The only musician who ever truly intimidated Robert Plant and why he’d never work with him: “The most impressive single person”
It’s hard to think of any rock legends being intimidated by another artist’s music. Once a person can fill stadiums with songs that the masses have idolised, no one else can touch them in the music world, having already paved the way for outstanding artists to follow in their footsteps. Then again, Robert Plant always had a keen eye when he saw greatness before him.
Before getting behind the microphone with Led Zeppelin, Plant was already reverent towards the kings of rock and roll and blues. While loving the sounds of the psychedelic movement like Jimi Hendrix, Plant would ultimately put a more guttural spin on his trademark sound, sounding like a howling banshee throughout some of Zeppelin’s classic material like ‘Immigrant Song’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
As the band started to stretch out, though, there was much more to Plant’s repertoire than just the usual rock and roll textures. Throughout albums like Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti, Plant was known for testing the limits of his vocal prowess, using songs as showcases for his technique, whether it was the blues of ‘In My Time of Dying’ or the soft tenderness of ‘The Rain Song’.
After Zeppelin folded in the wake of John Bonham’s passing, though, Plant had already begun reinventing his vocal style, writing songs with a softer edge after reforming The Band of Joy for a little bit. As the 1980s were opening up, a new star quickly emerged on the scene to blend every genre under the sun.
Gaining traction while Zeppelin was folding, Prince quickly turned himself into a musical freak of nature, being able to play nearly any genre that suited his music. Peaking with the album Purple Rain, ‘The Purple One’ would ultimately create one of the most elaborate albums of the decade, complete with songs that blurred the lines of funk, R&B, rock and soul under one roof.
While Prince would later cite Zeppelin as a significant influence for his willingness to experiment on every song, Plant saw him as stiff competition at the time. Despite being known as one of the living legends of rock and roll, Plant would later claim that he would be terrified to play with a musician of Prince’s calibre.
When talking about Prince’s technique, Plant would recall how musically formidable the Minneapolis musician seemed, telling Ultimate Classic Rock, “Prince is probably the most impressive single person … he’s incredibly inventive, but he’s using a lot of old … he’s coming from all sorts of areas of the past, and he’s really pushing them all through a blender. I don’t know if I’d like to work with him because he’s so powerful. He’d probably intimidate me a bit”.
Then again, there’s a good chance that Prince’s trademark vocal abilities would not exist if not for Plant coming first. Even though there isn’t as much overlap between both acts’ sounds, it’s easy to see Plant’s disembodied wails on songs like ‘You Shook Me’ as a prototype for what Prince would later do on songs like ‘Darling Nikki’. Prince wasn’t looking to impress anyone but himself, but it’s a testament to his ability when he made one of the titans of hard rock shudder.
Why is Prince so good?
It seems we all have one album that comes along and changes everything at some indefinable period, early on in our lives, but there’s also a second formative blow that resonates a little later on and scores our coming-of-age years. The epic perturbing allure of Prince provided that for a generation. His strange yet seamless ways welcome you into a more bohemian world, and this is perhaps why he is also a true artist’s artist, inspiring a legion of future musicians with his singularity.
The 1980s belonged to Prince in the same way that The Beatles straddled the ’60s. It was an age of invention and Prince perfectly had a foot in both camps, as he said himself: “Technology is cool, but you’ve got to use it as opposed to letting it use you.” He had more than enough skill in his little finger to master technology and make it his servant.
So, progression and dazzling dalliance become the central tenets of his work and he created one of the most celebrated discographies in history with this potent purple combination.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.