Former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant discussed drawing small solo shows audience on his ‘Digging Deep’ podcast a few days ago when discussing his song “Big Log.” The Black Crowes ripped a Robert Plant performance recently. Ultimate-Guitar transcribed Plant’s comments.
“I was desperately trying – in ’81, ’82, ’83 – to write songs to move away from the previous musical place. And to get the story right, many years before that, I went to Rockfield Studios in Monmouth [in Wales] and Dave Edmunds was recording ‘I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock N’ Roll’ and all that stuff.
And his contract, I think, with RCA was up, and I really, really loved that sort of sass with his rock ‘n’ roll stuff. It sounded like early Nashville rock ‘n’ roll, like, 1962, ’63 kind of stuff, and Dave Edmunds was at the helm of it all. He had a great group. So I went to Rockfield, enjoyed the place, found Dave, got him to sign to Swan Song Records, and just went about my business, and he had some good success, had a good time.
I used to pass by and go to Rockfield quite often because the Welsh border is my sort of mana, and down there it’s a pretty beautiful country. And at the end of 1980, I had no place to go; Led Zeppelin was over, John [Bonham] was gone, so I formed a group called Honeydrippers.”
“We used to play clubs around England for no money, and I played with this great band, they were really great players. We used to play small clubs and go around and the driver of our van, his name was Big Dave, used to go to the front door of the club and say, ‘Who’s playing here tonight?’ and if anybody mentioned me, we’d just drive on.”
He later added, “We’ve gotten to the point where there’s only so many times you can play Gene Vincent’s songs for 13 people in a club, so I thought, ‘I really want to know whether or not we can make a big sound that sounds big without it being really really heavy and tough.’
Robert Plant revealed a massive Led Zeppelin tour offer last month. Jimmy Page wrote on his social media a couple of days ago, “On this day in 1984, I played the Hammersmith Odeon with The Firm. This was the first of the two nights played with The Firm at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. Myself on guitar, Chris Slade on drums, Paul Rodgers on vocals, piano and guitar and Tony Franklin on hair and bass.
Closer
City Sirens
Make Or Break
The Morning After
Together
Cadillac
Prelude
Money Can’t Buy
Radioactive
Live In Peace
Midnight Moonlight
You’ve lost That Loving Feeling
Chase
Guitar Solo
Drum Solo
Someone To Love
Full Circle
Boogie Mama
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love.” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed Robert Plant’s comments and have his full remarks.
