As far as Led Zeppelin’s millions of devoted fans are concerned, the legendary band wouldn’t have been the same without iconic frontman Robert Plant. But as the rock star recalled in a recent interview, the gig was actually offered to another singer first.
In a clip shared to TikTok from Plant’s appearance on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks of My Years with Vernon Kay, the 77-year-old singer opened up about how he was asked to join Led Zeppelin by Jimmy Page, joking that a lack of competition might have helped his odds.
“I think they just hadn’t seen anybody else that week, because I don’t think there was very much there,” he quipped.
“When you’re singing stock tunes, you’re not expressing yourself as you might do later,” continued Plant, who was singing covers with a band named Hobbstweedle when Page first saw him perform. “You know, you’re just in it, and you’re singing somebody else’s songs in a room with 20 people watching, and you’ve got those heavyweights turning up.”
As Plant explained, the late singer Terry Reid — nicknamed “Superlungs” — was offered the position of Led Zeppelin frontman first, but turned it down.
“Terry Reid and I, we’re in separate groups, and we traveled through the same circuits and we became really good friends,” Plant said. “He was just the most sensational singer. He was invited to join Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in this perception of a group, the potential of which could have been phenomenal. And he had got his own career going with Mickie Most at the time. And ironically, it was funny really, because I was sitting in his kitchen, with him and his mum and dad when this stuff was going on, and he said ‘No, I’ve got this other thing.’ And so he recommended this guy from the Black Country, who was me.”
Commenters loved hearing Plant’s version of the tale.
“Brilliant story by a brilliant man,” one person raved, with a second adding, “What a gentleman Robert Plant is.”
“The greatest voice in rock, ever,” declared someone else.
Robert Plant auditioned for Led Zeppelin singing a ’50s folk song
While Page was interested in hiring Plant for Led Zeppelin after seeing him perform Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” with Hobbstweedle, it was when the latter sang Page’s own version of the folk song “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” that the deal was sealed.
“When I auditioned him and heard him sing, I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality-wise or that he had to be impossible to work with, because I just could not understand why, after he told me he’d been singing for a few years already, he hadn’t become a big name yet,” Page later said, per Far Out Magazine.
Of course, Plant would become a “big name” before long.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Sep 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
