Robert Plant Wanted Stevie Nicks on a Led Zeppelin Record Before He Knew Her Name, and They Would Have Been Perfect Partners
In 1977, Robert Plant expressed his desire to record with Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac was at the height of their fame, having recently released Rumours, and Plant, like many others, found Nicks fascinating. The trouble was, he had a hard time remembering her name. The two singers never did work together, but their writing styles prove that they would have been great partners.
Robert Plant wanted Stevie Nicks on a Led Zeppelin song
In 1977, Plant spoke to Interview Magazine. When discussing the music he listened to at home, he mentioned wanting Nicks to sing with Led Zeppelin.
“Uh, I like Little Feat, Fleetwood Mac — obviously,” he said. “That little lady ought to come and sing on one of our albums. If she were to come sing on one of our albums — it would…What’s her name? — Stevie…”
Despite wanting her on an album, he acknowledged that it was unlikely that this would ever happen.
“Well, no, I think it would only be impromptu,” he said. “On other albums maybe just guesting for a track — on a very light-hearted level. I can’t see any serious turn one way or another. We just enjoy playing with each other. I wouldn’t like to go and sing with anybody else at all.”
Robert Plant and Stevie Nicks would have been great writing partners
A collaboration between the two artists never did happen, but Plant and Nicks were perfectly matched as writing partners. Nicks uses her music to convey a sense of gauzy fantasy, complete with crystal balls and ripe full moons. Nicks admitted that she gets along with other artists who share this tendency.
“We both love writing songs more than anything: Sitting in a room with some candles and a piano and communing with our own channels that are going up to the spirit world and coming back down through us,” she told the LA Times of Lana Del Rey. “She’s a little weird, and she likes being a little weird.”
Plant and Nicks’ styles differ, but he also likes including a bit of fantasy in his songs. Many of his songs were heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkein.
“I can see from this window the hill where Tolkien used to sit and look out over the landscape, and that’s the Shire, and the village just below it is called Bagginswood,” he told Rolling Stone. “I was living in a dream then, talking about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. And of course it brings hoops of derision into everybody who picked up a guitar or got near a microphone by 1980. But I was a kid.”
If Nicks and Plant had collaborated in the 1970s, the world may have gotten a fantasy epic featuring storms, crystals, and, of course, hobbits.
The Led Zeppelin singer has collaborated with a number of artists
Since Led Zeppelin broke up, Plant has collaborated with a number of artists. Most notably, he has released two albums with Alison Krauss. He has also recorded with Patty Griffin, Priory of Brian, Julie Murphy, Alfie Boe, and others.
Plant and Nicks continue to make music, so we can still hold out hope for a collaboration between them.
