Robert Plant says his band The Sensational Space Shifters are like ‘brothers’ to him.
They worked together on his latest album Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar, which launched this month via Nonesuch Records.
And Plant reveals that while he was “inspired” working on 2010’s Band Of Joy, he was excited to get back to the UK to hook up with his group to work on the new record.
He tells CBS This Morning: “To be inspired is a wonderful thing and I spent time in Nashville and made a record with Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller. I was always doing covers, beautiful American pieces, songs I could never have written because they came from their vision of music. So to go back to the UK and actually create something really fresh and new was fantastic.
He continues: “I’m with these guys I’ve played with before I met Alison Krauss. I went back to Britain and teamed up with my old friends and there’s a great ethnic and musically intense combination of West Africa and British trance music.
“I’ve got a very powerful band, very humorous, very funny – they’re like a bunch of brothers.”
Plants reveals the lyrics for album track Turn It Up were inspired by visits to the Mississippi Delta and that hearing the blues for the first time in the 60s gave him “goosebumps.”
He adds: “I had spent a lot of time over the years visiting the Mississippi Delta. My heroes were the black singers from those days. They visited the UK in the mid-60s – the most amazing singers I ever saw.
“I had goosebumps and tears. Everything I saw from this area I wanted to visit. When I had time on my hands, I really started to try and feel what was coming out of the past.”
Plant previously said Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar could be his last and also urged Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page to write new material rather than concentrate on his past efforts.
The singer has lined up 13 live UK dates in November.
Tour dates
Nov 09: Newport Centre
Nov 10: Bournemouth O2 Academy
Nov 12: London Roundhouse
Nov 14: Hull City Hall
Nov 15: Glasgow O2 Academy
Nov 17: Leeds O2 Adademy
Nov 18: Newcastle O2 Academy
Nov 20: Cambridge Corn Exchange
Nov 21: Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Nov 23: Belfast Ulster Hall
Nov 24: Dublin Olympia
Nov 26: Blackpool Tower Ballroom
Nov 27: Llandudno Venue Cymru Arena
