Although Robert Plant, the frontman of Led Zeppelin, earns the title “Golden God” of rock music and possesses an incredible vocal range, he transcends these qualities.
In addition to leading one of the greatest bands of all time, he is also one of the most approachable rock stars around, having never lost the modesty of his upbringing in the West Midlands. His stories are captivating, delivered in the kind of way you might expect a seasoned bartender to do.
Even though everyone loves Plant as a musician and a person, his life hasn’t been easy. Among the saddest was the death of his closest friend, drummer John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, in 1980. However, the most devastating incident was the death of his five-year-old son Karac in 1977 as a result of a gastrointestinal ailment.
Robert Plant received the heartbreaking news while the band was infamously on tour in New Orleans. Naturally, the tour became canceled right away because he had to get home to spend time with his family. However, only one of Plant’s bandmates attended the funeral: bassist John Paul Jones and guitarist Jimmy Page were not present. Instead, it was just John Bonham.
In 2018, Plant reflected on his son’s passing in an interview with AXS TV. “Well, it wasn’t easy,” he reminisced, “especially considering the whole hysteria surrounding the mid to late seventies.” It was not at all suitable for a typical family setting.
“But we pulled tight and both my wife and I, we had strong families so… And good support, I mean, John Bonham from Zeppelin and his wife Pat. They were magnificent with us and helped us a lot,” the rock legend went on.
Following the news, Bonham, Plant’s personal assistant Dennis Sheehan. The band’s tour manager Richard Cole also flew with him to his home. Regarding Page and Jones’ absence from the funeral, Plant reportedly told Cole. According to Rolling Stone, “Maybe they don’t have as much respect for me as I do for them.” Perhaps they are not my friends after all.
Various theories explain Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones’ omissions from the burial. The most popular theory suggests that the guitarist was on a binge, and the bassist was on vacation, despite both musicians seeming extremely callous from every aspect. Cheatsheet said that Page was then cited as stating: “We were all mates. We had to give the man some space.”
Robert Plant, meanwhile, has made it apparent that he needed his buddies more than he required distance in his opinions on the subject. He reinforced his feelings about them not showing up to say goodbye to Karac in a 2005 interview with OnStage. He pointed out that there was a cultural divide between him and the two absent bandmates.
The other guys, he claimed, were from the South of England and lacked the kind of social graces that exist up here in the North, which is able to effectively bridge the awkward distance and all the sensitivities needed to soothe.
