We often don’t think of the natural tragedies that happen to famous musicians and artists. Yet, at heart, they are ordinary people, and, as such, there are victims of the slings and arrows of fortune too. With that, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant suffered a significant loss in the late 1970s.
“In 1977, we lost our son, Karac,” Plant once said. “He was only five years old. I’d spent so much time trying to be a decent dad, but at the same time, I was really attracted to what I was doing in Zeppelin”. Karac had died of a stomach virus when Zeppelin had been on tour in America.
Plant added: “So when he bowed out, I just thought: ‘What’s it all worth? What’s that all about? Would it have been any different if I was there, if I’d been around?’ So I was thinking about the merit of my life at that time and whether or not I needed to put a lot more into the reality of the people that I loved and cared for – my daughter and my family generally. So yeah, I was ready to jack it in until Bonzo came along.”
Unsurprisingly, Plant had felt an enormous sense of guilt around the fact that he had not been around to help his family during the tragic loss of their son. It appears that he was willing to stop all proceeds with Zeppelin and instead turn to a more family-oriented pastoral life. Yet John Bonham aided in Plant’s grief.
“He had a six-door Mercedes limousine, and it came with a chauffeur driver’s hat,” Plant said. “We lived five or six miles apart, not far from here, and sometimes we’d go out for a drink. He’d put the chauffeur driver’s hat on, and I’d sit in the back of this stretch Mercedes, and we’d go out on the lash. Then he’d put his hat back on and drive me home.”
He added, “Of course, he’d be three sheets to the wind, and we’d go past cops, and they’d go: ‘There’s another poor fucker working for the rich!’ But he was very supportive at that time, with his wife and the kids. So I did go back [to Zeppelin] for one more flurry.”
Fortunately, Plant’s drummer and close friend was on hand to help him come to terms with his tragic loss, perhaps showing him that despite his son’s death, he could not merely withdraw from music, work and society and the best way to continue with life was to provide the entertainment for so many other members of the public that had no doubt experienced their own losses and tragedies.
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