Rock and roll has always thrived on near-misses and alternate realities—the kind of moments where the entire course of music history could’ve gone another way. One of the more surprising of these “what if” scenarios involves a young Robert Plant, years before he became the golden god of Led Zeppelin, eyeing up a position in The Who.
Rock fans love to think of their favorite bands as tight-knit brotherhoods, bonded by rebellion and shared musical mission. But beneath the leather and volume lies a truth far more chaotic: rivalries, egos, and tension have torn more than a few legendary bands apart. And The Who, known as much for their punch-ups as their power chords, were no exception.
By 1966, tensions in The Who had reached a boiling point. Internal friction—particularly centered around lead singer Roger Daltrey—was starting to take its toll. Known for his explosive personality, Daltrey had rubbed his bandmates the wrong way one too many times, and things came to a head when he flushed drummer Keith Moon’s pills down the toilet. The result? Daltrey was temporarily kicked out of the band.
This internal meltdown didn’t go unnoticed. A teenage Robert Plant, still years away from Zeppelin stardom, saw an opening—and he went for it.
Plant had been following The Who closely, catching them at multiple shows while Daltrey was notably absent. The band, struggling to fill the void, had Pete Townshend and John Entwistle covering vocals, but it wasn’t the same. Watching the group perform without their usual frontman, Plant decided to throw his name in the ring.
“[Plant] came to see us three nights in a row and offered himself for the job,” Townshend recalled years later. “As did Steve Gibbons when he came to see us and Roger wasn’t there. Obviously, none of them thought I was any good [at singing]!”
Despite the tempting offer from Plant, Townshend—ever the perfectionist and control freak—opted to stick with Daltrey. Familiar chaos, it seemed, was better than risking new instability. The decision would prove pivotal for both bands. Just two years later, Plant would front Led Zeppelin, a group that would go on to define rock for decades and eclipse nearly all of their peers in popularity and influence.
Interestingly, despite the early rivalry, Plant and Daltrey have remained on good terms. Speaking in a radio interview, Daltrey had nothing but admiration for the man who once eyed his role. “Robert’s got incredible courage,” he said. “People used to say he copied me because of the long curly hair, but that’s nonsense. Robert is his own man. I just wish I was as tall.”
As for Townshend, he’s never hidden his disdain for Led Zeppelin. Over the years, he’s thrown more than a few verbal jabs at the band, perhaps still bristling at the thought of what could have been—or what almost was.
In the end, the idea of Plant fronting The Who is just that—an idea. But for a brief moment in the mid-’60s, the future of two of rock’s most iconic bands hung in the balance, and a teenager from the Midlands nearly rewrote music history.
