The voice of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant was a fundamental part of Led Zeppelin, becoming one of the most influential singers of all time, fronting the band during their existence until 1980 after they decided to split following the tragic death of the drummer John Bonham at the age of 32. In the 80s the musician started his solo career and he was able to show his broad musical taste, not only focusing on Blues, Hard Rock and Folk like in Zeppelin.
Back in 1990, the musician released his fifth solo album called “Manic Nirvana” and in a TV interview (Made available by Reelin In The Years), revealed which bands he liked at that moment.
The 3 bands Robert Plant said he liked in the early 90s
Soundgarden
“I like a group from Seattle called Soundgarden,” Robert Plant said. At that time, the group fronted by Chris Cornell only had two albums “Ultramega OK” (1988) and “Louder Than Love” (1989). The interesting thing is that by that point, they still hadn’t released their biggest hits, which would be featured only on “Badmotorfinger” (1991) and “Superunknown” (1994). So although they still weren’t as big as they would be in the following years, Plant was already paying attention to them and already approved their music.
The curious thing is that Soundgarden was often compared to Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page also said once that he liked them. The guitarist was even interviewed by Chris Cornell during the last decade. The late Soundgarden vocalist used to cover songs from the British Hard Rock group, some of them were “Thank You”, “Immigrant Song” and “Whole Lotta Love”.
Faith No More
“I like Faith No More,” Robert Plant said in the TV interview. By the time the Led Zeppelin vocalist praised them, they had already released three albums: “We Care a Lot” (1985), “Introduce Yourself” (1987) and “The Real Thing” (1989). So he had already heard the band with two different vocalists: Chuck Mosley and Mike Patton.
In 1989 he had also talked about them in an interview with Q magazine in 1989. During the conversation he revealed some of the albums of his record collection. He said that he had their 1987 album “Introduce Yourself” and said: “Their first album. It’s like, I, ME, listen to this! And if you don’t like it, fuck off!!! You can’t spend all your life whimpering away about the ex-wife. The vocal attitude, the hard, heavy garage rap. I like very much,” Robert Plant said.
In 1990, the band toured with Plant as his opening act. The band’s keyboardist Roddy Bottum said he was super supportive and sweet with them. He recalled in an interview with Butt Magazine in 2015, that they even ended up taking Plant to a gay bar at the time.
“Yeah, I did, kind of accidentally. We replaced Black Crowes on a tour with him. We used to go to the thrift shops and pawn shops in every city. One time we were thrift shopping, and he was out on the street and we were like, ‘Oh, hey. Come with us.’ And he kinda hung out with us. He’s such an amazing guy, really sweet. He’s like, ‘You guys care to go for a drink?’”
Roddy Bottum continued:
“And we’re like, ‘Yeah sure,’ and kinda looked at this bar. There might even have been a rainbow flag — and it was like, ‘Oh wow, this could be awkward.’ So we walked in and it dawned on everybody, ‘Oh, this is a gay bar.’”
“There we are with Robert Plant in a gay bar! He was like, ‘Oh, this is great. Great. Let’s have a seat. Let’s have a drink.’ Then we left the gay bar, and some kid pulled up in a pickup truck. He’s like, ‘Hey, you’re Robert Plant.’ And Robert Plant’s like, ‘Yes, I am.’ He said, ‘Where you guys going? You guys want a ride?’ And we all got into the back of the pickup truck,” Roddy Bottum said.
Alannah Myles
“I like Alannah Myles‘ voice, I think she’s got a great voice. She is touring with us too. She sangs beautifully,” Robert Plant said in the TV interview. Like Faith No More, Myles also toured with Robert Plant as his opening act back in the early 90s.
Born in Toronto, Canada back in 1958, she started her career in 1977, releasing her debut album in 1989. Her biggest hit “Black Velvet” came from that album and gave her a Grammy and a Juno Award at the time. The track was a number one hit on the United States Billboard Hot 100 in 1990.
She still released five more albums, the most recent one being “85 BPM” in 2014.