Random Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About Robert Plant (12 items)

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  (#1) He Wasn't The First Choice For Led Zeppelin

  British singer Terry Reid, a longtime friend of the band, is a cult singer-songwriter in his own right. He might be best known, however, for being Jimmy Page's first choice of singers for Led Zeppelin. He's also the man who recommended Robert Plant and John Bonham for the group.

  Reid said Jimmy Page approached him about forming band while the singer was still a teen. "I was asked by Jimmy if I was interested and I said, 'Yes, but I'm about to go on tour with the Stones,'" he recalled. "I was 16 and I had signed a tour contract which I was going to stick to. That was when I mentioned Robert and John. I knew them."

  Reid said Page was initially curious about Plant's looks, but he assured him that all that mattered was his voice.

  "I phoned up Jimmy. and he asked me, 'What does this singer look like?' I said, 'What do you mean, what does he look like? He looks like a Greek god, but that doesn't matter. I'm talking about the way he sings, and the drummer is awesome," Reid said.

  Reid went on to have a modest career in music, while Zeppelin became worldwide icons. 

   
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  (#2) His Son Died At A Young Age

  By 1977, Led Zeppelin was beginning to fall apart. The tension only worsened when Plant's 5-year-old son, Karac, died suddenly of a stomach virus. The band was touring the US at the time, and Plant rushed home immediately to be with his family. He later revealed he seriously considered giving up music upon returning home.

  "After the death of my son Karac in 1977, I received a lot of support from [Bonham], and I went through the mill because the media turned on the whole thing and made it even worse," he said.

  Plant recalled considering a career in teaching after Karac's passing. He claimed, "I had to look after my family and at that time, as we regrouped, I applied to take a job at a Rudolph Steiner training college in Sussex. I wanted to just get out of it - to go away and forget it." According to the singer, "There was something far more honest and wholesome about just digging in and putting the ego away in the closet." 

  Plant later wrote the Zeppelin song "All My Love" from the album In Through the Out Door as a tribute to Karac.
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  (#3) He Was Supposed To Be An Accountant

  Plant's parents were adamant about him becoming an accountant, but the singer was having none of it. He attended school for two weeks before dropping out and joining a band. He even took a job at a paving company to help make ends meet while he launched his musical career. However, he ended up getting steady musical work before joining Led Zeppelin. 
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  (#4) He Paid A Radio Station $10,000 To Never Play 'Stairway To Heaven' Again

  Once, while driving through Portland, Oregon, Plant overheard an offer on a local radio station. The DJ announced that the station needed donations to stay on the air, and in exchange they promised to never again play "Stairway To Heaven."

  Plant pulled his car over, called the station, and pledged $10,000 - effectively saving the station while removing his own music from their catalog.

  "It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I've heard it before," he later said. 
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  (#5) He Dated His Band Of Joy Partner Patty Griffin

  After Plant reassembled his pre-Zeppelin group, Band of Joy, for the release of a new album in 2010, he began dating bandmate Patty Griffin. Rumors swirled that he and Griffin, a celebrated singer-songwriter, were married after Plant jokingly claimed they had secretly eloped and moved to Texas.

  "Robert has not married Patty Griffin," his rep later clarified, adding that the singer was "just referring to the fact that he's been residing in Texas."

  The relationship ultimately didn't last due to the couple's geographic separation.

  "Patty and I tried a sort of zig-zag across the Atlantic," Plant revealed, "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, but I also disturbed myself. I had to come back [to Worcestershire] to find out just how much I valued what I’d left behind - it’s an old song, I guess." 

   
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  (#6) He's Repeatedly Refused A Led Zeppelin Reunion

  Besides a one-off reunion show in 2007 in honor of their former label head, the late Ahmet Ertegun, Led Zeppelin has only reunited for short sets a handful of times since disbanding in 1980 - and Plant has no desire to do it again.

  "A tour would have been an absolute menagerie of vested interests and the very essence of everything that’s sh*tty about big-time stadium rock. We were surrounded by a circus of people that would have had our souls on fire. I’m not part of a jukebox!" he told Rolling Stone in 2014.

  He doubled down on his resistance to a reunion in 2018:

  If it’s easy, and it’s not of a great deal of consequence, OK. But when you’re in your seventies? You have to be really careful about maybe putting a bit more time into playing bingo, and enjoying the time you have left. For me, my time has got to be filled with joy and endeavor and humor and power and absolute self-satisfaction. That’s not with Led Zeppelin. 
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  (#7) Paul Rodgers Helped Him Join Led Zeppelin

  Without Paul Rodgers, there might not have been a Led Zeppelin. The Bad Company singer was a friend of Plant's in the early days of his career, and one night Plant told Rodgers he had received an offer to join a band Page was putting together. 

  "They've offered me 30 quid a week or a percentage. What do you think?" Rodgers recalled Plant asking him. "I said, 'Well, you know what I would do? I'd take the percentage.'" 

  Years later, when Rodgers disbanded his original group Free and formed Bad Company, he signed with Zeppelin's record label and hired their manager, Peter Grant. He told Grant the story of how he convinced Plant to join Zeppelin, and the manager was completely surprised that his now-client had played a role in kickstarting his own career. 
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  (#8) He's The Vice President Of A Football Club

  In his spare time, Plant frequently indulges in his obsession with football (better known as soccer in the US). His dedication to the sport is so immense that in 2009, he became Vice President of the Wolverhampton Wanderers, his favorite team.

  "First of all, I'm flattered, but I'm embarrassed to be honest," he admitted during the ceremony.

  Plant has been a devoted follower of the team for over six decades. 
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  (#9) He Has A Fear Of Earthquakes

  Yes, that's right. The powerhouse singer is afraid of earthquakes. He sang about his fear in "Going To California," which began as a song about earthquakes before morphing into something else.

  Coincidentally, an earthquake occurred the day that the song was mixed - though reports claimed only Jimmy Page and an engineer were present. Plant later described the song's lyrics as "a bit embarrassing at times," but said they accurately represented where he was in his life at the time.

   
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  (#10) He Allegedly Faked Being Sick On Tour In Order To Watch Soccer

  Back in the Zeppelin days, Plant reportedly used to fake being sick in order to watch his team play while on tour. He even remembers watching his team's League Cup victory in 1974 while working with Zeppelin, though he doesn't remember how he was able to get home and see the game. 
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  (#11) He Bought A Struggling Music Venue

  Plant was part of a community effort to buy the Bell Inn, a popular music venue in Bath, England. His contribution helped save the struggling venue and keep it running.

  "For the last 10 years or so many of my musical adventures have been with friends from Bristol and Bath, so I'm fully aware of the Bell and its legacy and its contribution to the musicians and audience in the surrounding area," he said in a statement. 

  Peter Gabriel was another renowned rocker to donate to the cause, saying that the Bell Inn "has always been a key part of Bath's live music scene, often giving musicians their first break and always providing music that is vibrant, diverse and free."
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  (#12) He Likes To Iron Clothes Before Going On Stage

  Before he takes the stage, Plant has a ritual just like any other performer - though it doesn't involve much warming up. Leading up to the now-legendary 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion in London, Plant made it known that he required an ironing board in his dressing room before the show because it helped him "get in the mood."

  "They are much older now obviously and are very low maintenance," promoter Henry Goldsmith said at the time of Plant and the band's simple pre-show demands. "They've asked for cups of tea and coffee. We'll have some beer and a bottle of wine for them backstage but they have said they require very little."

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