There’s no denying that “Stairway to Heaven” has major Hobbit vibes, but Robert Plant’s Led Zeppelin bandmates never realized that J.R.R. Tolkien had inspired some of his song lyrics.
“Tolkien opened the door to all that sort of dark age meanderer of history,” Plant, 77, said during his Tuesday, November 4, appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
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When Stephen Colbert pointed out that there are “some Tolkien in lyrics of Zep songs” and Plant agreed, Colbert wondered if Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones ever “picked up” on the references.
“It didn’t exist at the time,” Plant explained. “Tolkien had his moment, but I guess The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings had subsided.”
Both Plant and Tolkien grew up in an area of England known as the Midlands. Tolkien spent much of his childhood in Birmingham, especially in the areas of Sarehole (now Hall Green) and Edgbaston, while Plant was raised in nearby Halesowen and Kidderminster, also within the West Midlands.
The legendary rocker added that Tolkien’s work “spoke to him” because of their similar upbringings.
“[Tolkien’s work] spoke to me because the points of reference were very close to where I live, and very close to where my parents unwittingly used to take me through this landscape where you began, just like you can here from another culture that’s still around, you can read what the landscape gave you from the old times before there were highways and stuff like that,” Plant continued.
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He went on to explain that Tolkien understood the unique cultural undercurrent of the region, a part of Britain shaped more by ancient Welsh and British roots than by English identity. Plant said you can still “feel it all” in the land itself, the same sense of history and mysticism that inspired both his lyrics and Tolkien’s worlds.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Nov 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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