{"id":42721,"date":"2015-08-20T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=42721"},"modified":"2015-08-19T22:55:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T05:55:48","slug":"this-day-in-history-august-20th-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/this-day-in-history-august-20th-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day in History: August 20th- Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Day In History<\/a>: August 20, 1948<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"robert-plant\"<\/a>“I can’t moan about any of it. I had a great time in the goldfish bowl.” \u2013 Robert Plant<\/p>\n

With his unmistakable vocal style and golden Adonis charisma, Robert Plant was the quintessential \u201870s front man. Part medieval troubadour and part decadent rock god, Plant \u2013 along with the rest of Led Zeppelin – redefined rock music. Instead of becoming a prisoner of his former persona, Robert has continued to grow as an artist through the decades.<\/p>\n

Robert Plant\u2019s incredible journey began on August 20, 1948, in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England. His interest in music developed early. Robert was especially in to Elvis, and would stand between the curtains and French windows and imitate him. He said he liked the ambiance.<\/p>\n

When Robert was in his mid-teens attending grammar school, he discovered the blues through Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson. He immersed himself in the Midlands blues scene while working a series of odds jobs. He then began playing with a variety of different bands, including Band of Joy, where he hooked up with a young drummer named John Bonham.<\/p>\n

In 1968, Robert met the already successful Jimmy Page from the (recently disbanded) Yardbirds, who was looking to put together a group. When he first heard Plant sing, Jimmy immediately thought Robert must be a nightmare to deal with because otherwise he would have been a huge name already.<\/p>\n

But luckily Robert was affable, laid-back and brought along a fantastic drummer, the aforementioned John Bonham, in one of the best package deals in music history. John Paul Jones, the seasoned studio musician who had worked with Jimmy in the past, also came aboard, and the greatest hard rock band of all time was lined up and ready to go.<\/p>\n

Within a year-and-a-half, Plant went from working on a road crew in West Bromwich to fronting one of the biggest bands in the world. And Led Zeppelin did it without clever marketing campaigns, slick packaging or the adoration of the music critics, who generally panned or ignored them in the early days.<\/p>\n

As Plant biographer Paul Rees explained: \u201cThey came to America and almost belligerently broke themselves into America. The record came out without the support of Rolling Stone or Creem, which was around at the time. They just did it. They were a people’s band. They were arguably the first people’s band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riding high on the success of Led Zeppelin, things started to unravel in Robert\u2019s personal life in 1975. He and his (now ex) wife Maureen were seriously injured in a car crash while visiting Greece. The band had to postpone the recording of their seventh album, \u201cPresence\u201d, and cancel their tour for later that year.<\/p>\n

After a long convalescence, Robert was finally well enough to return to the road in 1977. But tragically, Led Zeppelin was playing in New Orleans when Plant\u2019s five-year-old son Karac died suddenly of a stomach infection. Robert immediately retreated to his home in the Midlands and remained there for months. (He wrote the beautiful song \u201cAll My Love\u201d that appears on Led Zeppelin’s final studio album, \u201cIn Through the Out Door<\/a>\u201d, in tribute to his son.)<\/p>\n

In 1980, Plant\u2019s chum John Bonham died of alcohol poisoning, another crushing personal blow. It also spelled the end of Led Zeppelin. For a time, Robert considered abandoning the music business to become a teacher. He was even accepted into a teacher training program.<\/p>\n

But in the end, music won out. In the early 1980s Plant released several very successful albums, including \u201cPictures at Eleven\u201d (1982) and \u201cThe Principle of Moments\u201d (1983), which spawned the big hits \u201cBig Log\u201d and \u201cIn the Mood\u201d.<\/p>\n

He changed it up with \u201cThe Honeydrippers\u201d, a one-off super-group he formed with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page to record tunes with a Fifties vibe like \u201cSea of Love\u201d and “Rockin\u2019 at Midnite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert teamed up with his old bandmates quite often, playing on each other\u2019s albums, doing the odd show here and there. He generally resisted playing any Led Zeppelin songs \u2013 until 1994 when Page and Plant reunited. They released the wildly successful \u201cNo Quarter<\/a>\u201d album, consisting of Led Zeppelin classics with new arrangements and some original tunes. Page and Plant embarked on an even more wildly successful tour the following year. An accompanying MTV Unplugged show was just the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

Plant continued to make great music, exploring folk with his band Strange Sensation and racking up four Grammy nominations and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 as a member of Led Zeppelin. He toured with Strange Sensation through 2007 performing their music, his solo material, as well as classic Led Zeppelin jams.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Robert began recording with bluegrass artist Allison Krauss. They released a duet album, Raising Sand<\/a>, in 2008, which was a commercial and critical hit. The album cleaned up at the 2009 Grammys, winning for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Pop Collaboration with Vocals, Country Collaboration with Vocals, and Contemporary Folk\/Americana Album.<\/p>\n

Robert continues to make music, and indulging himself in his love of Welsh history and the Wolverhampton Wanderers football team (of which he is vice-president). He dances around any possible Led Zeppelin reunion, much to the frustration of Jimmy Page. But ultimately Robert sticks by his statement, \u201cI know that bands that haven’t put out a record for 10 years are playing to 20,000 people a night. But that’s not the achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n