Brett Callwood
James Christian of veteran hard rockers House of Lords talks about how Led Zeppelin “got beyond the limits of rock ’n’ roll.”
James Christian: My favorite record was and still is Led Zeppelin. I was 16 years old when the debut album was released. I had a band at the time called Silvermine.
My first exposure to Zeppelin was when my guitar player brought the record to a rehearsal. The first song he played was “How Many More Times.” I remember how I felt hearing the song and how it instantly gave me a new outlook on how I wanted to sing. The profound impact Robert Plant’s voice and music had on me was instant and everlasting. The album’s raw energy and blues-infused rock sound spoke to me on a deep level. Plant’s wailing vocals on tracks like “Good Times Bad Times” and “Dazed and Confused” blew my mind, shattering my perceptions of what rock ‘n’ roll could be. His voice was like nothing I’d ever heard before — haunting, soaring, and utterly captivating. As I dove deeper into the album, I discovered a world of musical possibilities I never knew existed.
Now, before I ever heard of Led Zeppelin we were playing covers by a lot of different bands like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, The Beatles. But after that day in Milford, Connecticut, in a functioning movie theater, where we would rehearse four times a week, we started learning the whole first album and actually playing half the record in our set. Needless to say, they were very influential to me in my early years.
I began to explore new techniques, new sounds, and new themes in my own music. Led Zeppelin’s debut album became a benchmark for me, a challenge to create innovative music. Many years later as fate would have it, my first record deal was with Simmons Records/ RCA. The producer for the project was Andy Johns, who was involved in many of Led Zeppelin’s early work along with Glyn Johns. Glyn engineered Led Zeppelin’s debut album.
Working with Andy was an incredible experience, I got to hear Andy’s stories that many have never heard along with some of the inner workings of how Led Zeppelin albums were recorded. Andy once told me that he had the master to “Stairway to Heaven” and was flying home after a session and accidentally left the master on the plane. Luckily Andy recovered them.
To this day, I credit Led Zeppelin’s debut album for inspiring me to go beyond the limits of rock ‘n’ roll. They showed me that music could be a powerful force, capable of transcending genres and defying expectations. As an artist, Plant’s voice continues to inspire me.
After all these years, the desire to sound like Robert Plant took a back seat to me finding my own voice. But sometimes when recording a vocal and not finding the right emotion, I would think to myself: What Would Robert Plant Do Here?