Fame comes with its own traps. The spotlight brings success, but also pressure, judgment, and endless comparisons. Few bands knew that more than Led Zeppelin in their early years.
When the group stormed onto the scene with their debut album in 1969, they weren’t just entering rock and roll — they were rewriting its rulebook. At a time when the greats of the 1960s already seemed untouchable — Mick Jagger commanding the Stones, Jimi Hendrix reshaping the guitar, and Jim Morrison embodying dangerous charisma — Robert Plant suddenly emerged as a new kind of frontman.
With his wild curls, striking looks, and soaring voice, Plant instantly became a figure of fascination. But his rise came with criticism. Some accused him of borrowing too heavily from Morrison, claiming that his stage movements and aura echoed The Doors’ enigmatic leader.
To Jimmy Page, those accusations were absurd. “How could he have done? They’re completely different,” the guitarist told NME in 1970. For Page, such comparisons reduced Plant to surface-level traits and ignored his true power as a performer.
“If you want to relate Robert to a sexual image, and a lot of people are doing that, he’s all those things one would associate with it,” Page explained. “He’s good looking (I’m not saying Jim isn’t), he’s got the virile image, he moves very well on stage and he looks right and he sings well — his whole thing is total sexual aggression.”
But beyond his appearance, Plant’s voice made him impossible to ignore. Page believed that no matter what he looked like, his vocal presence would have commanded the same awe. By contrast, he dismissed Morrison’s style entirely. “As far as I could see, the Morrison thing is just an embarrassment towards the audience,” Page said bluntly.
For Zeppelin fans and for Page himself, Plant was no imitator. He wasn’t a shadow of Morrison — he was the start of a new chapter in rock history.
