Robert Plant started his solo career two years after Led Zeppelin came to end due to John Bonham‘s tragic death at the age of 32. The musician released his solo debut “Pictures at Eleven” in 1982 and continued to record during that decade, putting out three more albums before the 90s.
Rock and Roll music changed a lot during the 80s and there were all kinds of new sub-genres appearing but one of the most important groups that emerged was Guns N’ Roses, that released their debut record “Apppetite for Destruction” in 1987. At the time, the band’s vocalist Axl Rose talked a lot with press and even talked about Plant and Zeppelin, revealing which was the song from his solo career he really liked.
The Robert Plant solo song that Axl Rose said he really liked
Over the years Axl Rose talked less and less with the press and rarely give interviews but in the early days of the band he helped to promote their albums and tour talking with journalists. Since Guns N’ Roses was the hottest band around in the late 80s and early 90s, they were often asked about older groups and an interview with Steve Harris in 1987, he revealed which was the Robert Plant solo career song he really liked at that moment.
“He’s moved on, he hasn’t compromised his art. I’m talking about Robert Plant there. He hasn’t compromised his art. He’s moved on, he’s an older guy. He doesn’t agree with some of the things he wrote about before but, like, you go through life and you make changes. I mean, Pete Townsend isn’t saying, ‘Hope I die before I get old ,’ You say things one day and that’s how you really feel and you believe it.”
“Then, maybe, you grow past that. And Robert Plant is like, I don’t listen to a whole lot of the stuff. But I have a lot of respect for it. I really like the song ‘Big Log’. But I have a lot of respect for it because he’s being himself and he’s not compromising.”
He continued:
“And Jimmy Page is pretty much the same way. Sure you miss old Led Zeppelin. But, people go back to their high school reunions and they are standing there talking to some bald fat guy. Then they don’t even realize that was the quarterback of the football team who got all the girls.”
“They miss that but the guy is changed. Now he’s the guy could be like happy whatever family man in Idaho or something now. You go through changes. I just don’t like compromises for the sake of being successful. That bothers me,” Axl Rose said.
“Big Log” was one of the singles from Robert Plant’s second album “The Principle of Moments”. That record was produced by the singer, Benji Lefevre and Pat Moran. It also had other two famous songs: “Other Arms” and “In The Mood”. Curiously, the Genesis frontman and drummer Phil Collins, who is a good friend of Plant, played the drums in “Big Log”.
He said that Led Zeppelin’s “D’yer Mak’er” was one of the songs that made him become a singer
Axl Rose was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1962 and was a teenager when Led Zeppelin already was one of the biggest and most influential bands of all time. He recalled in an interview with MTVs Kurt Loder in 1990 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), that one song of the British band was one of the tracks that made him want to become a singer.
He recalled that he used to make fun of famous songs with friends in school. Also that “D’yer Mak’er” from the 1973 album “Houses of the Holy” was one of the tracks that inspired him.
“I was already playing and singing in church music and all kinds of things. Led Zeppelin’s “D’yer Mak’er”, when I heard that I was making fun of it all day long. Because I was always writing down the lyrics (creating jokes) and passing out to all the kids.”
“But I heard that song and I was going ‘Yeah, that’s another one’ and started making fun of it. But by afternoon reccess I was in the corner with the radio waiting to hear that song. That (one) and ‘Bennie and The Jets’ (From Elton John) just made me go ‘I want this,'” Axl Rose said.