Robert Plant Reflects on His Recent Surprise Performance of ‘Stairway’

Robert Plant performed the Led Zeppelin classic "Stairway to Heaven" for the first time in 16 years at a charity event in October 2023.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Plant was asked what it felt like performing the song for the first time in over a decade and a half. Plant called the moment "cathartic" and that he "just blurted it out."

" ... It’s such an important song to me for where I was at the time and where I was with Jimmy and with John and Bonzo ... It was a trial by fire, but I felt better at the end than at the beginning," said Plant.

The iconic singer was asked if he'd be okay with that performance being the last time he'd ever sing "Stairway." Plant expressed he would be fine if that were the case. Interestingly, he didn't completely close the book on the track. However, showing his unique brand of humor, Plant did mention how long the song was and noted, "Who can remember all those words?"

The aforementioned "Stairway" performance took place at an event organized by Duran Duran's Andy Taylor. The event benefitted The Cancer Awareness Trust. In November 2022, Taylor shared he was battling stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer.

Guitarist Kenwyn House performed with Plant during this charity event. He told LedZepNews he was recruited for the event on October 15. This was due to Taylor injuring his hand, leaving the event needing another guitarist. The next day, House met with the other musicians performing at the event to rehearse. Not only did he find out he had to learn a bunch of songs for the event, this is when he learned one of those songs was "Stairway To Heaven."

So, what led to the inclusion of "Stairway" into the charity set? House revealed, "Someone bid a huge amount of money for him to sing this song ... That raised a six-figure sum for the charity, that one song."

Robert Plant’s post-Led Zeppelin career has been a wild series of adventures down different artistic and stylistic paths. The man does not rely on his history and he certainly doesn’t want to reproduce it.

Indeed, Plant has spent the past four decades exploring new sounds… and sometimes, some very old ones, often combining the past and present in surprising ways. It doesn’t always work, but you never feel like his albums are done on “cruise control.” There’s intent and vision behind every Robert Plant release. And give the man credit: he doesn’t just follow the money (hey,  imagine how much he could have gotten for a Led Zeppelin reunion tour). 

As he’s releasing his long-awaited second album with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, we decided to look back at his entire post-Zeppelin career, including his collaborations with Ms. Krauss, Jimmy Page, as well as a few others. You may not be familiar with every song on this list, so consider yourself lucky: now you can go on YouTube and find some gems that you hadn’t heard before from one of the greatest singers rock and roll has ever known.