Robert Plant Weighs In on Beatles-Stones Feud: McCartney “Should Just Play Bass with The Stones”; Talks Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone‘s Music Now show, Robert Plant says that the ongoing feud between the Beatles frontman Paul McCartney and the British-born rock band The Rolling Stones should stop. How? Plant says that McCartney “should just play bass with The Stones.”

McCartney, who likened The Stones to a “blues cover band,” in a previous interview, may change his tune, Plant implies, if he picked up the four-string and plucked along with the Mick Jagger-fronted band.

“I don’t think there’s any fighting,” Plant told the outlet. “They’ve known each other since 1963. They love each other desperately.”

Strangely, The Who’s Roger Daltrey also called out The Stones, calling them a “mediocre pub band.” Plant did not comment on this, though.

Plant, who was the lead singer for the famed British rock band Led Zeppelin was joined on the show by his current musical partner, Alison Krauss. The duo recently released their new album, Raise the Roof.

Among other highlights from the interview, Plant chides fellow U.K. rocker Eric Clapton, who famously spoke out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, refusting to play venues that required the vaccine. Of Clapton, Plant said, with a laugh, “Good old Eric. He didn’t like the jab—but he had the jab.”

Plant also talked about escaping the Led Zeppelin shadow, saying: “I was always trying to escape the shadow of what had happened to me between 1968 and 1980. So I was trying so many different things just to expand myself without really worrying about taking along an audience that only wanted me to be on autopilot.

“I made good music and I made questionable music, but I did it all with great flurry. And there’s only a minor embarrassment now, maybe perhaps a few dodgy haircuts. I mean, when you’re on maximum rotation on MTV, it’s just, how the hell did that happen? From the hammer of the gods to, um, [1983 solo ballad] ‘Big Log.’”

Photo by Per Ole Hagen/Redferns