Editing Robert Plant (section)

==Early life and musical beginnings==
Robert Anthony Plant was born on 20 August 1948, in the [[Black Country]] town of [[West Bromwich]], Staffordshire<!--Pre-1974-->, England, to Robert C. Plant, a qualified civil engineer who worked in the [[Royal Air Force]] during the Second World War,<ref name=RoughGuide>{{cite book |last=Williamson |first=Nigel |title=The Rough Guide to Led Zeppelin |year=2007 |publisher=Rough Guides Limited |location=London |isbn=978-1-84353-841-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoledz0000will |url-access=registration}}</ref> and Annie Celia Plant (née Cain), a [[Romanichal|Romani]] woman.<ref name=":4">{{cite web |url=http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062281388/robert-plant/web-sampler |title=Book Web Sampler: Robert Plant – Hardcover |author=World Archipelago|work=HarperCollins US|access-date=12 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Power|first=Martin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HmdCDQAAQBAJ|title=No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page|date=10 October 2016|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1-78323-536-0 |pages=65|quote="His mother Annie [...] coming from rare 'Romanichal' stock, a subgroup of the Romani people"}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Thompson|first=Dave|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-tCGDwAAQBAJ |title=Robert Plant: The Voice That Sailed the Zeppelin|date=1 September 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-61713-615-3 |quote="His mother, Annie Celia Cain, claimed a Romany bloodline."}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Heath|first=Chris|date=7 November 2011|title=Robert Plant: GQ Music Issue 2011: The Survivors |url=https://www.gq.com/story/robert-plant-gq-music-issue|access-date=6 October 2021|website=[[GQ]]}}</ref> He grew up in the [[Hayley Green, West Midlands|Hayley Green]] area of [[Halesowen]], Worcestershire.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=2. Early in the Morning (1948–1961) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ei3BQAAQBAJ&q=%22robert+plant%22+%22hayley+green%22&pg=PT30 |title=Robert Plant: The Voice That Sailed the Zeppelin |first=Dave |last=Thompson |date=1 September 2014 |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |isbn=9781617136146 |via=Google Books |access-date=1 May 2021}}</ref> Plant gained an interest in singing and [[rock and roll]] music at an early age; in an interview with [[Andrew Denton]] on the ''[[Denton (talk show)|Denton]]'' talk show in 1994, Plant stated his desire, as a ten-year-old, to be like [[Elvis Presley]]:<blockquote>When I was a kid I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas and I used to try and be Elvis. There was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows, there was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. which was all the ambience I got at ten years old ... And I always wanted to be ... a bit similar to that.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.laut.de/Jimmy-Page-Robert-Plant/Songs/Interview-210508 |website=laut.de |language=de |trans-title=Interview by Jimmy Page Robert Plant |title=Interview von Jimmy Page Robert Plant|access-date=30 August 2019}}</ref></blockquote>He left [[King Edward VI College, Stourbridge|King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys]] in [[Stourbridge]] in his mid-teens and developed a strong passion for the [[blues]], mainly through his admiration for [[Willie Dixon]], [[Robert Johnson]] and early renditions of songs in this genre.

{{blockquote|I suppose I was quite interested in my stamp collection and Romani-British history. I was a little grammar school boy, and I could hear this kind of calling through the airwaves.<ref name=BBC>Robert Plant: By Myself BBC Interview broadcast 6 Nov 2010</ref>}}

He abandoned training as a chartered accountant after only two weeks to attend college in an effort to gain more [[General Certificate of Education|GCE]] passes and to become part of the [[Midlands|English Midlands]] blues scene.<ref>''Led Zeppelin in Their Own Words'' compiled by Paul Kendall (1981), London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|0-86001-932-2}}, p. 14.</ref><ref>Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett (1997) ''Led Zeppelin: The Concert File'', London: Omnibus Press. {{ISBN|0-7119-5307-4}}, p. 10.</ref> "I left home at 16," he said, "and I started my real education musically, moving from group to group, furthering my knowledge of the blues and of other music which had weight and was worth listening to."<ref>Fortnam, Ian (2008). "Dazed & Confused", ''[[Classic Rock Magazine]]: Classic Rock Presents Led Zeppelin'', p. 38.{{full citation needed|date=July 2022}}</ref>

Plant's early blues influences included Johnson, [[Bukka White]], [[Skip James]], [[Jerry Miller]], and [[Sleepy John Estes]]. Plant had various jobs while pursuing his music career, one of which was working for the major British construction company [[George Wimpey|Wimpey]] in Birmingham in 1967, laying tarmac on roads. He also worked at [[Woolworths (United Kingdom)|Woolworths]] in [[Halesowen]] town for a short period of time. He cut three obscure singles on [[Columbia Records|CBS Records]]<ref>''Hammer of the Gods'', by Stephen Davis {{ISBN|1-57297-306-4}} (p.48-49)</ref> and sang with a variety of bands, including the Crawling King Snakes, which brought him into contact with drummer [[John Bonham]]. They both went on to play in the [[Band of Joy]], merging blues with newer psychedelic trends.