Robert Plant, the legendary rock vocalist, is best known as the frontman of Led Zeppelin, one of the most influential bands in rock history. With his powerful voice, signaturet high-pitched wail, and electrifying stage presence, he helped shape the sound of classic rock with timeless hits like Whole Lotta Love, Stairway to Heaven, and Immigrant Song. His unique vocal style, fusing blues, folk, and hard rock, became a defining element of the band’s sound.
Following Led Zeppelin’s disbandment in 1980 after the passing of drummer John Bonham, Plant launched a successful solo career, delving into a wide range of genres, including folk, blues, and world music. His collaboration with Alison Krauss on Raising Sand received critical acclaim, further showcasing his artistic range. Decades later, Plant’s enduring influence continues to inspire musicians and captivate fans around the globe.
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Led Zeppelin’s Best Albums Ranked!
To be a rock and not to roll… MOJO runs down the 70s titans’ best studio and live LPs.
Led Zeppelin 1969
by James McNair | Updated on9th June 2025 at 5.33pm
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Is a visionary too strong? Certainly, Jimmy Page had vision. In July 1968, when an LA psalmist told him of imminent “life changing” decisions days before his then-bandmates called time on The Yardbirds, the guitarist was already conceptualising a supergroup who – after a brief spell as The New Yardbirds – would be named Led Zeppelin as per The Who’s Keith Moon’s suggestion.
READ MORE: Led Zeppelin Interviewed: “We couldn’t do a Led Zeppelin reunion unless the singer was there. Quite clearly we’re there, but he’s not…”
Singles? Only very rarely. Studio recordings? They’d self-finance them, creating a bargaining chip when Jerry Wexler signed them to Atlantic. Zeppelin’s explosive, eclectic music would tap studio techniques Page had gleaned from recording engineers while working as a session musician, and US DJs would be encouraged to broadcast the magic a side of vinyl at a time. That way, epics such as Dazed and Confused could cast their spell.
Naturally, the line-up was crucial. A golden god on vocals – albeit a homeless one who’d been goofing around in blues/covers act Obs-Tweedle until Page and his manager Peter Grant scouted Robert Plant’s primal wail in Walsall. Plant assured them there was no finer drummer than his Black Country wingman/former Band Of Joy bandmate John Bonham, while John Paul Jones – a multi-instrumentalist/arranger/trusted session confrère of Jimmy’s on the Shirley Bassey-piloted Goldfinger and more – was a shoo-in bassist after his wife Mo urged him to feel Page out re his new group.
America swooned first. The early live shows were lightning unbottled, even if they opened for Moby Grape to half empty houses. Then between 1969-1971, four groundbreaking, earthshaking LPs arriving so thick and fast they didn’t have titles, only numbers. By 1973’s Houses Of The Holy Zeppelin had added reggae and taut funk to their lusty riffage and rustic, sometimes Eastern-flavoured folk, Plant skirting around James Brown’s famed exhortations to “Take it to the bridge!” on the lovingly indebted The Crunge.
Ultimately Led Zeppelin were a bit like their airship namesake: just too huge, idiosyncratic and vulnerable to disaster to stay aloft indefinitely. Each member’s mojo was so crucial, that, in 1980, when John Bonham died aged 32 at Page’s home in Clewer, Windsor after a marathon vodka binge, a devastated Page, Plant and Jones instantly disbanded.
Though the accruing, multi-faceted darknesses and tragic losses which cast shadow on the band’s peerless music might partly explain why Bernard MacMahon’s thrilling 2025 documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin is an origin-story, not an overview, there were eventually moments of healing, too.
In 2012, when the group’s three surviving members received the Kennedy Center Honors from President Obama, Heart’s Anne & Nancy Wilson, John Bonham’s son Jason and a gospel choir performed Stairway To Heaven at the gala, Plant in particular was visibly moved. “For years we’d had these carbon copy media cheap shots fired at us”, he told this writer in 2014. “It was great to see the Wilson sisters and Jason cut through all that.”
