Robert Plant shares the story behind his 1984 retro covers EP, “The Honeydrippers: Volume One”, on the latest episode of his podcast series Digging Deep.
“In the final episode of the first series,” teases the synopsis, “we discover what happened when Robert Plant got into the studio with a collection of legendary guitar gunslingers like Jeff Beck, Nile Rogers, Brian Setzer and his onetime bandmate Jimmy Page, and indulged his love of early ‘50s rock and roll and jump blues. We’re cookin’ now Daddio!”
Following the demise of Led Zeppelin in 1980, Plant went on to release two solo albums – 1982’s “Pictures At Eleven” and 1983’s “The Principle Of Moments” – by the time he hooked up for a night out with Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun and legendary producer Phil Spector.
“I remember one night I went out with [Ertegun] and Phil Spector in New York, and we were in a club somewhere,” explains Plant. “We decided it was time to sing the outros of famous vocal music from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. So we only sang the ends of the songs, and you can imagine how hysterical it would be.”
While enjoying the evening, Plant says Ertegun "kept saying to me, ‘Man, why don’t you stop all this weird s**t and just do some of those songs? … I can get anybody in the studio to play ‘em, why don’t you sing ‘em?’ So I did.”
Plant’s throwback record was a hit, reaching No. 5 on the US Billboard 200 on its way to sales of more than one million copies, with his take on the 1959 R&B classic, “Sea Of Love”, going on to become the biggest selling single of the rocker’s career.
Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters will begin a North American tour next month.
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Search Led Zeppelin at hennemusic
