Rambling on, with Robert Plant

During the latter stages of word-herding for Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music, UNC Press and I began contemplating how to package and present the book — cover, flap copy, author photo, bio, blurbs and such. It seemed like enlisting someone to contribute a brief “foreword” would be appropriate, as a tone-setting preamble.

We bounced around a lot of potential names for that, artists or writers who might be fitting and attainable, and one name that came up was Robert Plant. I remember laughing out loud at the suggestion. True, he was a part of Rounder Records’ mainstream peak, and he’s always been an interesting artist with real love for the freakier side of folk music.

Still, let’s be real. You’re telling me that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Robert Plant — Led Zeppelin’s golden-god frontman, Alison Krauss’ current duet partner and someone who has won a shelf-full of Grammy Awards and sold approximately a half-billion records — is going to write something for my modest little university-press book? Right. While we’re at it, let’s see if Michael Jordan wants to come over to shoot baskets sometime. Maybe Santa Claus will drop by, too.

Of course I kept all this to myself and said something to the effect of, “That would be wonderful, please make it so.” Meanwhile, there were pictures to run down and caption, words to edit, titles and covers to brainstorm, facts to check, permissions to obtain. All of that kept me plenty busy, and I never really regarded the prospect of a Robert Plant foreword as anything but the least likely of longshot daydreams.

Yet there were a few things working in our favor. Plant’s experiences with Rounder Records had been very good, and he was still friendly with the label founders. And you might not know this, but Plant is an impressively knowledgeable enthusiast for all kinds of roots music. When they weren’t swinging the hammer of the gods, Led Zeppelin had plenty of lighter, folksier moments.

Since the Rounders liked how the book turned out, they sent Plant the first-draft manuscript and encouraged him to contribute some manner of endorsement. They also did the same with Rounder’s franchise acts, Krauss and George Thorogood, plus longtime label executive/artist manager Danny Goldberg. I hit up Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers myself, and he was kind enough to agree. Blurbs from all four are on the back cover of the book, with others we didn’t have room for here. I am hugely grateful to each and every one of them.

As for Plant, I’d periodically hear encouraging words from his direction via the founders throughout the spring. Still, I could never allow myself to believe it would happen…until it did.

Plant wrote a few lines, droll and lovely, calling my book “a journal of great purpose” (which brought on tingles). When we asked if we could use it inside the book as a foreword, with his name on the cover, he astonished me by saying yes. I’ve been holding my breath ever since, hoping for all the i’s to get dotted and t’s crossed. It was an amazing feeling to get the final green light.

As far as online metadata is concerned, Plant is co-writer of my book — a fact that makes me giggle just a little. Of course we’ve never actually met except over the phone for a few interviews during my newspaper days. But I could not be more thrilled. Having his name on the cover of a book I wrote would be a bucket-list item, if the possibility had ever even occurred to me.

I mean, I’ve been buying the man’s records since I was a teenager, starting with Led Zeppelin III, acquired during my freshman year of high school way back in 1975. Not sure if I entirely got that album at age 14, but the side-two ballad “That’s the Way” remains a favorite then and now, probably my favorite Zeppelin song. Last time I reviewed Plant live, I even shot some video of that one (apologies if the paywall hangs you up).

Somehow a mere “Thank you” seems insufficient for this incredible act of generosity, but I offer it up to the fates with much gratitude. In my rich fantasy life, Robert Plant and I will get to do a reading together somewhere down the road.

Dream big!