Playboy.com: After nine years without a solo record, you come back with a tribute album. These songs must be pretty important to you.
Robert Plant: They've been like guardian angels along my journey, no matter what's happened, no matter which ways things have gone musically. I went through punk, psychobilly, return of the swing era, new romantics, Seattle, the British blues boom and heavy metal. Then there was glam rock and there were the big hair bands, and all the time these songs were consistent, never ever changing in intensity to me.
When I finished working with Jimmy Page, I thought, "I think I've probably done as much as I wanna do now." And then I started messing around and playing with a band way out in the middle of nowhere. And these were the songs that I played, and I got so much enjoyment out of them. The idea of actually going out and trying to write songs in this idiom would have been difficult straight away. But as we started to record, then we started to develop original material, and that really is the keystone. These songs opened my sensory areas up again. It's cool.
PB: Was there a lot of original material left off the album?
RP: Yeah, there are about three more songs. But enough's enough. I didn't wanna make an album that just went on and on indefinitely. The thing about Dreamland is that it's crisp. It doesn't go on too long. There's nothing superfluous or chucked in there just to make it look dutiful.
PB: From what I understand, you haven't been doing a lot of songwriting lately.
RP: Well, I haven't been, but I am now. I'm doodling.
PB: Does it come in waves?
RP: Well, with the U.S. Open, French Open and Wimbledon, it's been rather difficult to write -- just lately. How sad is that?
PB: If you play Dreamland backwards can you hear anything?
RP: Yeah, it says, "Forty Love."
PB: How did the decision to sell Zep's Rock and Roll for a Cadillac ad come about?
