Watch Robert Plant’s Surprise Soccer Party Appearance
Robert Plant made an unannounced appearance at the end-of-season party held by his hometown soccer team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, as they celebrated their promotion to the U.K.’s top-flight Premier League last night.
He sang the Led Zeppelin classic “Whole Lotta Love” and delivered the Wanderers' anthem “The Liquidator” with assistance from Rick Parfitt Jr., son of the late Status Quo guitarist. You can watch clips of the performance below.
Parfitt later tweeted that his band had enjoyed their “dream lineup” with their “musical hero.”
Plant is a vice president of the team known as the Wolves, and has been following them since childhood. “I was five when my dad took me down for the first time and [team captain] Billy Wright waved at me," Plant told the local newspaper, the Express & Star, in 2010. "Honest, he did. And that was it – I was hooked from that moment.”
Earlier this year, Plante admitted he used to fake throat problems so he could drop off Led Zeppelin tours and watch the Wolves play instead. “Leaving England when my team is doing amazingly well. … In all my years of watching this football team, I’m thinking, ‘Why am I on tour now?’” he said. “There were a few times with Led Zeppelin where I mysteriously got a bad throat a few hours before the match, and was able to return to watch them play … and miraculously repair by the next day!”
Plant continues to tour in support of his latest solo album, Carry Fire, with two U.K. dates later this month, followed by a run of North American dates starting on June 8.