As the lead singer of
Led Zeppelin,
Robert Plant seemed invincible, a "Golden God" in the words of journalist/filmmaker Cameron Crowe.
Plant may have embraced rock stardom during
Zeppelin's zenith in the mid-'70s, but the singer has spent the decades following the band's 1980 dissolution exploring the road less-traveled. Beginning with his 1982 solo debut,
Pictures at Eleven,
Plant pursued a feverishly adventurous solo career, embracing synthesizers and art rock that seemed to be the antithesis of
Zeppelin's majestic hard rock, but he'd also later dabble in sampling and world music, while taking detours to reunite with
Zep guitarist
Jimmy Page for both a rockabilly lark and a folk-based revival of their catalog. Folk and roots rock weren't a passing fancy for
Plant: he teamed with bluegrass singer
Alison Krauss on 2007's
Raising Sand, a Grammy-winning smash that also proved to the world at large the depth and range of
Plant's music. Even with this success under his belt,
Plant was determined to explore new musical territory, continuing to take risks on the 2010 album
Band of Joy and 2014's
Lullaby And...The Ceaseless Roar, then delivering a successful reunion with
Krauss with 2021's
Raise the Roof. These records proved that among all his peers,
Plant possessed a musical wanderlust that kept his art vibrant.
Pictures at Eleven launched
Plant's solo career in 1982. The album featured
Phil Collins, and the drummer also appeared on the 1983 follow-up,
The Principle of Moments, where
Plant achieved a lighter touch somewhere between
Genesis and
Zeppelin's quieter side with tracks like "In the Mood" and "Big Log." But the singer would feed his
Elvis Presley infatuation on 1984's
The Honeydrippers, Vol. 1, teaming with
Page and other guests on influential roots rock material.
Refusing to be typecast,
Plant then threw fans a major curveball with
Shaken 'n' Stirred, the 1985 album that approximated new wave through the synthesizer embellishments of keyboardist
Jezz Woodroffe and guitarist
Robbie Blunt, plus Hayward's use of electronic drums. It was a creative highlight of his career, but despite a hit in "Little by Little," the album sold poorly, and rumblings about a
Zeppelin reunion mounted.
Plant took the next few years off, then answered the call for
Zeppelin material with 1988's
Now & Zen, which featured samples from his old group (plus selections from its vault on the subsequent tour).
Manic Nirvana furthered the post-
Zeppelin theme in 1990, and
Plant's 1993 CD,
Fate of Nations, proved another artistic high point and found
Plant singing
Page's name on the hit "Calling to You." The old songwriting partners had gotten together again for special occasions with
Jones and drummers like
Collins and
Bonham's son
Jason, but organized a different reunion in 1994.
Plant brought in his bassist,
Charlie Jones, and touring drummer Michael Lee, to back the singer and
Page -- who added a British symphony orchestra and Middle Eastern musicians for their televised No Quarter concert and CD. Despite
Plant blocking
John Paul Jones from participating (the two had disagreed throughout their careers), the show proved a fascinating blend of different cultures tackling
Zeppelin classics like "Since I've Been Loving You" and "Gallows Pole."
As the versatile
John Paul Jones made a name for himself as a producer (of groups as disparate as
Heart and
the Butthole Surfers) as well as a solo artist,
Robert Plant and
Jimmy Page further stirred the ashes with their 1998 studio CD Walking Into Clarksdale. But the quartet format (with
Charlie Jones and Michael Lee) paled in comparison to
Zeppelin's similar blend of bombast and subtlety, and poor sales put
Plant back at the crossroads of his 35-year career. He stayed away from recording until late 2001, when he stepped into the studio with a batch of original material and a few well-chosen covers and recorded
Dreamland. Taking his penchant for experimenting with ethnic musics and blending it with a softer approach to his bluesy pop, he steered in another interesting direction almost 40 years into his recording career. In November 2003, Atlantic issued Sixty Six to Timbuktu, a two-disc compilation dedicated exclusively to
Plant's solo work. The set ranged from hits like 1988's "Tall Cool One" and the
Honeydrippers favorite "Sea of Love" to the previously unissued "Upside Down" and a pre-
Zeppelin single dating from 1966.
Mighty Rearranger followed two years later, and
Plant teamed up with bluegrass icon
Alison Krauss to release the Grammy-winning collaborative album
Raising Sand in 2007.
Plant next revived the name of his first band,
Band of Joy, in 2010 for the self-titled
Band of Joy release, which was co-produced by
Buddy Miller.
Two years later,
Plant formed a new band called the Sensational Space Shifters (featuring former
Cast guitarist
Liam Tyson), who made their debut at that year's WOMAD. They released a digital live album and went on to play a number of festivals, including 2014's Glastonbury.
Plant's next solo album,
Lullaby And... The Ceaseless Roar, featured the band. Released by Atlantic in September 2014, it incorporated blues, rock, folk, world, funk, and electronic influences, and was a deeply personal effort that saw
Plant reconnecting with his English roots. It was greeted by good reviews and healthy sales, debuting at two on the U.K. charts and ten on Billboard in the U.S.
Plant retained the Sensational Space Shifters for
Carry Fire, an album released in October 2017.
In 2020,
Plant released
Digging Deep: Subterranea, a two-CD compilation of deep tracks from throughout his solo career that also featured three unreleased songs.
Plant next reunited with
Alison Krauss for
Raise the Roof, the 2021 sequel to
Raising Sand. The pair supported the album with a tour in 2022. ~ Bill Meredith