Robert Plant Names The Person Jimmy Page Wanted To Make Led Zeppelin’s Frontman Instead Of Him

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant looked back on the time when guitarist Jimmy Page considered another lead singer instead of him during a recent episode of ‘Digging Deep, The Robert Plant Podcast,’ and apparently, it was Terry Reid who turned down the offer.

After the disbandment of The Yardbirds, guitarist Jimmy Page wanted to form a new band named the New Yardbirds which eventually became the legendary Led Zeppelin. During his search for a lead vocalist, Page became interested in Terry Reid’s work and proposed him to take the frontman duties in his proposed new group.

Since he had already other projects with different bands on his plate, such as going on a tour with the Rolling Stones and Cream, Reid came up with an idea which suggested that Page should pay for the gig fees he would miss out on and would call Keith Richards to explain why Reid had to pull out of the US tours in order for him to try some things out with Page’s new band.

His suggestion wasn’t accepted and that’s when Terry Reid told Jimmy Page to consider having a young singer named Robert Plant who was a member of the Band of Joy through which Reid saw Plant perform since his band was a supporting act at one of his concerts.

Since turning down the offer coming from Jimmy Page must have been one of the biggest mistakes in his career considering the success of Led Zeppelin, Terry Reid is often asked about the matter and he sounds frustrated each time answering. During an interview with Observer in 2016, the iconic vocalist stated that there’s no point in talking about it since they managed to be successful and he rejected their offer.

According to Observer, Reid said:

“It’s a waste of time to talk about it. They did really well. End of story.”

During a recent episode of his podcast, Robert Plant opened up about the time when he first started working with Led Zeppelin as the band’s lead singer. Apparently, he overperformed when he first auditioned and jammed with other band members in order to prove himself and as the time passed he got the job thanks to Terry Reid’s rejection of Page’s offer.

During the podcast, Robert Plant revealed:

“I was really oversinging nonstop and Bonzo was overplaying like crazy trying to get a gig with anybody else and escape from me, to go anywhere at any time. So, there we are, and then time goes on and goodness knows what happens in between. Terry Reid turns down the job with Jimmy Page and we go on the road and stuff.”

You can listen to the whole podcast below.