Credit: Robert Plant
Sat 17 October 2026 11:50, UK
Robert Plant has opened up about the death of his five-year-old son, Karac, in 1977, remarking that he “didn’t need” Led Zeppelin after the tragedy.
Though the iconic band dissolved in 1980 after the death of their drummer, John Bonham, Plant seriously considered leaving the group three years earlier when his son died from a stomach virus while Plant was on tour in America.
Karac was the second oldest of Plant’s four children; his daughter Carmen is the eldest, and the star also has two younger sons, Logan and Jesse.
In a new interview with The Times, Plant recalled how the loss changed his perspective on the band, though he persisted through the pain in 1977: “Well, there was no map, no instructions to Led Zeppelin, and we just carried on.”
However, he continued, “I didn’t need the group after losing my boy. These musical romances are great when everything is great.”
Plant explained, “When things go left of centre, who wants to sit backstage for hours and hours with people you’ve been stuck with since 1968? You’re not playing cards, you’re not going to the movies, you’re just waiting. I was always looking to get away.”
Now, Plant enjoys a quiet life in the Worcestershire village of Shatterford. “Tuesday night is bingo night,” he explained happily.
The sense of fame doesn’t chase Plant around there, with the star remarking, “I’ve been a quasi big shot for so long that in Worcestershire nobody gives a fuck. The most they say is: ‘All right, Bob? Still doing a bit?’ ‘Well, I won five Grammys with Alison Krauss…’ ‘What’s a Grammy?’”
Though Led Zeppelin reunited once, in earnest, at a tribute event for Atlantic’s co-founder Ahmet Ertegun at the O2 in London in 2007, Plant is happy to leave the band in the past: “That was always my plan,” he revealed.
Plant is currently touring the United States with his new folk Americana band, Saving Grace, following on from their latest EP, Saving Grace: All That Glitters, released this October.
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