Robert Plant - Unedited Interview From Florida, MTV 1995 (Page & Plant Tour)
Robert Plant - Unedited Interview From Florida, MTV 1995 (Page & Plant Tour)
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00:00So, we're talking about the tour, and I wanted to find out how long you've been in rehearsal,
00:08how long have you been having some time to kind of get this together?
00:13Well, from when I met Jimmy last October, no, a year last October, we talked about it
00:22and we got underway about March, so that's 11 months ago we started writing.
00:29And planning the whole thing out, and I guess with going to Morocco and filming with the
00:35Egyptians in London, the whole TV recording element to the whole thing took us through
00:43to about October last year, and it's just been a continuum, just constantly coming up
00:51with ideas and getting it together, but I guess the rehearsals all around to make this
00:56work in a live thing rather than a TV thing probably took about six or eight weeks.
01:02Really?
01:03Yeah.
01:04Okay.
01:05Well, you know, I mean, you do a bit, then you stop, you've got to do something else
01:06and do a bit and stop.
01:07What about being here in Pensacola, how long have you been here testing out, you know,
01:13the full show?
01:14Oh, two days.
01:15Really?
01:16Mm-hmm.
01:17And...
01:18I'm pretty jet-lagged.
01:19I had to stay in England, my soccer team were playing a very crucial match and...
01:20Who's that?
01:21Which team?
01:22They're called the Wolves.
01:23Okay.
01:24And they lost.
01:26So I came in after everybody else.
01:27Okay.
01:28Soccer's not that big here, except...
01:29Yes, it is.
01:30...Jerseys are big.
01:31I see everybody wearing them, but they don't know about the team they're wearing.
01:34Yeah, I think after America, the United States did so well in the World Cup, a lot of your
01:40players are now playing in the English League and looking good.
01:43Okay.
01:44It's great.
01:45It's big in the schools.
01:46Well, what about here in Pensacola?
01:47A lot of tours, big tours start off here in the States, in Pensacola.
01:53Why this town?
01:55Well, the facilities are so good and the hospitality, there's obviously, it's a tried-and-tested
02:02spawning ground for tours, really, and also for us English, it's such a relief to come
02:08here after being in all that rain and drizzle and crap that makes the English the kind of
02:13people that they are.
02:14Underneath, I've got some make-up on, I'm as red as a lobster from just walking around
02:20today, and that's not bad for February.
02:23But by and large, it's a good place to work, it's a good place to start, and no matter
02:28what the weather is anywhere else, it's pretty optimistic here.
02:33The other thing is about also deciding to start the tour in the States and not in Europe
02:38or somewhere else.
02:40What led to that decision?
02:42Optimism.
02:43Yeah, it's a happier place.
02:47There's much more of a kind of concentrated musical atmosphere in America, really.
02:54If you go from Austria to Hungary to France in a week, it's a real job, you know?
03:01I mean, Europe's pretty small, really, and when you start moving trucks around and getting
03:07on planes and dealing with all the national characteristics, it's such a pain in the butt.
03:11It's best to get underway and get it working first.
03:14What do you think, what do you look forward to most, and let me just say, were they able
03:19to kill that, I still hear that machine, the radio, and I hear that hum of that, whatever
03:28that machine is, I'm sorry, okay, we're still, okay.
03:36I had to start something.
03:39Just talking about when you mentioned optimism, what are you optimistic about for this tour?
03:45What are you looking forward to?
03:47Well, I've been working nonstop for about five years, and four years, Manic Nirvana,
03:55I guess, was when I really plunged headlong into touring.
03:59I really like touring, but the whole deal of this is it's quite experimental, and although
04:07we've come up to the first night, so there's a lot of nerves, and everything will be, on
04:12the first night will be a bit sort of stiff with nervousness, once we get underway, and
04:17the show loosens up, the exchange of music between the Egyptians and our band, if it's
04:27anything like what we had in rehearsals, it's unbelievable.
04:30It's so exciting.
04:31The Egyptian drummers are sending us kind of drumming rhythms and patterns and signals,
04:37which Jimmy and I and Michael and Charlie and Paul and everybody respond to, so soon,
04:44maybe in a week, when we've got it under control, it'll be really changing and fluctuating all
04:50the time, and that's all you can ever hope for in music, is not to be a prisoner of your
04:57own songs and your own tunes and your own success, and now we've branched out enough
05:03that we can make it really a very vivid experience, I think.
05:07Well, that's interesting, because from the Unleaded show, there was such diversity, and
05:13the songs were really changed up, so that they still had their original form, but just
05:19incredible how it went off on just different places.
05:24How is that going?
05:25Is it going to be similar on the tour, or is it going to be different?
05:27Similar and different.
05:28It depends on which songs are which.
05:30Obviously, we're doing a lot of different songs, and a lot of it won't be with the same
05:36attitude.
05:37There'll be interludes when it's the same or similar, and there'll be interludes when
05:41it's just straight electric, and we've got, obviously, loads of songs.
05:48A lot to choose from.
05:49Jimmy and I were talking earlier, and I asked him, you have such a large selection of songs,
05:55a large catalog of songs, from solo album stuff to Zeppelin stuff.
06:00How do you choose which songs go into the set list?
06:03I don't know.
06:06You don't even argue.
06:07I mean, I don't think there's any point in doing a lot of solo stuff, but it depends.
06:15We can use the Hurdy Gurdy and Nigel, and we can go into anything, just jam it.
06:20We've been doing some amazing Dylan stuff at rehearsals, really unusual American folk
06:27stuff, Woody Guthrie stuff.
06:29What Dylan songs?
06:31Pretty Peggy from the first album, or Freewheeling, and In My Time of Dying, which is a Blind
06:39Lemon Jefferson song.
06:41Lots of the stuff that was quite blues influenced from his very early stuff, but we just do
06:45it on one chord.
06:48That's really cool.
06:49It's quite exotic.
06:51Well, you also mentioned before, which I thought was interesting, because Jimmy had said something
06:57similar, that there's still a sense of nervousness, especially on opening night.
07:03At this stage in the game, do you really still get nervous?
07:06Oh, sure.
07:07Why do you think I do it?
07:09Part of the thing is that it frightened the hell out of me.
07:13There's so many things to remember, but the most important thing to remember is we want
07:19to have a lot of fun.
07:21I haven't worked with Jimmy for years and years, because he didn't want to bring back
07:30the past in its original form.
07:32Now that we've changed the form a bit, we can have some fun, once we've calmed down,
07:37once the nerves are out of the way.
07:39We've had so much.
07:42We've really gotten so much closer now, for some reason.
07:45I suppose I've been gone so long, my personality's changed, and his has too.
07:50Let's go say how so.
07:52I don't know.
07:53Time, yeah.
07:54Time does it.
07:56What about also the relationship you mentioned?
08:01What else has changed?
08:02You're going out on the road.
08:03It's been a long time since the two of you have been on the road together.
08:05What do you think, from backstage life to fan reception, what has changed, and what
08:10do you think is going to be...
08:11I don't know yet.
08:12I ain't got a clue.
08:13Right.
08:14I mean, backstage, there's a lot of people.
08:18In the old days, there wasn't.
08:20So, I mean, the atmosphere is really good, because everybody's...
08:25There's a buoyancy that's going on at different times, in different parts of the whole, you
08:30know, camp.
08:31It's a bit like a kind of caravan going across the desert, but we've got plenty of water.
08:36Well, when you say caravan, I just, from hearing about all the musicians that you're taking
08:41with you, and if you could tell me a little bit about some of the musicians that are coming
08:45with you that were a part of the No Quarter performance.
08:49Well, Hossam Ramsey is the drummer who basically was the fixer for everything.
08:56We tried working with different collections of musicians, and it was not until we found
09:03Hossam that we could get any semblance of seriousness out of working with Egyptians
09:09or Moroccans or whatever, because, you know, there's a kind of different work ethic.
09:15I mean, no matter who you are, if you go on a tour, you've got to be quite serious about
09:20getting it right.
09:22And I think if you play in clubs in London or Beirut or Cairo, and you just play from
09:28three o'clock in the morning until dawn, you can do anything and fiddle around, and the
09:33people come and go, and it's not really that serious.
09:36But this is, so you had to have some order had to be developed, and Hossam has found
09:43some amazing musicians who you saw on the TV already.
09:46Two of them couldn't come, so two guys came direct from Cairo who don't speak English
09:52and have never been here before or never been anywhere before, and they're brilliant.
09:56The one violin player is stunning.
09:59So that's what it is.
10:03We have to be very nice to Hossam.
10:04Well, is this going to be the first time in front of an American audience?
10:08I wonder how that's going to...
10:09Well, I think they've done, one or two of them have done university stuff, you know,
10:13like workshops and things for Middle Eastern music, and as we go along, there are one or
10:18two universities along the way who are going to, they're going to go to classes within
10:23the day.
10:24I'm curious to see the reaction if lighters start coming up and, you know, people, the
10:29audience, you know, the American response to rock shows sometimes is a little bit different.
10:36Yeah.
10:37Well, this isn't rock.
10:39I don't know what it is, but it never, Zeppelin, whatever we were, whatever we've done individually,
10:45it's not straight-ahead stuff anyway.
10:47Right.
10:48I wanted to talk about Second Harvest because I heard a little bit about the grouping, but
10:54I'm not really sure exactly how you guys got together and what Second Harvest is going
10:58to be, you know, doing on opening night for the fans.
11:03Well, what's it going to be doing?
11:06Basically, if it does nothing else, the whole idea of the charity or to develop an awareness
11:14of a charity which, whereby Americans look after their own, because Amnesty International
11:23and a lot of the major international charities, they're a bit, it gets a bit vague after a
11:30while because you don't really know what you're contributing to, but you do know that within
11:34your own community there are areas and there are people and groups of people who haven't
11:39had the opportunities to develop one way or another in a kind of worldly way to go out
11:49and play the game as we have to play it, or you have to play it or we have to play it.
11:54And so there are deprived peoples one way or another, and I think the idea of it being
12:02an awareness within America, within each area, within each township is pretty good,
12:07you know.
12:08I mean, it's a good thing for people to contribute for their locale, and I don't know whether
12:16or not the idea of bringing a tin of tomatoes is such a bright idea, but it's, if it does
12:22some good, then that's great.
12:24And there is a kind of, you know, I remember doing stuff in Chicago about five years ago
12:29when there was a Christmas for the children's hospital and everybody was bringing a toy,
12:34and it becomes very infectious because you see the thing growing and you know that you're
12:40involved in it and the kids feel good about it.
12:42So likewise, this should be very, very effective, and the response has been fantastic and it
12:49makes a lot of sense.
12:50Right.
12:51I also wanted to talk, too, about the Led Zeppelin tribute album.
12:56Who decided, or how did this project get underway, this idea?
13:01Well, you know, it's another one of them things, isn't it?
13:08It's like a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute album.
13:13I played on a tribute album myself last year for Arthur Alexander with Elvis Costello and
13:19Mark Knopfler, and Arthur Alexander was a great player from Baton Rouge.
13:29He recorded Muscle Shoals and did some, had some big hits.
13:32The Beatles had bigger hits with his songs than the Stones, and he died and his family
13:38were left in need, and so we all contributed to a tribute album.
13:43Well, this is a different situation.
13:45I guess it's, we've been around that long, and a lot of people have used our songs as
13:51encores or whatever, and that doesn't seem right either.
13:57I was lucky because I worked with Torrey Amos, and we did an amazing tune.
14:04We took an old Led Zeppelin song and we changed the key and we slowed it down, and myself
14:09and Michael and Charlie and Torrey just played in a room.
14:12I played guitar and sang, and it was really great, and also Duran Duran had done a great
14:18version of Thank You, and it's really quite amazing how Stone Temple Pilots' dancing days,
14:26it's so precise and so unlike what I would have expected them to have done.
14:31It's really good, and I think the Duran Duran thing is really good because it's kind of,
14:37the way that he sings it, Simon, is, it's a totally different way of singing it, and
14:43it works great.
14:44It's real good.
14:45Was it surprising to you when you heard it?
14:48That song, yeah, and dancing days, and Sheryl Crow's Jamaica's good, and yeah, I mean, there's
14:54some good things.
14:55It's a bit of a hoot, really.
14:56I was going to say, out of the lot of musicians that are on the tribute album, which track
15:05or tracks do you think sound similar to your vocal style?
15:11Oh, I don't know.
15:14None of them, really.
15:15I mean, I really like Blind Melon, and I think the way that they, what they've done is great,
15:20but I don't, I think some of the phrasing is the same, but obviously not the actual
15:24application.
15:27What I was surprised is I actually, some of the lyrics, I was like, that's it, you know,
15:32I think it brought a new, you know, kind of understanding to some of the songs.
15:35Hey, listen, I've seen the Led Zeppelin book of lyrics, and there's so much bullshit in
15:39there.
15:40I can't believe the lyrics.
15:41No wonder people think I need to go to a rest home.
15:45So they're not the same?
15:46No.
15:47They're miles out.
15:48Really?
15:49Terrible, yeah, because I didn't know what half of the lyrics were, so I got them printed
15:52out for me.
15:53I'd forgotten them, and I went, well, this ain't right, and it's terrible.
15:58I mean, the publishing companies who put these books out should really...
16:02I'm curious to know who does the transcription.
16:05I ain't got a clue.
16:07Some guy with cotton wool in his ears, I think.
16:10Right, okay.
16:11Before we, yeah, okay, before we wrap it up, I just wanted to touch on one other thing,
16:17and that was, as a performer, is this the ultimate experience for you, to be able to
16:24perform live, and be out on the road again, with your old bandmate?
16:31I'll let you know next week.
16:32I mean, I think it'll be great, and you see, any time that you sing, and you're happening,
16:42it's great.
16:43It doesn't matter whether you're playing to 50 people in a folk club, or 50,000 in a giant
16:48stadium.
16:49In fact, the bigger it gets sometimes, the more disruptive it gets from a real performance,
16:56vocally, because then you start twirling around and doing all that stuff, but it's a big thing
17:04for me.
17:05I love singing, yeah, and I'm really excited about this.
17:10I really hope it works real good, and I hope people get the plot, you know?
17:14I mean, we're not doing all the hits for the sake of all the hits, or anything like that.
17:18We're just doing what we always did, can fan people, you know?
17:24Okay, great.
17:26Cool.
17:27I appreciate it.
17:28That's funny.
17:29Bo Diddley said something similar, when I asked him about that, just going out.
17:32Oh, he was great, Bo, really cool.
17:36Really incredible.
17:37I'm sorry.
17:38Thank you very much.
17:39Okay.
17:40You're welcome.