Robert Plant attended King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys.
Career
Gallery of Robert Plant
1968
London, England, United Kingdom
John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham in London in 1968.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1969
John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham pose with gold record plaques for their first album, Led Zeppelin, in 1969.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1969
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Robert Plant at Boston airport in 1969.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1970
John Bonham, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page with singer Sandy Denny in 1970.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1973
Kezar stadium, San Francisco, California, United States
Led Zeppelin perform for a massive crowd in Kezar stadium, San Francisco in June 1973.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1973
John Paul Jones, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant pose in front of their private airliner The Starship, 1973.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1975
Chicago Stadium, Illinois, United States
Led Zeppelin perform at Chicago Stadium in January 1975, a few weeks before the release of Physical Graffiti.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1977
Chicago Stadium, Chicago, United States
Plant and Page performing in Chicago Stadium in Chicago on 10 April 1977, during Led Zeppelin's last North American tour.
Gallery of Robert Plant
1979
Gallery of Robert Plant
1985
Philadelphia's J.F.K. Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin perform at the Live Aid concert at Philadelphia's J.F.K. Stadium in 1985.
Gallery of Robert Plant
Gallery of Robert Plant
2012
Robert Plant And The Band Of Joy
Gallery of Robert Plant
2007
Robert Plant and Stevie Nicks on April 18th, 2007.
Gallery of Robert Plant
2008
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform during day one of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Race Course April 25, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Gallery of Robert Plant
2009
Robert Plant makes a speech prior to kick off after being made a Vice-President of the club before the Barclays Premier League match at Molineux, Wolverhampton.
Gallery of Robert Plant
2010
Miami, Florida, United States
In this July 30, 2010 file photo, singer Robert Plant poses for a portrait in Miami.
Achievements
Robert Plant displays his CBE which he received from Prince Charles.
Membership
Awards
Melody Maker Awards
1979
GQ Men Of The Year Awards
2008
London, England, United Kingdom
GQ Men of the Year Awards 2008 - London.
Grammy Awards
2009
Los Angeles, California, United States
Musician Robert Plant, singer Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett pose in the press room during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center on February 8, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Kennedy Center Honors
2012
Led Zeppelin, David Letterman, Buddy Guy Celebrated At 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors.
American Music Awards
Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards
Ivor Novello Awards
NME Awards
Polar Music Prize
Q Awards
UK Music Video Awards
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss perform during day one of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds Race Course April 25, 2008 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Musician Robert Plant, singer Alison Krauss and producer T Bone Burnett pose in the press room during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center on February 8, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.
Robert Plant makes a speech prior to kick off after being made a Vice-President of the club before the Barclays Premier League match at Molineux, Wolverhampton.
Robert Anthony Plant is an English singer, lyricist, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin and one of the greatest singers in rock.
Background
Robert Anthony Plant was born on August 20, 1948, in the Black Country town of West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, to Robert C. Plant, a qualified civil engineer who worked in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and Annie Celia Plant (née Cain), a Romanichal woman. He grew up in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Plant gained an interest in singing and rock and roll music at an early age.
Education
Robert Plant left King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys in Stourbridge in his mid-teens and developed a strong passion for the blues, mainly through his admiration for Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and early rendition of songs in this genre.
He abandoned training as a chartered accountant after only two weeks to attend college in an effort to gain more GCE passes and to become part of the English Midlands blues scene.
In 1966, Plant left school to began his musical career. He performed with a number of groups around this time, showing his talent for handling blues music. With drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham, Plant formed Band of Joy. He also recorded a few R&B singles for CBS records on his own, but they failed to attract much interest. In 1968, Plant was recruited by guitarist Jimmy Page for the New Yardbirds, and he, in turn, recommended Bonham to Page. The fourth member of the group was bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones.
After a short tour as the New Yardbirds, the band quickly renamed themselves Led Zeppelin. They landed a spot as the opening act for the American rock group Vanilla Fudge during their U.S. tour. The band then released their first album, Led Zeppelin I in 1969, which earned mixed reviews. While critics may have disliked the group, Led Zeppelin won over fans with Plant's raw, powerful vocals and Page's masterful guitar work. They produced a sound with an engaging mix of hard rock and heavy metal, while drawing inspiration from other types of music.
Their second album, Led Zeppelin II (1969), featured "Whole Lotta Love," "Ramble On," and "Heartbreaker." "Whole Lotta Love" reached the No. 4 spot on the pop charts, and the album reached the top of the charts by year's end. Behind the scenes, Plant wrote most of the group's lyrics.
In 1970, Led Zeppelin released the more folk-influenced Led Zeppelin III, featuring the hit single, "Immigrant Song." Rock critic Lester Bangs praised the song for "its bulldozer rhythms and Bobby Plant's double-tracked wordless vocal croonings echoing behind the main vocal like some cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility rite."
The group's fourth album was untitled, featuring only a set of runic symbols on its cover. Some view it as their best work, and it features the legendary "Stairway to Heaven," one of the most requested rock songs of all time. The eight-minute song drew inspiration from Celtic mythology, and its musical and lyrical complexity have helped its longevity. As Plant later explained, "If 'Stairway to Heaven' had just been about cruising around in a convertible, it wouldn't have endured in a meaningful way
With 1973's Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin continued to experience great commercial success. The album went to the top of the charts and featured the hit "D'yer Mak'er." In addition to their recordings, Led Zeppelin was one of the most popular live acts at the time. Its members were infamous for their partying ways on the road. "I can remember a stream of carpenters walking into a room as we were checking out. We'd be going out one way, and they'd be going in the other way, with a sign, CLOSED FOR REMODELING, being put on the door," Plant once explained to Rolling Stone magazine.
Led Zeppelin scored again with the double album Physical Graffiti, released in 1975. It contained such hits as "Trampled Underfoot." While the band was thriving, Plant faced some personal challenges. He and his family were injured in a car accident that summer while vacationing in Greece. Plant took some time off to recover.
Their next effort, 1976's Presence, failed to live up to their earlier triumphs. That same year, the group was featured in the concert film The Song Remains the Same, which featured some great live performances. The movie has become a cult classic.
In 1977, Plant experienced a great personal loss. While he was away on tour in the United States, his 6-year-old son Karac died from a viral infection. Sudden and unexpected, Karac's death hit Plant and his family hard. He canceled the rest of the tour, and Led Zeppelin went on hiatus for a year and a half.
Returning to work in late 1978, Plant and his bandmates began recording In Through the Out Door, which proved to be their last album. They were preparing for a tour when John Bonham died at Page's house outside London in September 1980. Bonham reportedly choked to death on his own vomit after passing out from a night of heavy drinking. Mourning the loss of their friend, Plant, Page and Jones decided in December that Led Zeppelin could not continue without Bonham.
In 1982, Plant launched his solo career with Pictures at Eleven, which fared well on the album charts. He then released The Principle of Moments (1983), known for its mellow single "Big Log." Recording with Page, guitarist Jeff Beck, and guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers, Plant sang the lead vocals for a collaborative R&B-influenced project called The Honeydrippers, Vol. 1 (1984). The group had two successful singles, the ballad "Sea of Love" and the more uptempo "Rockin' at Midnight."
In 1988, Plant joined Page and Jones for a special concert held in honor of Atlantic Records' 25th anniversary, with John Bonham's son, Jason, filling in on drums. He also released Now & Zen in response to fans' ardent requests for Led Zeppelin material, and contributed to Page's solo debut, Outrider.
Plant went on to release Manic Nirvana (1990), which received strong reviews en route to the No. 13 spot on the album charts, and explored a more folksy sound on Fate of Nations (1993). He then reunited with Page for No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded (1994). Together they revisited Led Zeppelin classics, reworking them with a heavy Moroccan and Arabic influence. They also recorded a few new songs for this project, which resulted in a television special and 1995 tour. That same year, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame.
In 1998, Plant and Page put out a new studio album, Walking Into Clarksdale. The recording earned rave reviews and netted the pair a Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy win for "Most High." After a long hiatus, Plant returned in late 2001 with his solo album Dreamland. Two years later, he debuted Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a two-disc compilation dedicated exclusively to works from Plant's solo career, including "Tall Cool One" and "Upside Down."
Plant saw his career reach new heights with another musical experiment, collaborating with Alison Krauss on the 2007 country-folk album Raising Sand. The recording quickly became a top seller in the United States and won five Grammy Awards, including honors for Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Please Read the Letter."
Reuniting with other surviving members of Led Zeppelin, Plant performed at a special benefit show in 2007 for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, named for the late co-founder of Atlantic Records. Tickets sold out quickly for the performance, the first full-length concert by Led Zeppelin in 27 years (with Jason Bonham again filling in for his late father on drums).
After the hugely successful concert, rumors swirled about a possible Led Zeppelin reunion tour and album, though Plant has resisted efforts to do so. He has remained highly active with his own material, however, putting together a new group under an old name, Band of Joy, for a tour in 2010. Their self-titled album, released that September, was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
In 2014, a trustee for the estate of musician Randy Wolfe filed a lawsuit alleging that Led Zeppelin had ripped off the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" from his client. According to the suit, Zeppelin had been touring with Wolfe's group, Spirit, at the time a track with chord progressions identical to those from "Stairway" was released. In June 2016, a jury determined that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Zeppelin had stolen the material. In 2018, it was revealed that Wolfe's camp was requesting a retrial.
Plant has never properly addressed his true religious views. When asked about it recently during a press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, he said: "My religion? I’m one of the children of the sun… yeah, why not? That’s where we came from."
Politics
Robert Plant is not a member of any political party.
Views
Plant's lyrics with Led Zeppelin were often mystical, philosophical and spiritual, alluding to events in classical and Norse mythology, such as "Immigrant Song", which refers to Valhalla and Viking conquests. However, the song "No Quarter" is often misunderstood to refer to the god Thor; the song actually refers to Mount Thor (which is named after the god). Another example is "The Rain Song".
Welsh mythology also forms a basis of Plant's interest in mystical lyrics. He grew up close to the Welsh border and would often take summer trips to Snowdonia. Plant bought a Welsh sheep farm in 1973, and began taking Welsh lessons and looking into the mythology of the land (such as Black Book of Carmarthen, Book of Taliesin, etc.)
Quotations:
"Music is for every single person that walks the planet."
"The past is a stepping stone, not a millstone."
“I think that passion and love and pain are all bearable, and they go to make love beautiful.”
“I like to make my voice sound like a piece of tin that's been stuck on the side of a chair, lifted up as far as it would go and then let to spring - "doooiiinng." I like to make it into a piece of metal from time to time and I can do it, both with the movements in my throat and with, uh, my little toys... So I like to take it beyond just a voice, more into the realms of a weapon.”
"I like the idea of being alone. I like the idea of often being alone in all aspects of my life. I like to feel lonely. I like to need things."
"You know, people can't fall in love with me just because I'm good at what I do."
"No, I've never thought that I was gay. And that's not something you think. It's something you know."
Membership
Football club Wolverhampton Wanderers
Personality
Plant has a big, boisterous personality. Plant’s swagger became a calling card for Led Zeppelin, and is undoubtedly a significant aspect of the enduring legacy of the band’s live performances.
Plant is interested in Welsh history. He 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.
Physical Characteristics:
Plant developed a compelling image as the charismatic rock-and-roll front man, similar to his contemporaries, The Who singer Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Jim Morrison of the Doors. 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. On stage, Plant was particularly active in live performances, often dancing, jumping, skipping, snapping his fingers, clapping, making emphatic gestures to emphasise a lyric or cymbal crash, throwing back his head, or placing his hands on his hips. As the 1970s progressed he, along with the other members of Led Zeppelin, became increasingly flamboyant on-stage, and wore more elaborate, colourful clothing and jewellery.
Interests
Writers
J. R. R. Tolkien
Sport & Clubs
football
Athletes
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Music & Bands
Elvis Presley
Connections
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). The couple divorced in August 1983, but they have remained friends. Also, Plant has a younger son named Jesse Lee (1991) with the sister of his first wife, Shirley Wilson.
1999 - Led Zeppelin IV - Grammy Hall of Fame;
2003 - "Stairway to Heaven" - Grammy Hall of Fame;
2004 - Led Zeppelin - Grammy Hall of Fame;
2007 - "Whole Lotta Love" -Grammy Hall of Fame;
2014 - Celebration Day - Best Rock Album.
1999 - Led Zeppelin IV - Grammy Hall of Fame;
2003 - "Stairway to Heaven" - Grammy Hall of Fame;
2008 - Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert - Event of the Year;
2013 - Celebration Day - Film of the Year;
2014 - Led Zeppelin I, II, & III Deluxe Edition - Reissue of the Year.
2008 - Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert - Event of the Year;
2013 - Celebration Day - Film of the Year;
2014 - Led Zeppelin I, II, & III Deluxe Edition - Reissue of the Year.
1974 - Vocal Group - Led Zeppelin;
1975 - Physical Grafitti - Best Album;
1975 - Physical Grafitti - Best Dressed Lp;
1975 - Led Zeppelin - Best Vocal Group;
1976 - The Song Remains The Same - Best Album;
1976 - The Song Remains The Same - Best Dressed Lp;
1976 - Led Zeppelin - Best Vocal Group.
1974 - Vocal Group - Led Zeppelin;
1975 - Physical Grafitti - Best Album;
1975 - Physical Grafitti - Best Dressed Lp;
1975 - Led Zeppelin - Best Vocal Group;
1976 - The Song Remains The Same - Best Album;
1976 - The Song Remains The Same - Best Dressed Lp;
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire
In the New Year Honours List 2009, Plant was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to music" and on 10 July 2009 invested by the Prince of Wales.
In the New Year Honours List 2009, Plant was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to music" and on 10 July 2009 invested by the Prince of Wales.