It's been a long time since he's rock 'n' rolled

"The kids have grown up, it's now time for daddy to have a good time," Robert Plant says. "I'm singing in zones I never knew were imaginable and my children, they're all entertainers, they just say, 'Go dad!' "

Dad's been having a remarkable late-career resurgence since he hooked up with singer Alison Krauss and producer T-Bone Burnett and won the 2009 Grammy Award for album of the year. The 62-year-old former lead singer of Led Zeppelin, who was in Toronto recently to promote his new album Band of Joy -- and who sold more than 200 million records when he fronted the band he now calls "the rocket ship" -- first struck out as a solo artist in 1982 after the death of his long-time friend and Zeppelin drummer John Bonham."

Plant's adventure is far from finished, although he's intentionally not making any concrete plans. There's been talk of a Led Zeppelin reunion since the group performed together at a 2007 tribute show, but Plant reportedly turned down US$200-million to launch a stadium tour.

"Would I want the pressure of being a big cheese on a stadium tour? I see what happens to U2 and who'd want that?" Plant says. "Give me a great theatre and the North Mississippi All-Stars kicking things off and I'm gone."

The Final Nail in the Coffin of a Led Zeppelin Reunion

Plant spoke to the press after recently attending a Them Crooked Vultures show whose members include ex-bandmate John Paul Jones. "I feel so far away from heavy rock now. It's quite odd how mine and John's paths seem to have crossed over. We've sort of gone into each other's world's a bit." Before getting involved with his new group, Jones had produced a number of roots and bluegrass albums for a variety of artists.

It looks like there is now almost no chance of seeing a Led Zeppelin reunion by the three surviving members of the group. Robert Plant just doesn't want to rock anymore.

Plant also admitted that his ears "bled for two days" after the Led Zeppelin reunion show at the O2 Arena in London in 2008.

"For me, it's no longer to do with vanity, ego and visible success. It's just about getting down into the earth of music. I spent three or four years never playing a Zeppelin song from 1981 onwards, because I didn't want to lean on Zeppelin. I've gone from being in that huge band to picking up the pieces of my own gift."