An Irritating Icon: The singer whose voice got on Keith Richards’ nerves
Every musician has their own preferences when it comes to music taste and inspiration; Keith Richards, it has to be said, is more picky than most. The Rolling Stones guitarist has been very open about his preferences in the past, especially when he was honest about the singer whose voice he can’t stand for one reason or another.
A measure of Richards’ rock ‘n’ roll indifference can be found in the fact that he has slandered everyone from David Bowie to Black Sabbath and even his own frontman. While he adores the silken tones of Aretha Franklin, most other singers are firmly under threat.
Although it might come as a shock, the singer that Keith Richards doesn’t like is actually among legend status too. In fact, the vocalist that grinds his gears is none other than Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. A curious situation, to say the least, as so many people enjoy their music. The two even joined forces for a once-lost collaboration in 1974 titled ‘Scarlet’.
When asked about his opinion of the singer, though, Richards had this to say: “The guy’s voice started to get on my nerves. I don’t know why; maybe he’s a little too acrobatic.” Of course, this was long before the collaboration, in 1969, so it could be safe to assume that his opinions changed before 1974. Some years later, he even revisited the sentiments of the band, again moving the attention away from Plant: “To me, Led Zeppelin is Jimmy Page if you wanna cut the story short.”
However, this doesn’t mean you should get it too twisted. Keith Richards still isn’t the biggest fan of the band as a whole, with statements in 2004 confirming as much: “As a band, I felt aptly named, it never took off for me musically,” he once caustically opined.
Later adding: “At the same time, Jimmy Page is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever known. Bonham was a hell of a powerhouse drummer although I think he’s kind of heavy-handed, myself — that’s when the ‘Led’ comes in. At the same time, Plant was exuberant, Robert is exuberant [enough] to be an LV [lead vocalist] but he’s very much in that English mode of LV’s like Roger Daltrey, with the fringes, microphones blah blah like you’re Rod Stewart’s or even Mick Jagger’s — they all seem to copy each other a bit.”
This was clearly a mode that Richards had his doubts over, preferring the more laid back reggae style or the more emotive brand of soul, expressed by his favourites like Gregory Isaacs, Sam Cooke, and the legendary Mavis Staples.
And although some people grow kinder with time, it seems that Richards’ opinions have simply shifted targets, as his 2015 statements in an interview still held praise for Page, but not much beyond that in terms of the rest of Zeppelin, “I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler. He had cornered the market there.” Adding: “Jimmy is a brilliant player. But I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?”
If you want to check out the time that the pair teamed up, you can listen to the sultry ‘Scarlet’ down below. Hopefully, you’ll like the widely revered Robert Plant’s voice just a bit more than Keith Richards did at the time.