Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson recently revealed details about an early encounter with Robert Plant in 1968. The future Led Zeppelin singer was brought to jam with his band in what Anderson perceived as a potential replacement scenario.
During an interview featured on Classic Album Review, Anderson outlined how blues musician Alexis Korner introduced Plant to the band during a club performance. The Jethro Tull leader sensed an ulterior motive behind the introduction.
“He [Alexis Korner] brought Robert Plant along to some club date that we did in early 1968 and produced his protegé, and more or less insisted that Robert was allowed to come up and jam with us,” Anderson said.
“You know I remember at the time, ‘wait a minute, there’s something else going on here’, and I saw myself in the situation of being potentially replaced by Robert Plant in the early Jethro.”
Anderson chose not to participate in the jam session. Instead, he observed Plant’s performance from the sidelines.
“I didn’t join in. Robert got up and sang – I think he played some harmonica as well – he got up and did the standard blues thing that everybody could play, and straight away you knew this was a voice from another universe,” he continued.
“He had some qualities, not only in terms of his vocal ability but in terms of his charisma.”
Anderson acknowledged Plant’s exceptional talent. However, he noted that no formal approach was made to replace him, though he acknowledged the possibility remained.
“He obviously was someone who was going to do very very well, which Alexis had noticed and was nurturing, but it didn’t come to pass,” Anderson said.
“As far as I know, Alexis didn’t actually make any overture to the other guys to be Robert’s backing group, but it wouldn’t be inconceivable that he [Plant] might have made some noises to some of them.”
