As the Led Zeppelin main-man turns 60, we bring you 10 things you didn't know about the tousle-haired pioneer of heavy metal...
Plant was the snake-hipped singer who helped make Led Zeppelin one of the biggest bands of the 70s. Latterly he's carved out an eclectic solo career, and teamed up with bluegrass fiddle player Alison Krauss to record a classic album of duets. He's done all of this without turning into a prima donna. How much do you know about the leather-lunged rock legend?
Plant in the 80s
#1: Rock's gain...
... is chartered accountancy's loss. Plant's father wanted him to train as an accountant, and after school he spent two weeks learning the way of the ledger before going back to college to get more GCSEs. Whether Plant learned enough to do his own taxes remains a mystery. He also worked at a branch of Woolworths before devoting himself to music full time.
More on Robert Plant
#2: Danish nobs
At a gig in the Danish capital Copenhagen in 1970, Led Zeppelin played under the name The Nobs. Why? They'd received a writ from aristocrat Frau Eva von Zeppelin, the granddaughter of Zeppelin inventor Frederick von Zeppelin, who was angry the band were bringing the good family name into disrepute. A meeting with the band was amicable enough, until the fuming frau saw the cover of the first album, which featured an image of the 1930s Zeppelin Hindenberg bursting into flames.
Plant lets rip
#3: Creative control
Though Plant sold his publishing rights to Led Zeppelin's recordings in the early 1980s, he still kept his share of creative control, meaning the other parties couldn't sell any music without his say-so. So, the 1993 film Dazed & Confused, named as it is after a Led Zep song, had to make do with a soundtrack heavy on Aerosmith, and a planned 20th anniversary release of the Zep's landmark song Stairway To Heaven never happened.
