Bibek Acharya
Dreaming of a life of rock and roll rapture is all well and good, but sometimes it is easy to forget about the fact that real life still goes on around you. It’s worth always remembering that between the heights of the recording studio, the stage, and all the hedonism that comes in between, even the biggest rock stars can have tough calls to make. Despite the stratospheric fame Led Zeppelin went on to taste, Robert Plant was no stranger to that conundrum.
Indeed, back in the days when the wheels of the band were just gearing into motion, Plant was dealt arguably one of his toughest sets of cards to play in the form of choosing between his girlfriend or a life of rock and roll romance. Of course, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which path he decided to go down.
But nevertheless, as cold as it may have made him seem, Plant knew deep down that it was the choice that would propel the trajectory of the rest of his life, despite the pain it caused at the time. After years of hard graft and no avail, when Jimmy Page came knocking at his door offering to change his life, the offer was simply too good to refuse.
However, this is not to say that the painstaking decision between quiet love and the world stage was an easy or flippant one for Plant to make. The ultimatum from his girlfriend to choose between her or music evidently stayed with him for some time afterwards, and it eventually came to the surface on Led Zeppelin’s 1975 sixth studio record Physical Graffiti and the song ‘Ten Years Gone’, in which Plant reflected on the relationship that he had to let slip through his fingers.
He explained this in an interview at the time by saying: “Let me tell you a little story behind the song ‘Ten Years Gone’ on our new album. I was working my ass off before joining Zeppelin. A lady I really dearly loved said, ‘Right. It’s me or your fans’. Not that I had fans, but I said, ‘I can’t stop, I’ve got to keep going’.”
“She’s quite content these days, I imagine. She’s got a washing machine that works by itself and a little sports car,” Plant mused, before adding, “We wouldn’t have anything to say anymore. I could probably relate to her, but she couldn’t relate to me. I’d be smiling too much. Ten years gone, I’m afraid. Anyway, there’s a gamble for you.”
Whether he sounded truly remorseful or not, it’s clear that a life of mundane domesticity was not going to be the road Plant was set to take. They do say time is a healer, but when rock stars naturally choose to channel this pain through song, they are perhaps the one group of people who take some small modicum of pleasure from diving back into their pain to bring it to the world. Plant clearly knew that was the secret sauce to Led Zeppelin – and ultimately confirms that his decision was correct.
