Robert Plant’s opinion on The Rolling Stones

The British singer Robert Plant started his musical career in 1965 when he was around 17 and three years later joined Led Zeppelin, which became one of the best-selling bands of all time with an estimateda amount of 200 to 300 million records sold worldwide.

Over the decades the musician talked about many other groups and one of them was The Rolling Stones, that started their career six years before Zeppelin and were part of the so called British Invasion, when groups from the United Kingdom became famous all over the world.

What is Robert Plant’s opinion on The Rolling Stones

Robert Plant was still just a teenager when The Rolling Stones were formed in London in 1962. But after they released their first records, they instantly became a group famous worldwide. The singer had the opportunity to see them in concert at an early age and as he told BBC in 2021, that show was an “eye-opener” experience for him. He also said that he believes the band was the main one responsible to present the music of Chicago and Delta Blues to England.

“I did actually see the Stones. They did a theater tour with Bo Diddley and Little Richard. It was the Rolling Stones’ first-ever package tour. It was really an eye-opener. We were all leaning towards that music. But nobody really had it down. I think in those days the Stones were bringing the stone down the mountain. So that was really specialm,” Robert Plant said.

Talking with Express and Star in 2021, he talked about how the music venues of the area he was born were important. He also recalled he had the chance to see The Rolling Stones there.

“The venues are important. When I was a kid we would go to Dudley Town Hall, Stourbridge Town Hall, or Coventry Town Hall. You could see the Rolling Stones and all the other bands of that level. Today, if you are a group as big as the Stones, you will be playing at Wembley. It’s all very different.”

“It will be very well organized, very professional. But you don’t have that interaction with the audience,” Robert Plant said.

The Rolling Stones songs Robert Plant said were some of his favorites

Since the band was important for Plant in the early days, he often mentions songs from the beginning of their career as some of his favorite ones. In 2021, Plant presented the BBC Radio 6 show “6 Music’s Festive Takeover” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). He listed some of his favorite songs of all time and one of them was “Street Fighting Man” from The Rolling Stones classic album “Beggars Banquet” released in 1968.

“There is so much to be said about this band and about the politics of the time in the late 60s, early 70s. How great that The Rolling Stones’ Jagger and Richards were putting together songs that were really quite vital absolutely and are in many ways timeless”.

“This track ‘Street Fighting Man’ from ‘Beggars Banquet’ is just incredible. Of course, many stations banned the record because they said it was subversive. There is a great comment from the band that said ‘of course it’s subversive. It’s stupid to think that you can start a revolution with a record. I wish you could,’ Robert Plant said.

Another Stones song he loves is “Come On”, that was originally recorded by Chuck Berry and covered by the British group in 1963, being released as a single. He listed that track as one of his favorites in an interview with the BBC Radio show Tracks Of My Years in 2021 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

“You probably may have realized it in my early history as a singer and recording artist, the adventures that I’ve had in the music game. I was really drawn and obsessed by the music of Chicago, Mississippi and the Delta Blues.”

Robert Plant continued:

“(So) I think on the English music scene, one of the main forerunners and purveyors for bringing this music to us as early teenage kids were the Rolling Stones. I do believe this was their first single, if I remember right. I bought it on the blue Decca label. It’s a cover of Chuck Berry‘s ‘Come On’. It was the beginning of their great career, promoting or perhaps giving us inspiration for Country Blues and City Blues of North American,” Robert Plant said.

The Rolling Stones are on the road for already six decades and have released 30 studio albums. They have sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records worldwide, what makes them one of the best-selling groups in history.

What was Mick Jagger’s first impression on Led Zeppelin

After Led Zeppelin released their groundbreaking self-titled debut album in 1969, the music business was completely shocked by the power the group had not only on the record but live on stage. Many artists who were already successful at the time were shocked to the see the music the band was doing. In an interview with BBC Radio 2 in 2020 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), Mick Jagger was asked what was The Rolling Stones first impression of Zeppelin.

“The thing was, I knew Jimmy (Page) very, very early on. Going back ten years before that. You know, makes you feel very young. I used to produce records. I did this record ‘Out Of Time’ for Chris Farlowe, which it was a very successful record in the early 60s. (Song) which Keith (Richards) and I wrote.”

“I used to be a producer, it was fun for me. I was sort learning the trades, sort to speak and it was all played live, of course. One of the backing musicians was Jimmy Page. He was one of the best session guitarists at the time, he was very young. There was another one called Jim Sullivan and they used to play chess in between takes. That was their thing. So that’s how I met Jimmy and that’s how I met John Paul Jones, because he was the bass player, like in 1965, maybe.”

Mick Jagger continued:

“Then 10 years later or a bit less they’ve made this very successful kind of band. I used to go and watch them live. And I remember watching their concerts live in New York and everything. I mean, it was great thunderous wonderful racket, brilliant. (Also) I saw their last concerts as well and they were absolutely incredible. I was so dissapointed that they didn’t actually go out and toured. But that’s their business, not mine,” Mick Jagger said.

Jimmy Page ended up playing with The Rolling Stones on two tracks after he was already a successful artist with Led Zeppelin. The first one is “Scarlet”, recorded in 1973, being released in 2020 as part of their expanded reissued of the album “Goats Head Soup”. The second one was in 1986, when Jimmy played guitar on “One Hit (To The Body)”. That song was featured on the album “Dirty Work”.

Why Keith Richards doesn’t like Led Zeppelin and called Robert Plant exuberant

Even though Jimmy Page recorded with Rolling Stones and Mick Jagger already praised the group, Keith Richards is not a big fan of them. Multiple times over the years he said that he loves Jimmy Page and he is a great guitarist. But he doesn’t like Zeppelin as a band.

“As a band I thought they never took off musically. At the same time Jimmy Page is one of the best guitar players ever known. And a hell of a powerhouse drummer (John Bonham), I think is kind of heavy-handed, myself. But that’s where the ‘Led’ comes in. But at the same time Plant is exuberant. Robert is exuberant.”