It might be hard for you to imagine Robert Plant having a hard time standing out in Led Zeppelin with his cashmere voice, unmatched showmanship, and precious golden locks. However, while chatting with Vulture, the Led Zeppelin legend admitted that there were times when he felt he couldn’t match his bandmates’ musical geniuses.
“Ironically, we go back to ‘Achilles Last Stand,’ which is probably what I’d first say,” Plant said when asked about the first song that came to his mind when he thought of John Bonham. “I could say ‘When the Levee Breaks.’ It was an absolutely stunning recording. John is playing such a sexy, ridiculously laid-back, and held-back groove; he bought us a lot of credits when sometimes we were the guys at the front of the band and behaving a little coquettish.”
He then continued by pointing out how ‘Achilles Last Stand’ was an instrumental heaven with Page, Jones, and Bonham showing off their musical geniuses. Plant recalled, “But I keep thinking of him playing on ‘Achilles Last Stand.’ You just needed to listen to what those three guys were doing in the studio. Listen to Jonesy with the eight-string Alembic bass. And Jimmy’s solo? It’s just really, really something.”
So, there were times in the studio when Plant felt insecure. The rocker admitted, “Sometimes I really just had to get some super glue and stick myself onto the tape somehow with a countermelody because it was relentless. There was almost no way in to write something and make it a vocal performance along with the incredible instrumentation. There was not really a great deal for me to do except what I ended up doing.”
Thus, even when Robert Plant has been viewed as the archetype of what a rock frontperson should be like with his unique showmanship and eccentric attitude, there were times he felt unconfident in the studio because his bandmates excelled in what they did. Page’s splendid guitar riffs, Jones’ unique bass lines, and Bonham’s thunder-like drumming sometimes made it hard for Plant to stand out as the vocalist.
