Robert Plant isn’t interested in being “a big deal any more”.
The former Led Zeppelin singer is currently making music with a group of acoustic performers called Saving Grace and he loves the lack of “stress” in their collaboration because the 77-year-old star is only interested in doing things that are “worth” it, regardless of the size of the project.
He told The Sun newspaper: “I can’t say I have the ambition to be a big deal any more.
“Because I’ve been in so many big deal situations…
“I’ve walked away from so many situations. At this time in my life, it has to be something really worth doing — I don’t just want to be hanging on.
“These are great people. I see Saving Grace as a beautiful, no stress, no bludgeoning thing. There were no big announcements when we started.”
The Whole Lotta Love hitmaker admitted being Led Zeppelin’s frontman was “a very precarious and sensitive place to be — and overwhelming.”
He added: “Ego played a part but it was so momentary. Mostly, it was fear of being in that position.
“If any of us four guys weren’t on it, where would we have been?
“There was nowhere to hide in those days and we didn’t have a support structure behind us.”
And Plant – who was joined in the band by Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham – recalled how difficult he found it when he first went solo after the band split in the wake of the drummer’s death in 1980.
He said: “It was such a head warp for me to imagine myself without the other three guys.”
He knew regardless of the musicians who appeared on his solo records “the critique would be, ‘Well, he’s not a Jimmy Page, is he?’”
With Saving Grace and singer Suzi Dian, Plant has been playing a reworked version of As I Roved Out, which includes the line: “The green, green grass/Trampled underfoot/Will rise and bloom again”.
The lyric “gives a nod” to Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti track Trampled Under Foot, and Plant admitted he has done similar “a few times over the years”.
He added: “Every time I sing that line, I smile. And I know Suzi hasn’t got a clue why I’m smiling.”
The legendary singer recently joined Paul Weller on Clive’s Song, a track on the former Jam frontman’s Find El Dorado album, and he enjoyed the unexpected collaboration.
He said: “I look to my peers and who do I find doing a similar thing, but with great resonance, great style and great chops? Mr Weller. I didn’t expect to ever be on one of his records, but I like him a lot. He’s a good guy and he doesn’t take any s***.”