Robert Plant: 'Why do i hate Zeppelin's songs'

By editorial board on May 26, 2021

Robert Plant’s relationship with ‘Stairway To Heaven’: He paid a radio station $10,000 to stop playing Led Zeppelin

While sitting down with UCR as part of their ‘Nights’ radio show, Plant said: “The construction of the song, the actual musical construction, is very good. It’s one of those moments that really can stand without a vocal and, in fact, it will stand again without a vocal, I’m sure, because it’s a fine piece of music.

Although the track Stairway To Heaven’  is Led Zeppelin’s magnum opus in many people’s eyes, one person who disagrees with that notion is the song’s actual singer. Astonishingly, he even donated $10,000 to a radio station in a plea to stop them from playing the rock behemoth. 

Plant was responsible for some of the band's best work, including writing the lyrics for hits like Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Heartbreaker, Kashmir, Going to California, and more. However, Plant wasn't always proud or fond of all of Led Zeppelin's songs. One song, in particular, Plant has publicly said he dislikes, and it just might surprise you which one it is: Stairway to Heaven.

Plant said once he donated $10,000 to a radio station for it to stop playing the track.

The station in question was KBOO, which is a listener funded, non-profit radio channel in Portland. Plant was driving to a show in Lincoln City and stumbled upon the station, instantly falling in love with the weird blends of alternative music they were playing. (Faroutmagazine)

 

“KBOO had this amazing music,” the former Led Zeppelin singer told NPR in 2002. “It was kind of a mixture of sad outtakes of doo-wop and a very droll DJ, who sounded like somebody from Marin County in 1967. I thought, ‘This is great. I gotta pull over and listen to this.'”

“The guy came on saying they were looking for sponsorships,” Plant added. “You know, ‘Please send in $10’ (or $15 or whatever), and if people did that, KBOO would promise never to play ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ So I called him up and pledged my money. I was one of the KBOO sponsors.”

While most singers’ ego would take a bruising if the station they were listening to begged for listeners to pay them to stop playing their most famous song — Plant has never been wired like that.

"I'd break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show, Plant told the Los Angeles Times in a 1988 interview.




He has widely dubbed Stairway to Heaven as "that bloody wedding song" and has refused to play it live since the 1980s.

Robert Plant recalled a recent meeting with Bob Dylan. The Led Zeppelin frontman told Classic Rock magazine, “I recently did a gig in Roskilde, Denmark, and Bob Dylan wanted to talk to me about touring. So I met him where all the buses are parked, at this big festival, and we eyeballed each other and smiled in the darkness. It was pissing with rain, two hooded creatures in a blacked-out car park, and I said to him: ‘Hey, man, you never stop!’ He looked at me, smiled and said: ‘What’s to stop for?’

But I couldn’t ask him about his songs, because as much as I’ve been affected by his work you can’t talk about it. My work is not anywhere near as profound in what it’s trying to do. At the same time, you can get to know the motive and circumstances behind a particular song, without it being ‘Masters Of War.’”

“At the end of the ’80s, I had no place to go; John [Bonham] was gone,” Plant said. “So, I formed the Honeydrippers. We used to perform around the clubs of England for no money, and I played with this great band; they were really good players. The driver of our van, his name was Big Dave, used to go to the front door of the club and say, ‘Who’s playing here tonight?’ And if anybody mentioned me, we’d just drive on. It would have to be ‘the Honeydrippers’ and then we could play our stuff.”

He became disillusioned with the idea after a while. “There’s only so many times you can play Gene Vincent songs to 13 people in the Limit Club in Derby,” Plant added. “I thought, ‘I really want to know if we can make a big sound that sounds big, without it being really, really, heavy and tough.’ So, I pulled a band together.”

“It was the first time ever I’d been away from the creche of Zeppelin; I really didn’t realize just how much patience and concentration you really need in a studio to get people to perform, give you something really, really important – because Zeppelin seemed to roll out in some kind of magical way. It was a real new twist. … I had to really bluff my way through it because I really didn’t know studio etiquette, after all that success in Zeppelin. I never really went behind the desk at all, except for to push the vocal effects on the Zeppelin tracks a bit more, here and there.”

Plant continued: “I was helped absolutely and admirably by Phil Collins, who came along and said, ‘John Bonham was probably the most important influence in my life. I’ll sit on that stool for you.’” He described Collins as “an absolute restrained powerhouse” on Plant’s 1982 solo debut Pictures At Eleven and its 1983 follow-up, The Principle of Moments.

 

The event took place at the Fox Inn in Stourton, England. As reported by Classic Rock Magazine, Plant sat-in with the rockabilly outfit on “One Night,” “Little Sister” and “A Big Hunk O’ Love.” Watch “One Night” and “Little Sister” captured by 1967mjt below:

 

 

Robert Plant recalled a recent meeting with Bob Dylan. The Led Zeppelin frontman told Classic Rock magazine, “I recently did a gig in Roskilde, Denmark, and Bob Dylan wanted to talk to me about touring. So I met him where all the buses are parked, at this big festival, and we eyeballed each other and smiled in the darkness. It was pissing with rain, two hooded creatures in a blacked-out car park, and I said to him: ‘Hey, man, you never stop!’ He looked at me, smiled and said: ‘What’s to stop for?’ But I couldn’t ask him about his songs, because as much as I’ve been affected by his work you can’t talk about it. My work is not anywhere near as profound in what it’s trying to do. At the same time, you can get to know the motive and circumstances behind a particular song, without it being ‘Masters Of War.’”

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