Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948), is best known and remembered for his long time career as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. As well as his recordings and performances with the monster group that is Led Zep, Plant also has a successful solo career and has collaborated with many other artists as well.
AS the lead singer of perhaps the greatest rock group of all time, Plant has had an enourmous influence on many of his contemporaries and aspirant rock singers.
In 2006, heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All-Time. In 2008, Rolling Stone named Plant as number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time. In 2009, he was voted the "greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by Planet Rock. 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.
In 1968, the guitarist Jimmy Page was in search of a lead singer for his new band and met Plant after being turned down by his first choice, Terry Reid, who referred him to a show at a teacher training college in Birmingham— where Plant was singing in a band named Hobbstweedle.
Plant and Page immediately hit it off with a shared musical passion and after Plant joined the band they began their writing collaboration with reworkings of earlier blues songs, although Plant would receive no songwriting credits on the band's first album, allegedly because he was still under contract to CBS Records at the time. Plant brought along John Bonham as drummer, and they were joined by John Paul Jones, who had previously worked with Jimmy Page as a studio musician. Jones called Page on the phone before they checked out Plant, and Page hired Jones immediately.
Plant was also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien, whose book series inspired lyrics in some early Led Zeppelin songs. Most notably the "Battle of Evermore", "Misty Mountain Hop", "No Quarter", "Ramble On" and "Over The Hills and Far Away" contain verses referencing Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Conversely, Plant sometimes used more straightforward blues-based lyrics dealing primarily with sexual innuendo, as in "The Lemon Song", "Trampled Under Foot", and "Black Dog".
Plant enjoyed great success with Led Zeppelin throughout the 1970s and developed a compelling image as the charismatic rock-and-roll front man, similar to his contemporary in The Who, singer Roger Daltrey (who adopted the look in the late 1960s), Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, and his other fellow contemporary, Jim Morrison of The Doors who, while not displaying the same visual appearance, also exuded sexuality upon the stage.[12] With his mane of long blond hair and powerful, bare-chested appearance, Plant helped to create the "god of rock and roll" or "rock god" archetype
In July 2010, Robert Plant will tour the United States with a new group called Band of Joy (reprising the name of his very first band in the 1960s). Twelve dates have been confirmed, with a promise of "further dates in the fall," and a Band of Joy album on the Rounder Records label in late summer or early fall 2010. The group will include singer Patty Griffin, singer-guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Darrell Scott, bassist-vocalist Byron House, and drummer-percussionist-vocalist Marco Giovino.
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948), is best known and remembered for his long time career as the lead singer of Led Zeppelin. As well as his recordings and performances with the monster group that is Led Zep, Plant also has a successful solo career and has collaborated with many other artists as well.
As the lead singer of perhaps the greatest rock group of all time, Plant has had an enourmous influence on many of his contemporaries and aspirant rock singers.
In 2006, heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All-Time. In 2008, Rolling Stone named Plant as number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time. In 2009, he was voted the "greatest voice in rock" in a poll conducted by Planet Rock. 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.
In 1968, the guitarist Jimmy Page was in search of a lead singer for his new band and met Plant after being turned down by his first choice, Terry Reid, who referred him to a show at a teacher training college in Birmingham— where Plant was singing in a band named Hobbstweedle.
Plant and Page immediately hit it off with a shared musical passion and after Plant joined the band they began their writing collaboration with reworkings of earlier blues songs, although Plant would receive no songwriting credits on the band's first album, allegedly because he was still under contract to CBS Records at the time. Plant brought along John Bonham as drummer, and they were joined by John Paul Jones, who had previously worked with Jimmy Page as a studio musician. Jones called Page on the phone before they checked out Plant, and Page hired Jones immediately.
Plant was also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien, whose book series inspired lyrics in some early Led Zeppelin songs. Most notably the "Battle of Evermore", "Misty Mountain Hop", "No Quarter", "Ramble On" and "Over The Hills and Far Away" contain verses referencing Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Conversely, Plant sometimes used more straightforward blues-based lyrics dealing primarily with sexual innuendo, as in "The Lemon Song", "Trampled Under Foot", and "Black Dog".
Plant enjoyed great success with Led Zeppelin throughout the 1970s and developed a compelling image as the charismatic rock-and-roll front man, similar to his contemporary in The Who, singer Roger Daltrey (who adopted the look in the late 1960s), Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, and his other fellow contemporary, Jim Morrison of The Doors who, while not displaying the same visual appearance, also exuded sexuality upon the stage.[12] With his mane of long blond hair and powerful, bare-chested appearance, Plant helped to create the "god of rock and roll" or "rock god" archetype
In July 2010, Robert Plant will tour the United States with a new group called Band of Joy (reprising the name of his very first band in the 1960s). Twelve dates have been confirmed, with a promise of "further dates in the fall," and a Band of Joy album on the Rounder Records label in late summer or early fall 2010. The group will include singer Patty Griffin, singer-guitarist Buddy Miller, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Darrell Scott, bassist-vocalist Byron House, and drummer-percussionist-vocalist Marco Giovino.