Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press

“I was desperately trying to write songs and move away from [a] previous musical place” Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant shares in a new episode of podcast Digging Deep.

“At the end of 1980 I had no place to go” he continues. “Led Zeppelin was over. [John Bonham] was gone. So I formed a group called the Honeydrippers and we used to play shows in clubs around England for no money.”

For these performances, Plant insisted he not be billed. If his name was mentioned alongside that of the Honeydrippers, he refused to go onstage.

“We’d gotten to the point where you can only add so many Gene Vincent songs,” he then adds. “I thought ‘I really want to know or not whether we can make a big sound, that sounds big without it being really, really heavy and tough.’ So I pulled [another] group together.”

“We started writing songs and they rolled out in a haphazard way,” Plant recalls. “It was really interesting because it was the first time ever I’d been away from the creche of Zeppelin. I didn’t realize just how much patience and concertation you really need in a studio to get people to perform, to give you something really, really important.”

When asked to clarify by his co-host Plant put it this way: “Zeppelin seemed to roll out this magical way, quite often we recoded in locations with a mobile studio truck. So we might play the beginning of one song – like ‘Trampled Under Foot’ from Physical Graffiti – and it became something, that was it. It was open all hours, the studio was there. The mics were up and the engineer was always there.”

Recording in 1980 was a different matter.

“Being in the confines of a studio where an engineer who has to go home,” he reflects, “it was a real new twist. I had to bluff my way through studio etiquette. After all those years in Zeppelin I never really went behind the [mixing] desk at all, expect to push the vocal effects on the Zeppelin tracks… I had to distance myself and learn at the same time of all different approaches.”

Plant did, however, have some assistance.

“I was helped by Phil Collins,” he shares. “He was on [Zeppelin label] Atlantic Records and he came along and said ‘John Bonham was probably the most important influence on my life. I’ll sit in that stool for you.’”

“On both Pictures at Eleven and Principal of Moments, he was an absolute restrained powerhouse,” Plant beams, “with enthusiasm and unending energy. And lots of humor. Then he came on tour with us!”

Collins toured with Plant for a month as his own solo single ‘In The Air Tonight’ was becoming a massive commercial success.

Being the 1980s, Collins, of course, was substituted by an 808 drum machine when it came to recording Plant’s most well know post-Led Zeppelin track, ‘Big Log’.

“I thought this was so s***e, this sound,” Plant jokes, “but somehow, if you play with it – of course I was into 4AD and the Stuff that was going on with the Jesus and Mary Chain… So, we powered up the 808 and Robby Blunt with his amazing elegance on the guitar started playing this melody line and ‘Big Log’ was born.”

You can listen to the podcast in its entirety here.