A Cruel Headline About Jimmy Page Inspired Robert Plant to Keep Working on Music
Robert Plant has had a successful solo career, and he has former Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page to thank, at least in part. Plant has dabbled in different genres and released award-winning albums. He admitted that after reading a harsh headline about Page, he realized that he didn’t want his best work to be behind him.
Robert Plant once said Jimmy Page should make more music
Page and Plant worked together for years in Led Zeppelin, but they set off on mostly separate courses after the band broke up in 1980. Plant has collaborated with a number of other artists and released solo albums. Page released his first and only solo album in 1988. Plant has been more hesitant than Page to put together a Led Zeppelin reunion, and he once said that Page should move on with his life.
“He should get on and do something, he’s a superb talent,” Plant told China Daily in 2014. “That’s the sad thing for Jimmy, he knows that I’m his guy, I’m his pal, but the warmth that he needs to actually enjoy the world, it’s all there. Come on and give it to us.”
Robert Plant felt inspired to make more music after seeing a headline about Jimmy Page
Plant said that when he listens to music, he most appreciates innovative artists who push their craft forward. He pointed to an album by a punk rock band, The Damned, who influenced him in his work with Led Zeppelin and his solo career.
“‘New Rose,’ ‘Neat Neat Neat’: what brilliant songs,” he told The Guardian in 2017. “They quite rightly kicked juggernauts like Pink Floyd into touch for a couple of years.”
He noted that he has felt younger acts pushing him to produce better music, which he doesn’t mind. Rather than resting on his success in Led Zeppelin, Plant has felt a drive to continue creating innovative music and experimenting with genres. After seeing a headline about Page in the 1990s titled “Help! The Aged!” Plant realized he didn’t want to be seen as a relic from another time.
“That was fair enough!” he said. “But it made me think: well, I’m not lying down because I’m from another time. My time can’t be the last thing I did. It has to be what’s around the corner.”
This has served his career well
Since Led Zeppelin broke up, Plant has won several Grammys, something he never accomplished with the band despite all its success. His work with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss picked him up a win for Album of the Year for Raising Sand. The album doesn’t sound much like his work with Led Zeppelin, proving his versatility as an artist.
He has collaborated with many musicians and released music that proves he doesn’t feel confined to just one genre. Plant has continued to develop as an artist even decades after his most well-known work. While the headline might have been insulting to Page, it resulted in some good music from his former bandmate.
