Robert Plant Told Joe Elliott to Stop Warming Up His Voice

Robert Plant said he advised Joe Elliott against warming up his voice before concerts and admitted he doesn't do much pre-show preparation himself.

In a Los Angeles Times interview alongside collaborator Alison Krauss, the Led Zeppelin icon referred indirectly to his Def Leppard counterpart after being asked how he took care of his voice.

“I don’t. I just go out and sing,” Plant replied. “I know a guy from a famous band that Alison’s quite friendly with – he’s gonna pour some sugar on me or something – who creates a complete hullabaloo backstage. I was back there one time and he was making such a bloody noise. I said, ‘Why are you doing that?’ He said, ‘I’m warming up.’ I said, ‘Well, you won’t have anything left by the time you get there.’”

Responding to the observation that people’s voices change over time, Plant said, “I know that the full, open-throated falsetto that I was able to concoct in 1968 carried me through until I was tired of it. Then that sort of exaggerated personality of vocal performance morphed and went somewhere else.”

He went on to recall a concert in Iceland about three years ago. “It was Midsummer Night and there was a festival, and I got my band and I said, ‘OK, let’s do “Immigrant Song.”’ They’d never done it before," he said. "We just hit it, and bang – there it was. I thought, ‘Oh, I didn’t think I could still do that.’”

Unsurprisingly, Plant's comments led to the question of him reuniting with Zeppelin. “Going back to the font to get some kind of massive applause – it doesn’t really satisfy my need to be stimulated,” he said. “I know there are people from my generation who don’t want to stay home and so they go out and play. If they’re enjoying it and doing what they need to do to pass the days, then that’s their business, really.”