Robert Plant has revealed why he declined an invite to Black Sabbath‘s farewell gig.
In a new interview with Mojo magazine, the former Led Zeppelin frontman says that he received an invitation to the Back To The Beginning show in Birmingham from his old friend Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath’s guitarist, although Plant doesn’t specify whether he was invited to perform, or merely to attend the spectacular star-studded event.
“I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come,” Plant tells writer Keith Cameron. “I just can’t. I’m not saying that I’d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N’Dour, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world now, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.”
In reference to his current band Saving Grace’s ambitions and motivations, versus the high profile spotlight which surrounds Led Zeppelin activities, Plant says, “For me, because I’ve been from a very questionable Live Aid to the O2, to Obama and the White House and all those things, I was beatified. I felt the tug of doing this – Saving Grace needed just to move on up in glory, as Mavis [Staples] would say. We’ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose.”
“The gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it’s not the end of the world. And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it’s called – suicidal! – attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free. We could mess about.”
Plant’s Saving Grace feat. Suzi Dian have released the second single from their upcoming, self-titled debut album. Gospel Plough is a version of an African American spiritual first recorded as Keep Yo’ Hand on the Plow, Hold On by the Hall Johnson Negro Choir in 1930, and subsequently covered by Duke Ellington, Mahalia Jackson and others.
Plant and Dian are joined in Saving Grace by drummer Oli Jefferson, guitarist Tony Kelsey, banjo and string player Matt Worley and cellist Barney Morse-Brown.
“It’s an impressive collection of people now,” says Plant. “I can’t tell you how lucky I feel about this. What I am really impressed by is this living, new world of whatever this music is. With this mélange of music, song and voice, anywhere and everywhere is the way to see the road ahead.”
Saving Grace is released on September 26 and can be pre-ordered now.
The life and legacy of late, legendary Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne is celebrated in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine.
Get it here.
