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Robert Plant explains why Alannah Myles has “one of the finest voices”

Mon 15 January 2024 16:45, UK

Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has enjoyed seeing talents rise to the top of the ladder and witnessed many of his associates emerge as superstars. However, talent alone doesn’t always lead to a fruitful lifelong career, as the story of one singer who Plant said had “one of the finest voices” sadly proves.

In 1989, Canadian artist Alannah Myles made a breakthrough with her eponymous debut album, which topped the charts in her native country and sold over a million copies in the United States alone. At this stage, Myles had the world in her hands, and it seemed she could do no wrong. Following the success of the LP, she won three Juno Awards, including ‘Album of the Year’ and a Grammy for ‘Best Female Rock Performance’.

The offers continued to roll in for Myles, who was invited to support Plant across a set of arena dates in the United States. The tour allowed her to learn from one of the best in the rock landscape, and the English vocalist was mightily impressed with her performances, which blew him away.

During a television interview on tour, Plant spoke highly of Myles when asked about contemporary acts he admired. The singer remarked: “I like Prince a lot, y’know, I like to listen to a lot of blues and rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly. I like a group from Seattle called Soundgarden, and yeah, I like Faith No More. I like Alannah Myles’ voice, I think she’s got a great voice. She’s touring with us too. She sings beautifully.”

The duo grew close while on the road, and in a 1993 interview with Network, Plant was asked whether she was the inspiration for his track ’29 Psalms’. In response, he said: “We did tour together. We’re good friends. I think the world of her. She’s a great, powerful lady. She has one of the finest voices of the idiom. She was always very kind to me, very warm-hearted.”

“But the road is the road. Forget about all the rumours, everything is true and untrue. ’29 Palms’ was written on tour, the last time we were in California,” he added.

Despite the success of her debut album, Myles failed to replicate the sales and disappeared into obscurity after leaving Atlantic Records in 1995. She was then involved in a lengthy dispute with the label for many years, which held back her career, and consequent releases failed to chart, even in Canada.

After several years of silence, Myles revealed during an interview with CityNews Calgary in 2023 that she had been battling spondylitis, leaving her bed-bound for the last five years and unable to perform music.

“Now I have issues with being able to sit. That’s why when you see me in concert, you see me on a chair. I’m sitting upright. It’s painful for me to sit down, so I can’t really go anywhere,” Myles explained.

She added: “I can’t sit in a wheelchair. I can’t go to a concert, party, or even medical visits without a padded stretcher. I have no life now as a result of not being able to get myself up independently, which makes it only worse… I can get up to walk, but I need help doing it.”

Sadly, it seems her health problems will continue to hold Myles’ career on pause for the foreseeable future, even though the singer still retains hope to one day make a return.

Listen to her Grammy-winning song ‘Black Velvet’ below.