77-year-old Robert Plant had fans tearing up with this nostalgic performance of Led Zeppelin classic “Ramble On” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and fans were flabbergasted to hear he sounds like THIS in 2023. What rock star sounds better than this at 77? The Led Zep icon sounded positively creamy on the mic on this ‘69 classic, and his band Saving Grace were firing on all cylinders, with just the right edge into folk and blues territory to keep things fresh.
The smile on Plant’s face at the end said it all. The way he can perform the old hits and keep the burning spirit of the music alive, while still adding a new flavour to it, is genius. Plant might not be delivering that air raid siren wail that he did at age 20 when originally recording the song, but The Music Man has to say he proved that he doesn’t need that to sound absolutely fantastic.
Plant dropped in to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on April 9, 2026, to perform “Ramble On”. The performance swiftly went viral, racking up nearly 1.5 million views in under two weeks. Viewers loved it and added comments such as, “What a fantastic voice. The fact that he still sounds that good at his age is incredible” and “I was in tears. As a lifelong Zeppelin fan, I’m not sure how many more times we will be able to see this living legend perform. And he sounds better than ever.”
Led Zeppelin fans got a real treat when the English rock icons reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena on December 10, 2007. The show, which was released as the Celebration Day concert film, featured this spicy cut of “Ramble On.” The event marked Led Zeppelin’s first full-length concert in nearly three decades. However, you wouldn’t know it listening to the band. The boys are in absolutely blistering form here, and Plant sounds incredible.
Led Zeppelin released “Ramble On” as the seventh track on their second studio album Led Zeppelin II. Guitarist Jimmy Page co-wrote the song with Plant, with Page also handling production. The Music Man readers might be interested to hear that Plant wrote the majority of the lyrics and drew inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings while writing the song.