The reason Robert Plant regrets touring with Led Zeppelin so much
When Led Zeppelin became one of the biggest bands in the world, there was a persistent expectation for them to perform live as often as they possibly could. While the talents of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones sounded great on record, they were undoubtedly a live band, and if you wanted to get the real Zeppelin, you simply had to catch them on stage.
As such, Zeppelin toured relentlessly throughout the 1970s, taking their private Boeing 720 – nicknamed ‘The Starship’ – all across the world to play to their fans. The Zeppelin live shows grew to new lengths, adding lasers and light shows to proceedings. While the band members undoubtedly loved flaunting their stuff every night, it ultimately came with a sacrifice.
For those that had young families, being away on tour for large periods meant that they could not spend time with their children during the formative years of their lives. For Robert Plant, this led to a deep regret that he had not formed a close bond with his daughter Carmen. In fact, Plant once explained that he was away on tour so often that when he would finally come home, Carmen wouldn’t recognise him and would sometimes get scared thinking he was a robber. “What I recall for the first two years is my daughter not really knowing who I was,” Plant said. “And getting rather agitated when I came back off tour, as she thought I’d come to rob the house.”
If his relationship, or lack thereof, with Carmen in the early days of her life caused regret, then it would be nothing compared to the deep tragedy Plant and his family suffered in 1977. It was that year that the Plants lost their son Karac at just five years old. It was a tragedy that would have reinforced the deep regret that Plant had at touring with his band so often. Discussing the loss, Plant told Louder Sound: “In 1977, we lost our son, Karac. He was only five years old. I’d spent so much time trying to be a decent dad, but at the same time, I was really attracted to what I was doing in Zeppelin. So when he bowed out, I just thought: ‘What’s it all worth? What’s that all about?'”
There were other deeper questions ruminating in Plant’s head, though. “Would it have been any different if I was there, if I’d been around?” he asked himself. Perhaps it was that loss of Karac that had Plant put the brake on for a short while. “So I was thinking about the merit of my life at that time and whether or not I needed to put a lot more into the reality of the people that I loved and cared for – my daughter and my family generally,” he added.
So while Plant and the rest of Zeppelin were known to enjoy their touring days with all the wild stories of throwing televisions out of hotel rooms, they came at a great sacrifice, and it wasn’t until Robert Plant had suffered a great loss and saw his daughter looking into his eyes and not recognise him, that he realised that there are more important things in life than playing music on tour.
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