Pheaturing Robert Plant

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? A Texas school district reversed its decision to place a teacher on administrative leave over Black Lives Matter, a pro-LGBTQ poster, and feminist posters displayed on the wall of her virtual classroom. Taylor Lifka, who’s an English teacher at the Roma High School in Roma, a Border Town of around 10,000 people, was placed on leave after parents complained about her posters. Speaking with NBC News, the 25-year-old said the experience of having national attention about her classroom has been overwhelming. She stated, “Our nation is in a really divisive state right now, and so when something like this comes out that a teacher is being placed on administrative leave because of parents’ concerns over teaching tolerance in the classroom, that’s a bigger question.” Roma Independent School District superintendent Carlos Guzman did release a statement, saying that the district “regrets that this matter has become a point of controversy.” He then said it was never the intention of the district to indicate the lack of support for the concepts of student safety and equality. Prior to her reinstatement, the Texas teacher stated this wasn’t the first time a parent was upset and it wasn’t the first time that a parent asked for their child not to be in a specific classroom. She added, “I’ve already told the administration that I do not envy their position. Your job sometimes might seem like a job where you need to please, and while this might be challenging, I think that sometimes we need to do the right thing even though it’s going to upset some people.” An online petition was started last week asking the Roma ISD to reverse its decision and reinstate the teacher. The petition asked people to sign a petition and let the school district know that inclusivity and acceptance “are not taboo ideas that deserve censorship.” It also noted that several high school students should be allowed to discuss the realities, such as concepts of equality, of the world instead of just being sheltered inside “a sanitized bubble.” It noted that the 25-year-old was trying to create a safe space for students and how the school was not being neutral and was taking a stance that is antithetical to justice. The petition was started by community members of a local LGBTQ rights group, South Texas Equality Project, and has had over 30,000 signatures the day after the district reversed course. Ms. Lifka didn’t note that it was not clear whether the petition played a role in getting her job back, but she was inspired by those who signed on and gave her full support. In her online profile for the Roma Independent School District, the teacher wrote that she fell in love with the border culture and the tight-knit community of the Rio Grande Valley back in 2017 when she worked there as a Teach for America member. The Texas teacher said she was told about her Administration leave being reversed through Zoom by school officials, noting, “They say I haven’t been punished, and that’s fine, but at the same time I’m a human being and this has been challenging. To think about re-entering the classroom tomorrow gives me a lot of pause, because I need a moment to collect myself. I need support from the administration, knowing I can re-enter the classroom, that we are all on the same page knowing what I can and cannot say to my students.”

A group of Coast Guard members enjoying a swim while out in the middle of the ocean after “completing operations” had their afternoon go from fun to frightening when an 8-foot shark crashed the party. Fortunately for the Coast Guard members who were out swimming in the ocean they are, you know, in the Coast Guard, which meant there were people who know a lot about open water safety and were armed to the teeth nearby to handle their hungry party crasher. And fortunately for us they filmed it and posted it to social media. Here's a screen shot...

This is certainly a pretty surreal sight for anyone to see, even if you’re used to working out on the open sea, but it seems reasonable to assume that these Coast Guard members weren’t exactly that rankled by all of this. You couldn’t possibly be safer from a shark unless you were literally on land. The nearby boat loaded with big huge guns helps. Plus everyone out there was probably a pretty good swimmer. They aren’t going to give Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky a run for their money but they can probably swim back to their boat faster than the average American floating around in the ocean, nine White Claws deep and halfway to a sunstroke. RIP to that unicorn float though.

With everything that’s been going on recently, communities coming together to support those within who are needing it, is more important now more than ever. And this neighborhood in Tustin, California, a community about 30 miles outside of Los Angeles, is making sure that they do care for those who make a significant impact on their residents. Ice cream man Jose Ortega drives his ice cream truck around for his close-knit Tustin neighbors. Everyone’s families get so excited with their money in hand, ready to satisfy their summer cravings with some cool and icy sweet treats. The community has a Friday afternoon tradition where the kids come out when Ortega comes through with his ice cream truck. The adults enjoy a happy hour while their kids are buying ice cream, and the whole event is followed by a barbecue that the neighbors take turns hosting. However, as Ortega was making his usual route around the Tustin cul-de-sac one day, the community noticed that he wasn’t making his usual rock-star entrance, since he was in the passenger seat of his ice cream truck this time with his son driving instead. Two weeks prior, the 44-year-old beloved ice cream man had suffered a heart attack, but had immediately returned to work because he, “didn’t want to disappoint the kids,” according to resident Michael Hatcher, who organized the fundraiser. When the Southern California neighborhood found out about his heart attack, they decided that it was their turn to help Ortega the way he has helped their community. They started a GoFundMe page to cover his medical bills. And within four days, 185 donors gave $10,474. And on Friday, August 21st, 2020, the community presented his with the check. In tears, Ortega replied, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” But it didn’t end there. Tustin Councilwoman Letitia Clark presented Ortega with a letter of commendation on behalf of the city saying, “You have made such an impact on people’s lives.” And she wasn’t wrong with how the community talked about their neighborhood ice cream man. According to the Orange County Register, “Parents credit Ortega with playing a big role in their bond.” Rob Johnson said, “Jose is a community builder. We all come out to our front yards whenever he appears. Our kids can hear him from a mile away.”

Well, this must be nice. It looks like Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is breaking records left and right. Yes, the world’s richest man has crossed a new milestone that will make us all jealous. The Amazon CEO became the first person to top $200 billion in net worth, according to Forbes’ real-time data on billionaires. Oh, to be on that list. We can dream, right? The 66-year-old owns 11 percent of Amazon stocks, which has skyrocketed amid the COVID-19 pandemic as people are at home, and demand for e-commerce and online shopping has soared, especially with Amazon Prime. In April 2020, his net worth was a mere $113 billion, according to Forbes. Amazon stock was up over 95 points, 2.85 percent, on Wednesday. Bezos’s net income comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken over the United States economy and highlights the diverging experience in the pandemic. As far as the second richest person, Bill Gates, he still lags billions of dollars behind Bezos. The Microsoft co-founder was worth $116.2 billion on Wednesday according to Forbes. Bezos, who founded Amazon in 1994, has broken several records with his wealth. Back in 2017 who became the richest person on the planet. And in case you were wondering, others notorious billionaires have also been getting wealthier during the coronavirus pandemic, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who is dubbed a “centibillionaire” after his wealth surpassed $100 billion. Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk is also on the list with a net worth of $96 billion. Although Amazon is Bezos’ biggest asset, it is not the only brand he oversees. Outside of the company, he also owns Blue Origin which is an aerospace company he founded in 2002, and the Washington Post newspaper in which he acquired in 2013. Surprisingly enough, Bezos’ fortune would actually be higher if had he not gone through one of the most expensive divorce settlements in history last year. When he split from his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, he agreed to give her 25 percent of Amazon shares, which is now worth $63 billion. Even after giving away $1.7 billion in charitable gifts earlier this year, Scott is currently the world’s 14 richest person and the second richest woman behind L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers.

The world is still reeling from the unexpected passing of Chadwick Boseman but there is hope from all the positive messages about the Black Panther star. Interestingly, even former U.S. president Barack Obama had an amazing story to tell about his encounter with Boseman. Obama took to his official Twitter account to share one of Boseman's old tweets that showed their meeting at the White House several years ago. The former president then shared a heartwarming tribute to the late actor. 

Although Boseman had shared the photo in 2016, it was actually taken a lot earlier. Obama noted that they were photographed when Boseman was still best known for his portrayal of baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the 2013 film 42. Needless to say, Obama's tribute to Boseman is truly heartwarming. Boseman was diagnosed by Stage III colon cancer in 2016, which is around the same time he first portrayed T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War. Sadly, he kept fighting for his life while working on more movies until his passing on August 28th. He was only 43-years-old.

Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this record...

It might be a good record actually. Well, it's that time of year again where you can get pumpkin flavored everything. Even this...

I hate the taste of pumpkin stuff. In many places, masks are mandatory, so you as well make it your own. There's a mask for every fashion and fandom, and there can also be a mask for every face. People order custom-made masks with photos of their face on them to try and achieve a realistic look. Try being the most important word.  

Here's another creative sign telling people to wear face masks...

Ever see those panhandlers with their cardboard signs. Some of them are very creative...

Hahahaha. So, did you see Melania's dress she wore at the RNC? Check it out...

Crazy, right? Hahaha. Did you know some birds have arms? No? Well, look at this pic of the penguin...

That's so stupid. That's just as stupid as...

By the way, today Robert Plant is on the Phile and on this date Led Zeppelin played in Orlando. Here's a poster for that show...

I want to say it was '71 or '73. Six bucks for a two hour show though. That's crazy. I know Foghat played at the Orlando Sports Stadium. I wonder where that was. I'm sure one of my readers will let me know. Okay, now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Things Said By Married People 

5. I accidentally used my husband's deodorant and now I can't stop saying helpful thins like "you're overreacting" and "calm down."

4. Marriage. Because you didn't know that you wanted to get rid of you your favorite recliner.

3. With everything canceled, it's a great time to bond with your husband, talk to him, laugh with hum, remind him of that ting he said five years ago.

2. Are you happily married or did your husband just take out twelve dishes to heat up a can of soup?

And the number one thing said by a married person was...

1. To err is human. To never let you forget that is spouse. 

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jefferson, shall we?

It's early so not a lot going on there. Okay, you know I live in Florida, right? Well, crazy stuff happens in this state. So, once again here is...

A Florida man is lucky to have any part of his arm at all after the hunter apparently became the hunted during an alligator hunt at Lake Jesup in Seminole County, Florida. The hunter in question, Carsten Kieffer, was part of a group that was attempting to bring a 12-foot gator close to their boat with harpoons after catching it on a snatch line. As the group attempted to pull the gator up into the boat the monstrous predator launched itself upward, bit down on Kieffer’s right arm, and started to roll. The man’s partners began attacking the gator after it grabbed hold of Kieffer’s arm and were able to eventually free their friend so they could get him back to shore. One of the other alligator hunters who accompanied Kieffer on the lake informed authorities that Kieffer had suffered a partial amputation below the right elbow. The alligator escaped after biting Kieffer. Yeah, I assume that’s what happens sometimes when you’re hunting gators. That’s a risk that’s cooked into hunting an apex predator dinosaur. Sometimes you might lose a finger or hand or arm. Or two. I’m no gator hunting expert... obviously. I am, in fact, the opposite of an alligator hunting expert. But wouldn’t it be wise to further incapacitate or perhaps even kill the alligator prior to pulling it up into your boat? I guess they harpooned it twice but these monsters are tough bastards. Like, the toughest bastards. Do they even feel pain? They just kill and bang and will take a pretty substantial beating to accomplish either. I’m not saying these guys did this but this is a great PSA for not drinking a couple camo tallboys before hitting the waters on a gator filled lake. That might work for duck and deer season but if the prey can kill you back maybe have coffee instead. Regardless of all my dumb conjecture, here’s hoping Mr. Kieffer has a speedy and full recovery. 

Harmonica

Cowboy trumpet

Okay, this is cool... the 135th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Yes. My novel. I'm not going to interview myself so I thought it'll be a great idea if my good friend Jeff Trelewicz, who you know I had on the Phile many of times talking about his own books and talking football with the pheature Phootball Talk, could interview me. Jeff will be back on the Phile in a  few weeks to interview me about my book. That's cool, right? I think so. By the way, you can purchase this great novel at amazon.com/Blaphaus-Maximus-New-Galaxy-Day/dp/B08CPNPLMD. 

Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything... tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math. Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him In the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn't even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference. Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his mom looked at it and to her great surprise, Zachary got an 'A' in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity... She went to his room and said, "Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?" Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. "Well, then," she replied, "Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? WHAT WAS IT?" Zachary looked at her and said, "Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren't fooling around."

Today's guest is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. His latest album "Carry Fire" is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify and his newest album "Digging Deep: Subterranea" comes out later this year. Please welcome to the Phile rock legend great... Robert Plant!

Me: Hey, Robert, it's so cool to have you here on the Phile. How are you? 

Robert: I'm terrific, Jason. Thank you. 

Me: I love your latest album "Carry Fire." It seems to have a lot of different influences on it. Is there a theme to the album? 

Robert: Not at all. There's no theme. It's just a personality we possess as a group of musicians who all come through to be together from different areas of music, different threads, different arteries of music really. Yeah, there's a lot of things going on there but it's all part of everything we do. More or less everything we play, even if we go back and visit the glorious past, whatever it is, we just mess with it and turn it into our inherent "now." In the last 40 years since John passed away I've done a hundred different things with a thousand different people and every time I've gone on these little adventures I've tried to make it as sparkly as possible so that everybody is really transfixed on what we're trying to do. The thing about this combination of people is there's a joy about it. So when you hear that there we talk about all those things that it is, but basically it's just getting it out and it's jaunty. And the lyric is precocious and it's great because it's an audacity to say lay down to sweet surrender. Really I should be talking about something else altogether now. But I like the idea of it because it relates to me as a guy and the music and the whole thread and the weaving between us all is very, very natural. It is we worked together in West Africa, we've been all over the planet and we brought loads of stuff to the table. Once upon a time about ten years ago when I was pre-working with Alison Krauss it was considered that we were very, very tough world music. Which is crazy. 

Me: Don't you think that's a weird name for music? 

Robert: Yeah, well, it's no worse than "folk." I mean really, what the hell has folk turned into? There's misrery everywhere. The thing is to have a good time, not keep going on how it doesn't work. 

Me: Didn't you go to Morocco when you were very young? How old were you? 

Robert: Young enough to be changed over night for life. 

Me: I don't like going to the Morocco pavilion in Epcot let alone the real Morocco, even though I'm sure there's some nice places over there. What was it like when you got there? 

Robert: Bear in mind I'm from the west side of European landmass so there's a lot of movement between peoples all the time so by the time I was 22 I played in France a lot, Holland, Belgium, I've seen North African culture in another place but I've never seen it in its own place. That was the thing, it was just spectacular to see. The whole deal about going into different cultures, even if you went from Orlando to Richmond, Virginia or New Orleans or... 

Me: Port Jefferson, Long Island where I grew up... 

Robert: Yeah. So the shifts are the shifts so when I get to the country like Morocco who has always been struggling within itself as far as the rest of the Arab world goes because it's maintaining by design, it's kind of dependent from all that other stuff. I just melted into the streets. I melted into every doorway that played another piece of dramatic music. From the music of Cairo, the orchestrated stuff, it sounded like a bunch of Tuareg building a shed in the back of somewhere, and that was stuff from the High Atlas. By the time we got to Led Zeppelin's "Presence," I was writing lyrics to things like "Achilles Last Stand," praying to get back to that, to get away from this extreme sort of culture that we were all in. "The mighty arms of Atlas, hold the heavens from the earth..." I wanted to go back to that because there's peace in the middle of the marketplace believe it or not that I'm not going to find any place. 

Me: You had since then, right? 

Robert: All the time. Constantly. 

Me: And you stayed out of the penthouses of the world. 

Robert: I don't know what they were built for, maybe they were built for somebody who's running a weird show just north of here. Goodness knows, everybody has to take on some personality which they're not originally born to. If you go into that other zone. 

Me: So, I have to ask you about "The Luquidator" from Harry J. All Stars. That's the unofficial theme song from your beloved football team, right? 

Robert: Yeah, and that song is outlawed by the West Midlands police force. 

Me: Huh? Why is that? 

Robert: Because of its profanity's. 

Me: What's the name of the team, Robert? 

Robert: The Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

Me: Why is the song outlawed? 

Robert: Because there are a couple of profanity's that we sing along relating to the team who live eight miles away where there is blood and snot. 

Me: Who is the rival team and what is the profanity? 

Robert: West Brom and they should fuck off. 

Me: Ha. Why should they fuck off? 

Robert: Because they are known as the shite because they are too close to us. We can't breathe, it's that thing, the never-ending great tribal thing if we get rid of it we'd probably have a better world. 

Me: Do you play yourself? 

Robert: On a Wednesday if I'm lucky, yeah. 

Me: Who do you play with? 

Robert: With all my mates in a school gym in the village. 

Me: With your old buddies? 

Robert: They're not that old. 

Me: I mean your friends from back in the day? 

Robert: Friends of days of now. We don't do "walking" football, we've still got to move a bit. But I unfortunately could get tagged when I start to get a little bit antiquarian. 

Me: They don't go easy on you because you're Robert Plant? 

Robert: No, they know me. So whoever that other guy is, the guy that is talking to you, perhaps I might be that other guy now. Or I could be the guy "back there." 

Me: That's nice, don't you think? 

Robert: Whatever it is it's working for me. Almost. 

Me: You have song on the album called "Carving Up the World Again... A Wall and Not a Fence" which is something Donald Trump said in one of his speeches. Is the song about what Trump said or him? 

Robert: It's about a lot more than that, I kind of go through history about all the many times that we as humanity walled ourselves in instead of bridging. 

Me: Hmmmm. What made you write a song about this? 

Robert: Well, it's evident everywhere, but you know take the Narragansett's, the Indians in New England and stuff, when they brought out the turkey and the corn for the puritans who were escaping religious persecution from England. It didn't take long before this great amalgam of human kind became avaricious. The first things that the Europeans did was they started putting picket fences up and building houses. And of course native culture in this sub-continent was absolutely bemused by the idea of actually anything being solid and lasting. So its always been a way of saying this is ours, it's just culture and what it does to other cultures. So what happened to the Greeks? What happened to the Egyptians? What happened to the Romans when the Visigoths became bigger and stronger and more powerful? What happened? It's always about crunching people. It's a timeless, sad underbelly of a human kind. 

Me: Where do you live now, Robert? 

Robert: I was living in Austin for a while. Austin is different than a lot of Texas, it wears leather shorts. I'm back in the U.K. now dealing with the after effects of Brexit. 

Me: So, are these things you were talking about on your mind? 

Robert: Sure, yeah. I don't hardly have an opinion on Brexit because it's all "puffy." Everything's puffy. I don't think it was in anyway to anyone's advantage not to give the populace the real idea that's really going on. Nobody would really know what the upside and downside of this child be. There's all these things going on in England, and there's misinformation and there's the personality complexes with various people in the government. But how we go through that is anybody's guess, I have no idea. 

Me: So, what was it like when Led Zeppelin was starting out? 

Robert: In the late 1960s Nixon was in power, there was the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam war. It was another time of great social upheaval. 

Me: Does it feel like that now to you? 

Robert: Well, I'm an antiquarian now. I'm an old guy. I'm waiting to be an octogenarian and I hope it doesn't smell like wee-wee when I get there. But it might be. Right now I'm flexing my triceps if I can find them. I think really in the late 60s all over France and everywhere there was a riot going on and the youth culture and the sub culture was making itself heard in very direct terms. There was a huge movement everywhere, just like there was in San Francisco, to change the corruption and the whole dominance of Right wing fascists control of socialites. I don't know how that pans out now. I don't know whether or not because of the way contemporary communications have changed that the great world of isolation now in their own little world base. 

Me: I see what you're saying. Back then there was no Facebook, and social media, so what did you guys do? 

Robert: There was an alternative culture which was alive and well and operating together, On the move together, people willow on about it but I've had great fortunate in the way I've chosen to do what I do. So I've spent a good time around people outside of the "rock thing." All the time. So I could say that, I did the Lampedusa tour a few years ago with Emmylou, Steve Earle, the Milk Carton Kids, and Joan Baez came and played with us. It could be like a bunch of old folkies and beatniks with the Milk Carton Kids. The thing is we could annunciate, we could put words together and people would take it or leave it. There was great things with the beginnings of FM radio. FM radio came alive because it had an audience. The audience wanted some reaction, wants something to be part of the way the weave in people's different towns and cities. It was a clarion really. There was no concern about it being sponsored by the U.S. Army or something. That was different, but we were all on the same bus unless someone was listening to Bobby Goldsboro. 

Me: I love the song "Bluebirds Over the Mountain" you did with the Pretenders, Robert, on the record. That's a cover of the Ritchie Valens song. Are you a fan of that era of music from the 50s? 

Robert: Well, it's sultry, listen to Chrissie Hynde on that song, she's doing it. Matter of fact thinking about it, that would've been one song that if it would have gotten any play on the radio, it might've been the song that people could have sung along with at festivals. It's all about simplistic melody there, that's what it is. In the middle of all the kind of grime and grunge and extended diagonals that I like to play with I like to put in it some kind of sweet melody. 

Me: Do you still listen to it at home, that old music? 

Robert: I listen really to everything. Some of the early "Holly in the Hills" stuff with Bob Montgomery is great. It's strange really because I demanded from our agent that we can play in Lubbock, Texas because it's Buddy Holly's birth place and I can go straight across to New Mexico to Clovis where he cut the records. If we take away all the stuff we know, the glitter of his stuff, because we could hear something to often, but if we go and dig in,we'd never believe what a wildcat he was. I know some stories about him I got from Little Richard once. It was great stuff, great songs, great playing. 

Me: Can you tell me a Buddy Holly story you were told? 

Robert: Nope, I'm going to use them in my book. 

Me: Ha! Okay. So, one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs is "Hot Dog." That was on the last Zeppelin album. When punk became a thing how did you guys feel and what did you think? 

Robert: The thing with "In Through the Outdoor" we were definitely dumbfounded by the idea of British punk having some kind of revelatory gift that put us into the shadows because we had been raised on stuff that was far wilder than "Never Mind the Bollocks." There was so much wild rock and roll that we were raised on. Not glitzy stuff, far away from Neil Sedaka. So that's why we did things like "Wearing and Tearing" and "Ozone Baby," on that record, because we knew how to make that shit up, but we were so busy trying to write eight-minute epics about crossing the Atlas Mountains that we forgot all about the Phantom on Doc Records in 1959 singing "Love Me" for the best part of one minute and forty-three seconds. 

Me: Did you run into people like Chrissy Hynde who were making punk rock records in London back then? 

Robert: No, no, it didn't work like that. We were over really. Jimmy and I went to a couple of punk clubs to see the Damned because when Nick Lowe produced that album, "Fan Club" and "New Rose," that was brilliant stuff because it had substance and it also had melody It had so much drive about it, that's where it needed to go. So we used to go see them and Lydon would lie on the floor before sort of faking this admiration so it was difficult to not raise my foot and think he was the ball in Wolverhampton football club. But anyway it all goes around and around and around. He asked me for the lyrics to "Kashmire" when he was in PiL, it's all what it is. 

Me: Some Zeppelin songs you wailed and screamed and others you sang really "normal," and nice. What one was harder to do? 

Robert: Singing subtly is somewhat harder. 

Me: Why is that? 

Robert: I got to get down where emotions take me. It'd be a pretty dumb move to try and make everything have a big impact riff and that kind of puffy chest job, Take the "Rain Song" in Zepp. If you think about it, I was 23, I suppose Jimmy was 50. He was 27, or whatever it was, and we were working in all sorts of areas and I cut my cloth accordingly. All the way through Zepp there's been that sort of dynamics. I hear shot in restaurants, I hear people do "Fly Me to the Moon" or something and there's great, great singers, people who got amazing chops from Mel Torme to Sarah Vaughn, amazing singers and they can only do so much with a song if it's stuck in that place. As a singer if I have to get stuck in that place because that's where its at for my audience it's a safety zone that's unacceptable. 

Me: So, when you see other people perform "Stairway to Heaven" what do you think? 

Robert: How much has been lost. How much has this great glorification so far away from the intentional intention of the song. What happened to the song? It's beautiful, but did I like to for the last 20 years? No. What the hell has happened to everything? I've gone so far away from he whole idea of bow ties and evening dress and celebrating Led Zepp like that. We were the guys that weren't allowed into bars because they didn't like the look of us and we were given the keys to the city of Memphis, Tennessee by the mayor at 7:00 p.m. onstage and under house arrest at 10:00 p.m. 

Me: So, what's your relation with the song "Stairway to Heaven" now? 

Robert: I don't know. It's like a relative of mine somewhere, but he's by the sea somewhere and he's got his head lying back in the sand going "love me." 

Me: So, what do you think of kids trying to imitate John Bonham's drumming, Robert? 

Robert: Lets's face it, John's right foot is just the most spectacular right foot in the history of popular music in the last 60 years I think. 

Me: Okay, so, I have to ask you about the upcoming album "Digging Deep: Subterranea," Robert. What can you say about it?

Robert: It's a journey through my solo recordings, from "Pictures At Eleven" in 1982 through to three previously unreleased, exclusive tracks. 

Me: Robert, thanks for being on the Phile. I hope it was fun and I hope you'll come back again soon to talk about the new album. 

Robert: Thank you, Jason. Perhaps I will. 

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Robert Plant for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Wednesday with the kids from the county band Lady A. Spread the word, not the turd or virus. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain. 

I don't want you, cook my bread, I don't want you, make my bed, I don't want your money too, I just want to make love to you. - Willie Dixon