Every generation of Rock musicians has brought something new to the genre, just as Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham did with Led Zeppelin. The band changed the course of Hard Rock and inspired countless groups that emerged in the following decades. Over time, as new bands and styles appeared, their influence became more concentrated and not as widespread as it once was.
Plant always had a broad musical taste, something clearly reflected in his solo career. He stayed connected to what was happening in music and remained curious about new artists. Over the years, he has shared his opinion on many bands, including the influential British group Radiohead.
What is Robert Plant’s opinion on Radiohead
“I saw Radiohead in 1999 after I had last worked with Jimmy Page. I liked the fact that it (Radiohead) was its own master, just like Page and myself were. We could do whatever we wanted and it stuck, for some reason. The world embraced it. As it went along, it made no great effort to emulate anything that went before – a natural flow of song and craft. When I saw Radiohead I thought, well maybe I don’t belong in the game any more,” Robert Plant said in an interview with The Sunday Times magazine in 2002.
Interestingly, Radiohead was an inspiration for Plant and made him realize that music had changed since they started in the 1960s. When speaking with House of Strombo in 2019, he recalled how he felt when he saw them playing at a festival where he and Page also were on the bill.
“We got to Paris and we played the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. It was an insignificant bill (joking). It was the beginnings of Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen acoustic, Peter Gabriel acoustic and the Dalai Lama. I mean, the Dalai Lama doing a gig? He played mean harmonica (Laughs). I just looked at the crowd and I saw the guitarist in Radiohead when it was time for a solo.”
He continued:
“He just knelt down and started messing with his pedals. Got some squelch s**t going on and all that sort of stuff. I went, ‘Well, that’s a lot different to the world I’ve been in, of expressive gesture and stuff.’ I realized it was time to change,” Robert Plant said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Robert Plant told them that when he saw Radiohead he realized the “age of virtuosity” was over
A couple of years after watching Radiohead and having this revelatory moment, Robert Plant had the chance to hang out with the band and get to know them better. According to the band’s guitarist, he was a lovely person and said that when he saw them, he knew the “age of virtuosity” was over. But he didn’t say that in a derogatory way; it was just that the way music was being made was different from when he started.
“Many years later, we got to hang out, we got to meet Robert — such a lovely guy. He said, ‘Yes, when I saw you guys, I saw the light: the Age of Virtuosity was over’ (laughs). (Plant was) being cheeky. He also understood that you didn’t need to be a virtuoso anymore. I think music’s changed. However, you have to put the work in. You have to do the time; it’s a different thing.”
“All those ’60s guys, guitarists, who’d done it so well, (virtuosity) was their new horizon. So when we came along (in the ’90s), that wasn’t new, that didn’t feel exciting. I think it’s that spirit of trying to keep doing something new. It’s not always easy, and it’s not always possible,” Ed O’Brien told That Pedal Show in 2019.
Thom Yorke was not really excited with Led Zeppelin’s music either
Radiohead had many different musical influences, and its members have diverse musical tastes. When it comes to the vocalist Thom Yorke, he revealed in 2008 that he wasn’t excited about the Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007 and didn’t care to go see them perform. He revealed that in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2008.
Interviewer Mark Binelli said: “Yorke is far less reverent when it comes to classic rock. Our interview takes place two days after Led Zeppelin‘s London reunion, and when asked if he was curious about the show, he admits, ‘Not really. My mate wanted to go. I said I was tired. Maybe if they play again. But to be honest, probably not.'”
“O’Brien enters the room, and Yorke says, “Here comes Eddie. Were you curious about the Led Zeppelin reunion?’ ‘I was,’ O’Brien says. ‘I really was. I love the Zep. You weren’t, were you?’ ‘Not really.’ Yorke admits he’d be interested in a Talking Heads reunion. ‘Don’t think they want to do it, though,’ he says. ‘Gang of Four, they re-formed. That was worthwhile. Kind of better. Darker,’ he said.
Curiously, Robert Plant and Radiohead shared the same drummer for a while: Clive Deamer. The British musician served as the second drummer for the Alternative Rock band during the tours for the albums “The King of Limbs” (2011) and “A Moon Shaped Pool” (2016). He had previously been a member of Plant’s band from 2001 to 2007. During that time, he played on the albums “Dreamland” (2002) and “Mighty ReArranger” (2005), which were directly influenced by the shift in music that Plant perceived in Radiohead.
Some fans of the band fronted by Thom Yorke say they have heard similarities between their music and Led Zeppelin albums like “Houses of the Holy”.