Robert Plant could never remember the words to ‘Stairway’

Related Artists: Led Zeppelin

We’ve all come a cropper when faced with some difficult-to-remember lyrics – after all, why are we at Lyricfinder here if not to help you in a forgetful moment? – but it can sometimes be shocking when an artist admits that even they have problems with the lyrics they penned themselves.

Colour us surprised, then, that the lead singer of 70s rockers Led Zeppelin – that’s Mr Robert Plant, to you and me – admitted in a recent interview that he had to recruit the band’s manager, Peter Grant, to help him recall the right words.

Speaking to The Project in a YouTube interview, Plant said that the worst problems he had were with Led Zep’s biggest hit, 1971 classic “Stairway To Heaven”.

He explained: “I know it’s a long song and I also know that I had a little bit of trouble remembering lyrics, back in ’72, ’73. Our manager, who was quite a formidable personality… he’d come to the front of the stage in the middle of it all and he’d have the lyrics, like that Bob Dylan thing (in his video for ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’).

“Anyway, it was very funny. I can’t remember what verse goes where. I know there’s something about ‘bustle in the hedgerow’ and then all that stuff.”

Plenty of diehard Led Zeppelin fans would be able to fill in, I’m sure. Even in the tricky bit after “And as we wind on down the road”…

But Plant didn’t stop there. He added that he found the “conjecture around that song” to be “hysterical” and that he had no idea that the song would be as big as it were.

For now, the Led Zep frontman continues to tour in support of his latest solo album, Carry Fire. Hopefully he can still remember their songs’ lyrics…