Robert Plant is having a knee replacement operation.
Robert Plant is to undergo knee surgery
The 77-year-old rocker admitted years of performing on stage has taken a toll on his body and he is set to go under the knife to get one of his joints replaced because he can no longer play sport.
Explaining why he has been using a walking stick, he told The Sun newspaper: “Ooh! I’m having a knee replacement next week.
“It’s all the years of standing on stages. Well, either that or the tennis, which I can’t play any more.”
The Led Zeppelin frontman also paid tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne following his death in July at the age of 76 and praised the Black Sabbath singer for the “world of craziness” he created.
He said: “I loved him. I thought it was great the way he took the seriousness out of everything, conjuring up a world of craziness for us all.”
However, Plant admitted their paths had rarely crossed over the years but he still remembers their last encounter, despite it being decades ago.
He recalled: “The last time I saw him was probably about 1970 or ’71. I had a Ford drop-sided pickup truck that I rescued from some brambles for nine quid.
“I took the whole thing to pieces and was working away underneath on one of those wooden boards, messing about.
“I looked out and could see a pair of cowboy boots with leather fringes. So I scuttled out and there was Ozzy.
“[He said, ‘What you doing under there? She’ll be much better off if somebody else does it!’ “
The Whole Lotta Love hitmaker recently explained why he turned down Tony Iommi’s invitation to be part of Black Sabbath’s farewell concert in Birmingham, which took place just weeks before Ozzy died.
Plant admitted he isn’t as keen to play huge stadiums any more and prefers the “rich” intimate spaces he’s been performing at with Saving Grace.
He told Mojo: “I said, Tony, I’d love to come, but I can’t come.
“I just can’t. I’m not saying that I’d rather hang out with Peter Gabriel or Youssou N’Dour, but I don’t know anything about what’s going on in that world immediately, at all. I don’t decry it, I’ve got nothing against it. It’s just I found these other places that are so rich.
“For me, because I’ve been from a very questionable Live Aid to the O2, to Obama and the White House and all those things, I was beatified.
“I felt the tug of doing this – Saving Grace needed just to move on up in glory, as Mavis (Staples) would say. We’ve got to be very careful immediately that we make sure it stays closer to Bert Jansch than Axl Rose.
“The gigs are small enough so that if nobody wants to go, it’s not the end of the world. And so, by having that laissez-faire, easy-going, whatever it’s called – suicidal! – attitude, instead of doing the football stadium with some old mates, there it was: we were free. We could mess about.”
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