour with a concert in Iceland?

Immigrant Song. Plant recast the band's trip north as a Viking voyage, complete with Valhalla, and it became the single from Led Zeppelin III.

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

Elvis Presley. Within a few years Plant was just as devoted to the blues, and in his mid-teens he dropped out of grammar school to sing it.

Plant wrote the lyrics to which Led Zeppelin song while driving through the desert of southern Morocco?

Kashmir. No member of the band had ever been to Kashmir, which lies thousands of miles from the desert road that gave Plant the words.

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

T Bone Burnett. An early attempt at a follow-up stalled, with Plant saying the sessions never clicked, so the second album arrived 14 years after the first.

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

Percy. The name outlived the band: well into his solo career the British music press was still calling him 'Percy' Plant, even in headlines.

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

All My Love. Unusually for Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page had no part in writing it; Plant has called it a tribute to the joy his son gave the family.

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

The Principle of Moments. Led Zeppelin's label Swan Song had stopped operating by then, so Plant started his own, Es Paranza, to release it.

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

Romani. His father was a civil engineer, and when his parents pressed him toward a steady profession Plant left home at 16 instead.

Which sister-led band performed a Led Zeppelin classic for Plant, Page and Jones at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors?

Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson's version brought the audience to its feet and moved Plant himself to tears.

Plant helped pay for a bronze statue, unveiled at Pennal in 2004, of which medieval rebel prince?

Owain Glyndŵr, who led a long revolt against English rule six centuries ago. Plant belongs to a network devoted to him and goes to its meetings.

Which singer-songwriter is 'Going to California' said to be about, a link Plant has backed by adding her name on stage?

Joni Mitchell. One line is read as a nod to 'I Had a King', the opening song of her debut album, and Plant has admitted the lyric can be a bit embarrassing.