Robert Plant Calls Led Zeppelin ‘Trio With a Wedding Singer’
Robert Plant described Led Zeppelin as a “trio” with a “wedding singer” as he expressed his admiration for his colleagues’ work on the classic song “Achilles’ Last Stand.”
The song appeared on the band's 1976 album Presence. Plant recalled writing the lyrics after his serious car accident, when he and then-wife Maureen were both confined to wheelchairs.
“If you think about Led Zeppelin being a trio, really, with a kind of wedding singer stuck up the front,” Plant said in the latest edition of his Digging Deep podcast, “my enthusiasm was a good contribution but, in truth, those guys were amazing. … Even though Presence isn’t the most comfortable listen … the interplay and the melding of the musicality of those three guys on that track is insane.”
You can listen to the podcast here.
He recalled lying in a hotel room with a “bad leg and bad arm” and how his lyrics were a reaction to his desire to escape from his predicament. “‘Achilles’ Last Stand’ was an uncomfortable time … but in that, it was a disparate time,” he said. “I started writing about freedom and escape; the [desire] throughout the song is to be gone to a place which is a reward … and it was basically about the Atlas Mountains and going back to Morocco.”
Plant described his first trip to the North African country as “the most amazing experience I’ve ever had,” noting it had “cascaded more and more into beauty and absurdities.”
Returning to the aftermath of the crash, Plant recalled that "it was a hell of a time, because it was such an important time in life where you need to have everything operating. My wife and I, we had two kids. As a family we were completely torn asunder for a period of months. It was very difficult thing to get anywhere near back together again.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, he said he was preparing for another return to the mountains of Wales with his dog, and repeated his assertion that he had no plans to retire. Asked if might allow himself a break, he replied, “I’ll talk to the dog about it!”
Meanwhile, a video clip surfaced showing Plant performing the Zeppelin classic “Immigrant Song” for the first time since 1996 at the Secret Solstice festival in Iceland on June 23. The song was inspired by the band’s trip to the country in 1970.
You can watch the clip below.