Why did Robert Plant hate his nickname in Led Zeppelin?

For all the great music surrounding the hard rock legends of the 1970s, I think a core reason that the likes of Queen, Black Sabbath and The Who are so beloved is the sense of legend surrounding them. They hit their prime at a time when people could be world famous and still maintain a very real sense of mystery; thus, the stories that surround them have that intoxicating air of myth about them. Of that whole generation of rock ‘n’ rollers, though, few bands epitomise this quite like Led Zeppelin.

Not for nothing does religious iconography surround Led Zep, with titles like Houses of the Holy, ‘In The Light’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ all very fitting for a band who reflected the audience’s belief in them. To true devotees, they were deities of music. The best players of their generation were put on this earth for a higher cause, and that cause was riffs.

To non-believers, they were a bunch of oversexed, overhyped and overpaid session musos hiding a severe deficit of songwriting talent behind meaningless decibels and cod-spiritualism. The truth of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and the rest of the band is almost certainly somewhere in the middle. Try as you might (and there are several reasons to try), there’s little hope in arguing against the greatness of the people behind ‘Kashmir’, but they were also a bunch of lads at their core.

Thus, as lads do, they were prone to bringing each other back down to Earth when they felt like one of their number was getting a bit above their station. One of the most infamous ways was Robert Plant’s loathed nickname. In true Led Zeppelin fashion, there are as many conflicting stories about how he got this nickname. The undisputable fact is that if you thought Plant was getting a bit too “Golden God” for your liking, all you had to do was call him Percy. You might have to duck a right hook, but it was worth it.

Why did Led Zeppelin give Robert Plant the nickname Percy?

According to an interview Todd Shapiro conducted with longtime Led Zep engineer Eddie Kramer, Percy came from a little-known figure in British TV from the 1960s. He explains that Percy Thrower was the presenter of the BBC program Gardening Club from 1959 onwards, staying on after it was rebranded to Gardeners’ World in 1969. Thrower may have been the man’s legal name, but to the man on the street, he was in fact “Percy Plant”. Sound familiar?

Kramer gives an example of this name being used to devastating effect when Plant tried to throw his weight around later in the 1970s. When Led Zeppelin were filming The Song Remains The Same, the band had to do some reshoots, which Kramer was in charge of. At a band meeting, Plant tried to get out of this, saying he didn’t want to do it. At which point Kramer says he barked “Oi Percy, how’s yer Hobson’s?!”—Hobson’s choice being cockney rhyming slang for voice.

According to Kramer, Plant was sufficiently disabused by this that he agreed to the reshoots. However, nothing about Led Zeppelin is truly set in stone. If you ask the fanbase, they have a very different, much more ribald reason for the nickname. They’ll say it came from Plant’s famous habit of wearing trousers so tight, it’s no wonder he could reach those high notes.

All Plant would have to do is strut down to the front of the stage, place his foot on the monitor and suddenly, almost the entire venue could see a very clear outline of his… Percy!