What is Rob Halford’s opinion on Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin

Formed in London back in 1968, Led Zeppelin changed Rock and Roll music at the time with their heavy sound and the impressive Robert Plant vocals. The group influenced countless bands and still is one of the most important groups of all time. Over the decades many famous musicians talked about Zeppelin and Plant, one of them is the legendary Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford.

What is Rob Halford’s opinion on Robert Plant and Led Zeppelin

Heavy Metal music would not exist especially without Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, bands that were crucial for making Rock and Roll heavier and Rob Halford agreed with that theory in an interview with Music Radar back in 2014 when he listed “Led Zeppelin II” (1969) as one of the albums that changed his life.

“Probably a more specific album in terms of the roots of heavy metal. When I heard the riffs that Jimmy was doing, got a real sense of where things were going. Even though Led Zeppelin never expressed ‘we’ve got some heavy metal in us,’ it’s quite apparent that it was there all along.”

“The riffage and the way they played live. They were a bit like Cream on steroids. John Bonham smashed those drums, and along with the powerful musicianship of Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. They made a sound that simply incredible. And then you’ve got Robert Plant, screaming and wailing in a way that we’d never heard before. Led Zeppelin were such an important band,” Rob Halford said.

Just like the first one, “Led Zeppelin II” was also produced by the band’s guitarist Jimmy Page. It has classic tracks like: “Whole Lotta Love”, “Heartbreaker” and “Ramble On”.

He also likes Led Zeppelin’s debut album

Talking with Rolling Stone magazine in 2020, he listed Zeppelin’s self-titled debut as one of his favorites of all time. “The thing about this particular album is it’s got a lot of the transitional experience in heavy, hard rock that includes a lot of blues vibes. And they’ve freely admitted that the blues is where the basic journey for this band started out,” Rob Halfor said.

Zeppelin’s debut record was extremely successful and influential. It has tracks like “Good Times Bad Times”, “Dazed and Confused” and “Communication Breakdown”.

Rob Halford has a huge respect for Robert Plant

Nicknamed “The Metal God”, Rob Halford has a huge respect for the “Golden Gold” Robert Plant, that gained that nickname in the early days because of his blonde hair. The Judas Priest vocalist listed in an interview with Metal Hammer back in 2020 his 3 favorite singers and one of them was Plant.

“Robert Plant. I’ve always enjoyed the bluesier elements of his vocals and the ‘Oooh’s and ‘Aaah’s that they threw in were important. They may not have been words but Planty taught me how to connect on an emotional basis with that type of phrasing,” Rob Halford said.

He also praised his fellow singer in an interview with Fan First (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) in 2021. Halford said that when he heard Led Zeppelin over the years he realized that the human voice had many different possibilities and he ended up kind of emulating what Plant did

“Robert loves the Blues. If you go way back to Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Little Richard, where everybody was screaming and wailing. I think also you’re never old enough for new memory or a new thought. What I realized from those particular performers was that you’ve just got to let your inhibitions go.”

Halford continued:

“You’ve just got to show it off in the purest emotional sense and not be afraid. There’s something very powerful about watching either Robert Plant then. Or Janis Joplin screaming her heart out at Monterey. Women weren’t supposed to perform like that. That was the way it was back in the day. So, all of those great performers, for me, singers particularly, were just an exciting opening that led to all these great adventures that I had later on,” Rob Halford said.

Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame back in 1995 by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They have sold an estimated amount of 200 to 300 million records worldwide.