Q&A

Robert Plant on suddenly being free to fail outside “Fortress Zeppelin”

Going solo was a big step. What do you remember about that time?

I’d been hanging around with a lot of people back where I live. People had been making records and I’d been in other people’s environments, but I hadn’t imagined myself taking on anything where it’s just got my name on it. Being in a band like Led Zep was tremendous – but also quite frustrating because you were in it and it was a democracy. It worked when it worked, and it didn’t work when it didn’t work. But to suddenly be completely free to fail was a totally different mindset altogether. And magnificent because of it.

Zeppelin had been an albums band; but with “Big Log” you had a proper hit single…

It was all new territory for me. At the time, it was part of the game and I was up for playing the game because I’d been away from everybody else’s world for forever. I’d been in this magnificent fortress – Fortress Zeppelin – so there was no real melding with anybody apart from a few frivolous things around my home area with people like Andy Sylvester and Robbie Blunt.

How was it being back in the studio with Page for “Tall Cool One”?

We’d become people who knew each other and sometimes we work together and sometimes we don’t. But it was good that he came, I was glad. It didn’t carry any emotional hangover. Jimmy did a great job.

Has this process of reflection provided any inspiration for what’s next?

I’ve had great conversations recently with the Space Shifters, with Alison Krauss and with Buddy Miller. There’s loads of songs locked up inside us all. But I think the most important thing is I hadn’t actually listened to the tracks on this boxset for so long and I feel pretty good about them now. They’re part of the journey. This box is like a window into something that happened.