Robert Plant has opened up on how Midlands artists were shaped by their influences.
The Led Zeppelin legend pointed to the likes of himself, Noddy Holder, Nick Drake and Davey Graham – who grew up in the UK’s Midlands – and how they took inspiration from those around them.
Speaking on his Digging Deep podcast, he said: “We’re all influenced – we have time to gather influences.
“When we were young, when I was 17 I cut my first record, came down to London and quaked when I walked into the recording studio.
“I was just playing, singing as a 17-year-old who’d listened to what I listened to. So, that became the blueprint or the way that I could actually make my way through the early parts of my singing.
“And as the influences grow, you change. So, later on, 20, 30, 40 years later, the contemporaries singers of the time can have a huge study bcause the availability later on of all these angles of beautiful music – which were kind of there in the 70s but they were underground, the facility wasn’t quite the same.
“There wasn’t that much access to all these other sources of inspiration, I don’t think.”
He explained that as much as location has an impact on a musician, so too does the moment in time that they’re creating their art.
He added: “I think eras have got a lot to do with it, periods of time.
“Maybe in a way, the mid to late 60s and early 70s were all about bluster and flurry from the baby boomers. But then, round the corner comes Nick Drake.”
Robert also discussed the importance of experience, as he admitted there is more room to embrace different styles – such as blues – when you’ve grown to appreciate it.
He said: “The fine art of subtelty and beauty wasn’t quite as easily recognisable when you were 17 sleeping at the back of a van.”