Robert Plant Reveals He Nearly Quit Led Zeppelin After The Death Of Son Karac In 1977
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
In a new interview with Classic Rock magazine, Robert Plant reveals he seriously contemplated turning his back on music after the death of son Karac in 1977.
“Am I right in saying that it almost didn’t happen?” Plant’s interviewer asks. “You were all set to go to the teacher training college at one point.”
“In 1977 we lost our son, Karac,” Plant replies, referring to his son’s death from stomach virus while Led Zeppelin was on tour in the US. “He was only five years old. I’d spent so much time trying to be a decent dad, but at the same time, I was really attracted to what I was doing in Zeppelin.”
“So when he bowed out,” Rob continues, “I just thought, ‘What’s it all worth? What’s that all about? Would it have been any different if I was there, if I’d been around?’ So I was thinking about the merit of my life at that time, and whether or not I needed to put a lot more into the reality of the people that I loved and cared for – my daughter and my family generally. So yeah, I was ready to jack it in, until Bonzo came along.”
He then shares that it was Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham, who himself struggled to balance the pressure of success with maintaining a family life, that convinced Plant to keep on going.
“He was very supportive at that time,” the vocalist reflects, “So I did go back [to Zeppelin] for one more flurry.”
A sad twist of fate, Zeppelin’s continuation would facilitate Bonham’s drinking, something which eventually led to his death in 1980.
Despite the tragedy of his bandmate’s death, Robert Plant describes his later solo career as a liberating experience.
“It’s really what it’s all about,” Plant enthuses. “You’ve got this thing inside you where you know there’s something around the corner that you’ve never heard before, but who’s going to pick the lock to get it out?”
“No matter what happens,” he offers, “I have no choice. There have been great variants of another me, but whenever I read a newspaper it seems I’m still in Led Zep.”
Robert Plant also recalls recently meeting Bob Dylan, a musical hero of his, to discuss a life spent on the road.
“‘Hey, man, you never stop!‘” Plant shares he told Dylan. “He looked at me, smiled and said, ‘What’s to stop for?’ But I couldn’t ask him about his songs, because as much as I’ve been affected by his work you can’t talk about it. My work is not anywhere near as profound in what it’s trying to do. At the same time, you can get to know the motive and circumstances behind a particular song, without it being Masters Of War.”
You can read the full interview here.
