Robert Plant has been one of the biggest names in music for decades, but he once considered leaving the industry to become a teacher. In 1977, Plant’s young son died, making him reexamine his career path. He said he wanted a less ego-driven career and thought he would make a good teacher. While he didn’t end up leaving Led Zeppelin behind, he said that he still finds the prospect of teaching appealing.
The musician’s son died in 1977
In 1977, Plant was on tour with Led Zeppelin when his five-year-old son, Karac, died of a stomach infection. He rushed home to be with his family during the painful period.
“Well, it wasn’t easy, especially in the light of the fact that there’s the whole hysteria that surrounded the mid to late seventies,” he said in an interview with Dan Rather on AXS TV. “It was anything but conducive to normal family life.”
He said that his family and bandmates helped him a great deal.
“We pulled tight together, 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.”
Robert Plant said he considered becoming a teacher
After Karac’s death, Plant began to reconsider his chosen career. The chaos and vanity of celebrity did not appeal to him.
“Our family had always been close to the Rudolf Steiner Waldorf education in the West Midlands and I just liked the way it all worked,” he told GQ in 2011. “Obviously, it’s not something that we, as a family, have been able to get over yet, having lost him. So I just thought there was something far more honest and wholesome about just digging in and putting the ego away in the closet. Because no matter what we say, entertainers are usually quite insecure, wobbly characters underneath, and maybe that bit of glory or that bit of expression or whatever it is compensates in some area.”
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While he didn’t end up making the career switch, he said he still thinks about teaching.
“I thought I should be rid of it. Yeah, I thought it was not a bad idea,” he said. “Sometimes I still feel like that. Alison Krauss’ boy, Sam, he goes to a Steiner school, a Waldorf school in Tennessee, and I’ve been with her a few times to pick him up from school — I must admit that the smell of carbolic soap, and the clamor of joy of kids, doesn’t hurt at all.”
Robert Plant shared what subject he would cover as a teacher
Plant explained that he would have used his position as a teacher to tell stories.
“It would be pretty general if it was young kids, but I’ve got five grandchildren, and they marvel at my madness,” he said. “I think I would just have told them great stories.”
He explained that he already does a lot of this in his day-to-day life.
“I can put people to sleep on a twelve-hour journey on a bus,” he said. “Talking about the Black Shield Irish walking two-by-two from Cardigan Bay to Hereford to ransack the cathedral — I can put Patty [Griffin] to sleep in seconds.”
