Once finding himself at the center of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant watched his entire world change as the band sold nearly 300 million albums worldwide. Only staying together for a little over a decade, the group released nine studio albums during that time. And in the years that followed, Plant and the rest of Led Zeppelin landed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not finished leaving his mark on the music industry, Plant explored a solo career. Having battled ups and downs, the singer recently admitted he would become an Elvis impersonator if his career failed.
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Recalling the end of Led Zeppelin, Plant explained the emotions surrounding that time in his life, telling Mojo, “Well, at the end of my first formative period, I was in what you’d loosely call the biggest band in the world.” Upset over the decision to split, he added, “The fervour that surrounded that, it was an unearthly condition and because of its terrible finales, I got suddenly launched into that post-Zeppelin thing where I went, I’m never gonna play any Zeppelin stuff again.”
Robert Plant Ready To Embrace The King Of Rock And Roll
No longer surrounded by a band, Plant had to navigate his own career within the music industry. Not wanting to rely on Led Zeppelin classics, he released albums like Shaken ‘n’ Stirred. Although the album’s song “Little by Little” landed No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart, Plant recalled, “I was on my own, and Atlantic, Ahmet (Ertegun) and people like that, were saying: ‘Why don’t you put the band back together?’ I said, ‘Look, I’ve made a record called Shaken ‘n’ Stirred. Nobody likes it, but I like it. F*** it. Nobody liked Zeppelin, but we liked it. F*** it.”
While having his own thoughts on the success of the album, Plant continued forward with his career. And not knowing what the future held, he apparently had a backup plan if it all came crashing down. “If it ever gets to another point where it’s not like that in my quantifying of it, then I’m lost. I’ll just be an Elvis impersonator. I’m really good at doing Elvis!”
Although the idea of Plant becoming Elvis sounded enticing, the possibility of the singer’s career tanking seemed highly unlikely. But again, with Plant claiming he did a good impersonation of Elvis, fans could only hope he might offer a taste of his take on the King of Rock and Roll.
(Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images)
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