ROBERT PLANT Talks About His Admiration For AHMET ERTEGUN

November 4, 2007

Scott Colothan of Gigwise.com reports: In an interview with the Scotsman, LED ZEPPELIN frontman Robert Plant has revealed his admiration for Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun — in whose memory of course the band are performing a tribute concert for this December.

Before LED ZEP were even signed to the imprint, Plant says he had a lot of respect for Ertegun, saying: "When Jimmy (Page) and Peter (Grant, ZEPPELIN's manager) came back from hawking our tracks around New York and announced we'd got a deal with Atlantic, I just fell on the floor crying."

He continued: "Ahmet was a genius who worked with the most amazing voices — Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack — but couldn't sing a note. He'd say to me 'Robert, why don't you not sing that bit?' If he liked something he'd say 'The thing about you, Robert, is your soul goes so deep.' No one taught me how to sing. Let's face it, I tried to steal from so many people. I wanted to be Steve Merrick, Terry Reid, Ov Wright, Otis Rush.

"So I owe Ahmet a lot. He would turn up at our shows with Henry Kissinger and the guy who owned most of Manhattan with lots of his nieces following behind. I got to know a few of them as the years went on. That's why we're doing this gig."

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