Robert Plant Says No to Zeppelin, Yes to Folk Backstage at Grammy Awards

Posted on Feb 9th 2009 8:42AM by Steve Baltin
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You'd think Robert Plant's five Grammy wins with Alison Krauss -- including prestigious prizes of Record and Album of the Year -- would be enough to put Led Zeppelin on the back burner at least for one night. Well, you'd be wrong.

When the name of his former band was uttered during a post-show press conference, one reporter couldn't resist, prefacing a question with, "Speaking of Zeppelin ..." It prompted a quick, mocking scream of "No!" from the good-spirited Plant.

Still, he couldn't escape questions of a Zeppelin reunion tour. Firing back at the gray-haired scribe, Plant joked, "Look, I don't know how old you are, pal. You look a bit older than me. Try and do 'Communication Breakdown' with some tight jeans on."

While Led Zeppelin were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2005, the legendary band never won a statue for their work. But Plant doesn't hold grudges. "We threw some Grammys -- they weren't ours -- out of the window," he joked. "But it was a different time. The blokes who were turning us down and trying to bury us were running the 'Rolling Stone' magazine," he explained. "Saying that we were insignificant philanderers, and they couldn't have been more right. And now I'm as old as they were, and I don't like a lot of the s--- going on now."

See the full list of 2009 Grammy winners here.

Plant turned more serious when expressing his love for his new-found musical home of America. "The British approach when I was a kid was just try to be American. And also the greatest songs were American songs; the ones that turned me on were spectacular Black Americana," he said. "The thing about Alison is she's shown me so much of the America that I've never been exposed to." Plant continued, "There are so many songs in the air, there are thousands and thousands of beautiful songs. America needs to know what its songs are all about. It's okay playing the game, but underneath the game there's something very beautiful still."

Surprisingly, Plant's favorite award of the night neither of the prestigious prizes he scored, but instead the Grammy for Contemporary Folk Recording. "For me, it's great to be part of a movement that actually is healthy."