Born
20 August 1948
Homes
- He was born in the Black Country town of West Bromwich, Staffordshire, however he grew up in Kidderminster, Worcestershire
Family
- His father was Robert C. Plant, a qualified civil engineer who worked in the Royal Air Force during the war
- His mother was Annie Celia Plant (née Cain)
- He had one sibling, a sister called Allison
School
He left King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys in Stourbridge in his mid-teens.
Singing And Music
He was interested in singing and music at an early age, saying,
"When I was a kid I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas and I used to try and be Elvis. There was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows, there was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. That was all the ambience I got at ten years old... I think! And I always wanted to be a curtain, a bit similar to that."
He developed a strong passion for the blues, mainly through his admiration for blues musicians like Willie Dixon, Bukka White, Skip James, Jerry Miller, Sleepy John Estes and Robert Johnson.
"I suppose I was quite interested in my stamp collection and Romano-British history. I was a little grammar school boy and I could hear this kind of calling through the airwaves."
He abandoned training as a chartered accountant after only two weeks to attend college in an effort to gain more GCE passes (General Certificates of Education) but also so he had time to become part of the English Midlands blues music scene.
"I left home at 16 and I started my real education musically, moving from group to group, furthering my knowledge of the blues and of other music which had weight and was worth listening to"
Plant had various jobs while pursuing his music career, one of which was laying tarmac on roads when he worked for a construction company in Birmingham in 1967. He also worked at Woolworth's in Halesowen town for a short period of time.
He sang with a variety of bands, including the Crawling King Snakes, which was where he met drummer John Bonham. They both went on to play in the Band of Joy, which led to him recommending Bonham as a drummer to Jimmy Page when he asked him to join Led Zeppelin.
Marriage
Plant married Maureen Wilson in November 1968, at 20 years old, and his first child, Carmen Jane, was born the same year.
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Picture: (Top) Robert Plant, his grandfather and his two children Karac and Carmen (Middle) Robert Plant as a baby with his parents (Bottom) Robert Plant with his parents
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A Book Of Led Zeppelin
Non-FictionLed Zeppelin. Arguably the greatest band of all time. In my opinion, anyway, hence 'arguably'. They hold the record for the highest number of records sold worldwide (200 million) and also the largest crowd at a concert for a single act (over 56,000)...
