{"id":70961,"date":"2025-08-15T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70961\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:36:09","slug":"robert-plant-explains-why-he-turned-down-black-sabbath-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70961\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Plant Explains Why He Turned Down Black Sabbath Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although a who\u2019s who of heavy metal turned out for Black Sabbath<\/a>\u2019s farewell\u00a0\u201cBack to the Beginning\u201d<\/a> concert, one notable absence was Robert Plant<\/a>. As it turns out, the Led Zeppelin<\/a> frontman received a personal invitation\u00a0from Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, but politely declined.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with MOJO<\/a>, Plant explained that he turned down the gig\u00a0because he has been out of the heavy music scene for so long. \u201cI said, Tony, I\u2019d love to come, but I can\u2019t come,\u201d he told the magazine. \u201cI just can\u2019t. I\u2019m not saying that I\u2019d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N\u2019Dour, but I don\u2019t know anything about what\u2019s going on in that world now, at all. I don\u2019t decry it, I\u2019ve got nothing against it. It\u2019s just I found these other places that are so rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get Robert Plant Tickets Here<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past several decades, Plant has shifted his focus to folk and roots music. In addition to releasing two albums with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, he has formed the groups Band of Joy, Sensational Space Shifters, and, most recently, Saving Grace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Video<\/p>\n

As Plant told MOJO, he currently feels unencumbered by expectations while playing with Saving Grace, which primarily focuses on reinterpretations of century-old music, and would like to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be very careful now that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose,\u201d he said. \u201cThe gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it\u2019s not the end of the world. And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it\u2019s called \u2013 suicidal! \u2013 attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free. We could mess about.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this end, Saving Grace\u2019s setlist doesn\u2019t include Zeppelin\u2019s greatest hits, a choice Plant made to keep that music as a distinct\u00a0moment in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can they be related to now, where do they fit? They fit as a sort of memoir,\u201d Plant said, adding that he doesn\u2019t actually dislike \u201cStairway to Heaven.\u201d \u201cI just don\u2019t like the idea of it. These iconic things \u2014 they\u2019re just what they are\u2026 to do it for the sake of it was never what Zeppelin was about.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, don\u2019t expect a surprise reunion from Zeppelin anytime soon. The band\u2019s surviving original members last played together in 2007.<\/p>\n

Plant and Saving Grace are set to release their debut album, Saving Grace, on September 26th. Pre-orders<\/a> are ongoing.\u00a0Thus far, we\u2019ve heard their reworkings of Low\u2019s \u201cEverybody\u2019s Song\u201d<\/a> and the traditional spiritual \u201cGospel Plough.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

They\u2019re also set to tour behind the album this fall. See the dates below, and get tickets here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robert Plant and Saving Grace 2025 Tour Dates:
10\/30 \u2013 Wheeling, WV @ Capitol Theatre Wheeling
11\/02 \u2013 Charlottesville, VA @ The Paramount Theater of Charlottesville
11\/03 \u2013 Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
11\/05 \u2013 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount
11\/06 \u2013 Boston, MA @ Boch Center Shubert Theatre
11\/08 \u2013 Port Chester, NY @ Capitol Theatre
11\/10 \u2013 Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
11\/12 \u2013 Chicago, IL @ The Vic
11\/13 \u2013 Chicago, IL @ Old Town School of Folk Music
11\/15 \u2013 Denver, CO @ Ellie Caulkins Opera House
11\/18 \u2013 Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre
11\/19 \u2013 Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
11\/21 \u2013 Oakland, CA @ The Fox
11\/22 \u2013 Los Angeles, CA @ United Theater on Broadway
11\/23 \u2013 Valley Center, CA @ Harrah\u2019s Resort SoCal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although a who\u2019s who of heavy metal turned out for Black Sabbath\u2019s farewell\u00a0\u201cBack to the Beginning\u201d concert, one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-70961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}