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Roger Daltrey’s opinion on Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin
Many amazing vocalists appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and two of them were certainly Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) and Roger Daltrey (The Who). The Who started their career a few years before and were not as heavy as Led Zeppelin but both became extremely influential and sold millions of records worldwide.
But those singers like each other? Let’s find out Roger Daltrey’s opinion on Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin.
Roger Daltrey’s opinion on Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin
Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant are good friends and The Who‘s vocalist is a huge fan of his. He even mentioned Plant as his “Rock God” when he was interviewed by Shaun Keaveny on BBC Radio 2 back in 2021.
“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 and 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”.
“I love his solo stuff too, he is always exploring. I love how he uses African influences on his music, that he does solo. He’s never dull, that’s what I like about Robert, he’s got incredible courage. I know a lot of people say ‘He copied you, you had long curly hair and then he comes along with a long curly hair’. No, he didn’t, Robert is Robert and I just wish I could have been as tall,” Roger Daltrey said.
The curious thing is that usually, musicians tend to pick as their Rock God artists who appeared on the scene before them. But Daltrey chose Plant, who would achieve fame only in 1969 with the release of Led Zeppelin’s debut album. By then The Who had already released four studio albums and were one of the biggest bands in the world.
How Roger Daltrey reacted when he first heard Led Zeppelin
Like all Rock and Roll fans, Roger Daltrey was also quite impressed when he first heard Led Zeppelin back in the late 60s. As he said before, he had the chance to see them up-close since the group formed by Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones were The Who’s opening act.
In an interview with Classic Rock he recalled what it was like to see them performing live. “When Led Zeppelin first came out I thought they were fantastic. They supported us on one of their first gigs in the States. I thought they were brilliant. Throughout our early history, we used to do loads of gigs with Hendrix and Cream, that three-piece-band-and-a-singer formula.”
“We were well-schooled in that, but Zeppelin took it to another level. There was a power there. They were like Cream, but with a lot more weight. Jack Bruce of Cream was really a jazz and blues singer, but Robert knew how to rock.”
“All of a sudden, there was a new form of music. The music scene was starting to get a bit tired. Even Hendrix was starting to get tired then, moving into jazz. Zeppelin regenerated it,” Roger Daltrey said.
Robert Plant almost replaced Roger Daltrey in The Who
Things could have been quite different if Roger Daltrey had left The Who for good in the 60s and Robert Plant had joined them. That really happened as the band’s guitarist and main songwriter Pete Townshend recalled in an interview with Guitarist magazine.
“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. 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!”
Roger and Robert had the chance to perform together a couple of times over the decades, including during The Who’s Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts.
