Robert Plant\u00a0has long been celebrated as one of rock\u2019s most commanding voices, a figure synonymous with Led Zeppelin\u2019s mythic sweep and thunderous ambition. Yet beneath the golden god exterior lies a lifelong devotee of subtlety and songcraft, a listener drawn as much to hushed confessionals as to stadium-shaking anthems. Among the writers he reveres most sits a man whose power came not from volume, but from quiet precision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Prine was the songwriter\u2019s songwriter. Countless artists who have shaped modern music\u2019s trajectory have cited the country-folk singer as a critical influence, including the great Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dylan met Prine in Greenwich Village in the heyday of the folk revival and later dubbed his music as\u00a0\u201cpure Proustian existentialism\u201d.\u00a0Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant is also a huge Prine fan. Here he names his favourite track by the illustrious singer-songwriter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prine didn\u2019t possess Dylan\u2019s mythic sense of his own destiny. He didn\u2019t chase success either, rather, it crept up on him without his knowing. Prine started attending open-mic nights while still working as a mailman in Chicago. Though he wasn\u2019t confident enough to perform himself, he wasn\u2019t afraid to criticise fellow performers, one of whom eventually asked him if he thought he could do any better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That unassuming quality became central to his appeal. While others framed themselves as torchbearers of a movement, Prine seemed content to simply observe, scribbling down life as he found it. The absence of grand ambition in his demeanour only sharpened the emotional clarity of his songs, allowing listeners to discover profundity in the everyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hesitantly, Prine got to the stage and demonstrated that he could, in fact, do a lot better. In those early days, he was modest, almost to a fault. Recalling his early songs, he said: \u201cSome were so different that I hesitated to sing them for anybody because I thought I hadn\u2019t heard anything like this before. And I thought, \u2018Is it because it\u2019s really good, or is it because it\u2019s so awful?’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Robert Plant, the answer to that question was obvious. In 2019, the singer inducted Prine into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame via a video message. Paying tribute to Prine, he said: \u201cYour work is extraordinary. It\u2019s a vast enduring treasury, a beacon of light in these ever-weirder times. Sometimes it seems like you\u2019re writing for all of us, which in fact, you probably are. But today, I feel like you wrote this one just for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n