Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's rock 'n' roll excess: “A lot of it is incredible exaggeration”

Robert Plant has opened up about Led Zeppelin‘s reputation for rock ‘n’ roll excess.

The former frontman shared his thoughts on the latest episode of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.

When asked about the group’s reputation for “unbridled rock’n’roll hedonism”, he told Lauren Laverne: “The whole deal was sometimes very tough to be a part of. I think the intensity of what we were experiencing and the lack of structure was very difficult. We were flexing one way or the other and I found a lot of it quite tough.”

He continued: “I can’t get my head around it now, I’m so far away from [it]. You can read bits and pieces media-wise but it was so far removed from what it was. The best thing to do was imagine that a lot of it was an incredible exaggeration and most importantly we were able to go home and get new perspective and grow up.”

Led Zeppelin CREDIT: George De Sota/Redferns.

Meanwhile, Plant recently played down The Beatles and The Rolling Stones‘ long-running feud, which kicked off most recently when Paul McCartney branded the Stones “a blues cover band”.

“I don’t think there’s any fighting,” he told Rolling Stone. “They’ve known each other since 1963. They love each other desperately.”

As for resolving the feud, he said that McCartney “should just play bass with the Stones”.

In other Zeppelin news, former bassist John Paul Jones recently re-recorded the band’s 1971 version of ‘When The Levee Breaks’, with assistance from 17 musicians from around the world including Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, as well as husband-and-wife duo Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band.