Robert Plant’s opinion on The Who

Robert Plant was still a teenager when one of the most important revolutions in Rock and Roll started in the United Kingdom with bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He had the chance to witness the rise of that movement and to see many other legendary and influential bands emerge, including The Who. He has known them since the early days of their career and had the chance to watch them perform in a small venue at the beginning of their careerv.

Over the decades, the Led Zeppelin vocalist has spoken about many of the bands from that era, sharing his opinions on them, including The Who, originally formed by Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and Pete Townshend.

What is Robert Plant’s opinion on The Who

Robert Plant is a big fan of The Who and a great friend of the band, especially the singer Roger Daltrey. The Led Zeppelin frontman had the chance to see the band playing live back in 1965 when he was still a teenager. “I was about (16) when I saw The Who working for Freddy Bannister. They played in some of the town halls in the West Midlands, it was the most exciting and thrilling music scene I’ve ever been to. They really kicked ass and they blasted the place to pieces, it was amazing. It was just so animated, four guys were playing the most spectacularly exciting and electrifying music,” Robert Plant said in a statement for the movie “The Who: Live in Hyde Park” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

In 2024, Robert Plant & Saving Grace performed for the Teenage Cancer Trust, a charity that has been supported by The Who’s Roger Daltrey for decades. Before the show began, Plant stopped Daltrey from introducing the band so he could say a few words about his admiration for him and The Who. “You know what? I gotta say something!! We’ve been talking a lot, everybody’s here, this purpose and this regime that you created is spectacular. But I want to take you back to about 1965. I was 16 years-old, I was at Stourbridge Town Hall watching this f*cking monster group (The Who).”

He continued:

“I didn’t really realize at the time I saw you there, this kind of golden God. I just went: ‘How does he do that?’ You and I, there’s only maybe a few front men now who don’t play guitars. But I’ve watched you all the way through time, side by side we crossed paths so many times. I was at the TCT thing, US thing that we did in L.A., I was at the first night the Tommy thing came out in the Fillmore East and ate all your sandwiches while you were working (laughs). I’m just so grateful and glad that we can be here,” Robert Plant said.

Robert Plant said that The Who were a stunningly seminal, good and important band for Rock music

“I like to see bands copying The Who. I think The Who was such a kind of seminal influence of Rock and Roll. (They were) stunningly good and stunningly seminal. In a way they kind of have to expire before Led Zeppelin, because they comments were a lot about youth or a lot of the time. (…) I think they were really important, I think they’re important in a totally different way,” Robert Plant said in an interview with Much Music in 1988 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

The frontman continued to see The Who whenever he could throughout his career and in the early 90s he was managed by Bill Curbishley, who also managed the band when they reunited. Plant went to see them and liked their show, but he had a few things to say. “Yes, I came to New York to see it. I went to Radio City Music Hall and to Giants Stadium.”

Robert Plant continued:

“My manager also manages them. So whatever I say will jeopardize my relationship with the man I think so much of. Bill, I’m sorry. Here it comes. It was all very efficient”. Then the Musician magazine journalist commented: “It was like a show band doing note-for-note renditions of the Who.” Robert replied: “What a ridiculous statement to make, that a band that is clinically dead can still perform those songs again… Look, Pete is a serious guy, and it’s not for me to say.”

I can’t make a career out of being controversial about other musicians. What I saw was very well done. Maybe the audience didn’t know what it wanted to see. Or maybe it was like the emperor’s new clothes. If you want to see something badly enough, you can make the most wonderful outfit. You critics can say what you want, but the guy who pays for his ticket has to get something out of it,” Robert Plant said in 1990.

When Daltrey left The Who Robert Plant offered himself for the job

Curiously, according to Townshend, when Daltrey left The Who in the early days, Plant offered himself for the job. At the time Pete and Entwistle were singing during the shows but not much after Daltrey ended up returning. “There were actually periods when Roger left the group for several weeks and I was The Who’s singer. Robert Plant talks about the fact that when he first saw us I was the singer (Not what Plant said previously).”

“He came to see us three nights in a row and offered himself for the job, as did Steve Gibbons when he came to see us and Roger wasn’t there. Obviously none of them thought I was any good!” Pete Townshend told Guitarist magazine in 1990. In Pete’s opinion, Robert Plant copied Daltrey, especially in the way he looked. “I think by that time (the early 70s), we became aware that Led Zeppelin was snapping at our heels. Eventually of course in heavy Rock terms overtook The Who. But I think Robert Plant was a shrieker.”

He continued:

“He copied the way that Roger (Daltrey) looked on stage, you know. (Plant) had his own thing but you know, Robert Plant was somewhere between Roger Daltrey and Steve Marriott from the (Small) Faces. He found his own feet in the end. But I think Roger was aware that he had to really sharpen up and he did.”

“(Plant) started to really regard his voice as an instrument and to really take care of himself. He didn’t use drugs, he didn’t drink a lot. He had his issues, his eccentricities but he really looked after himself. The rest of the band would be living hard without question,” he told Jackie Brambles in 2023.

Roger Daltrey chose Robert Plant as his “Rock God”

Although Roger Daltrey is four years older than Robert Plant and started his musical career before, he chose the Led Zeppelin singer as his “Rock God”. Unlike Pete, Roger doesn’t think Plant copied him at all. “Well, I was friends with Jimmy Page in the 60’s. I knew them from the very early years. It was Keith (Moon) that came up with the name Led Zeppelin. I became very friends with Robert Plant and we still are today. They supported us on one of their first United States gigs in Washington or North Baltimore, or somewhere, Maryland”.