Robert Plant has probably made me smile more times than any other singer has. At different times I’ve made friends, adventures, soulmates and/or trips to the grocery while listening to his music. The way he writes, phrases and goes ooh-yeah lights imaginations, souls and swimsuit areas.

Many rock writers and fans call Plant “the golden god” because of his ability, influence and magnetism as a singer, performer and lyricist. That descriptor – which Plant himself coined while out on a Los Angeles hotel balcony in the early ’70s — dates back to his days as frontman of Led Zeppelin, the biggest, baddest and most-widescreen hard-rock band of all.

While undeniably golden, Plant has far more colors going on than that. Blues, of course. He’s a white singer, who in his youth and still shaping his style, often sounded Black, because he loved bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf. Greens are in there too, from Plant’s ecologically minded lyrics, in songs like Zep’s “That’s The Way.” Browns also, from his acoustic recordings, such as “Led Zeppelin III” and recent collabos with bluegrass queen Alison Krauss.

Plant’s music can be futuristically silver — think ‘80s solo hits like “Little By Little.” Or psychedelic purple, as with the cosmos exploring of later albums like “Band of Joy.” And lots of passionate reds, heard on Plant and Krauss tracks like “Can’t Let Go” and “Rich Woman.”

The movie “Almost Famous” was filmmaker Cameron Crowes’ love letter to ‘70s rock culture and Crowes’ time as a young journalist on the road with bands like Zeppelin. But the dudes in Led Zeppelin – Plant, guitar wizard Jimmy Page, bassist/secret-sauce John Paul Jones and drum rhino John Bonham – have been “Super Famous” for more than half a century.

Born in England four years after my mother was born in Indiana, Plant’s been touring the world since his early 20s, when Led Zeppelin released their groundbreaking 1969 self-titled debut album. His tours have intermittently brought him here to Alabama since his mid-20s. In addition to performing here, over the years Plant’s taken Birmingham ‘90s rockers Brother Cane out on the road as his opening act. Just last year he visited Muscle Shoals recording meccas FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound.

This weekend, Robert Plant and Alisson Krauss, who’ve made two acclaimed albums together, 2007′s Grammy-winning “Raising Sand” and 2021′s Grammy-nominated “Raise the Roof, will perform two concerts in Alabama. They’ve got an 8 p.m. Saturday show at Pelham’s Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in the Birmingham area. Currently available Oak Mountain tickets run from $25 to $165 plus fees via livenation.com. On Sunday, Plant and Krauss come to Huntsville’s Orion Amphitheater for a 7 p.m. show. Remaining tickets for the nearly sold-out Orion show start at $60 plus fees via axs.com.

In advance of those performances, here’s a look back at Plant’s previous concerts here from throughout his career. The guy who in timeless Zep epic “Stairway to Heaven” told us about two paths and changing the road you’re on wasn’t kidding. In his seventh decade, Robert Plant remains a seeker.

Led Zeppelin

May 10, 1973, Memorial Coliseum, Tuscaloosa

Tickets were $5 and attendance around 16,000 for Led Zeppelin’s first ever Alabama concert, promoting their prismatic fifth album “House of the Holy.” The show was heled in Tuscaloosa’s Memorial Coliseum, the University of Alabama’s basketball arena. A get-off-my-lawn toned Tuscaloosa News concert review opined, “The sound system was incredible, the lighting creative. There were even global prisms to surprise everybody at the end of ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ the new Zeppelin hit. Otherwise, it was all very depressing to me. I saw too many kids who were going to get into too much trouble, too early, at too great a cost.”

Context: Other 1973 concerts at Memorial Coliseum, later renamed Coleman Coliseum, included the Allman Brothers, Linda Ronstadt, Beach Boys, Neil Young and Faces, the latter featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and future Rolling Stone guitarist Ron Wood.

Setlist (via setlist.fm): “Rock and Roll,” “Celebration Day,” “Black Dog,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “No Quarter,” “The Song Remains the Same,” “Rain Song,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Moby Dick,” “Heartbreaker,” “Whole Lotta Love.”

Led Zeppelin

May 13, 1973, Municipal Auditorium, Mobile

From the Mobile Register’s review of the three-hour concert: “So-called ‘heavy’ music is, hopefully, a dying animal – by nature, it’s a limited field. Led Zeppelin is one of the last of that breed. And strangely enough, the band is more popular than ever. Still, Robert Plant is a fine vocalist, and the rest of the band is more than competent.” The 11,000 or so fans that packed Municipal Auditorium were a bit more enthusiastic.

Context: This was the same tour Led Zep’s Madison Square Garden performances were filmed for what eventually became the band’s 1976 concert film “The Song Remains The Same.” In 1973, other concerts at Mobile’s Municipal Auditorium included Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John, Elvis Presley and Grand Funk Railroad. Zep’s ‘73 Mobile show has been issued on bootleg recordings under various titles such as “Upwardly Mobile,” “Mobile Dick,” “Alabama Getaway” and “Goin’ Mobile.”

Led Zeppelin

May 18, 1977, Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum, Birmingham

Led Zeppelin opened their ‘77 BJCC show with a majestic version of “Houses of the Holy” opening track “The Song Remains The Same.” Plant is a native of the Birmingham, England area, and his between song stage banter on this night included him saying the phase at one point, “from one Birmingham to another.”

A young Greg Screws, who went on to become a TV news anchor for Huntsville CBS affiliate WHNT-19, was at the ‘77 Birmingham concert. Decades later, Screws, a lifelong rock fan, told me, “I’ve seen a lot of shows. I’ve seen a lot of people. But Zeppelin doing [their song] ‘Achilles Last Stand,’ I’ve never seen anything better or more stunning. It’s hard to describe.” Led Zeppelin’s official YouTube account includes a clip of YouTube clip of 8mm fan-shot video shot at the ‘77 BJCC show. (See above.)

Context: The trek would be the band’s last ever in North America. On Sept. 24, 1980, after rehearsals at Page’s house, Bonham was found dead after a drinking binge in which drummer reportedly consumed the equivalent of 40 shots of vodka. Led Zeppelin soon disbanded rather than carry on without their beloved and talented drummer.

Solo

July 10, 1988, Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Pelham

A tour for Plant’s album “Now And Zen” album, which featured the Zep-sampling hit single “Tall Cool One,” the music video for which also saw heavy rotation. Power-pop legends Cheap Trick were Plant’s opening act for Plant’s ‘88 Oak Mountain show.

This period an eventful one for the singer. In March, Plant was the subject of a Rolling Stone magazine cover story by the great rock scribe David Fricke. In May, Plant, Page, Jones and Bonham’s son Jason Bonham played a set as Led Zeppelin at the 40th anniversary concert for the band’s label, Atlanta Records. Although a click better than Zep’s frayed first reunion, for 1985′s Live Aid charity concerts, the ‘88 Zep performance fell short of the band’s vintage glory.

Setlist: There doesn’t appear to be a confirmed ‘88 Oak Mountain setlist online. But other shows on Plant’s “Non Stop Go Tour” included solo tunes like “Ship of Fools,” “In the Mood” and “Heaven Knows,” Zep nuggets including “In the Evening,” “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Communication Breakdown” and a cover of John Lee Hooker blues “Tall Cool One.”

Solo

Oct. 25, 1990, UAB Arena, Birmingham

Tour promoting Plant’s 1990 album “Manic Nirvana,” by far his most raucous and vibrant recording since Zeppelin’s 1979 final studio LP “In Through the Out Door.” The single “Hurting Kind (I’ve Got My Eyes On You)” was a number-one rock hit. In addition to “Hurting Kind,” Plant’s ‘90 concerts often featured performances of “Tie Dye on the Highway,” a great hippie-rocker from the same album.

The singer’s UAB Arena show included performances of Zep classic’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” “Going to California” and “Living Loving Maid.” The opening act was then-nascent Atlanta blues-rockers The Black Crowes. The coolest detail? Plant wore a Jimmy Page T-shirt onstage.

Context: Other concerts held at UAB Arena in 1990 included Jane’s Addiction, Melissa Etheridge and The Cult.

Solo

Sept. 21, 1993, Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Pelham

Ticket cost $15.50 for the lone Alabama stop on Plant’s tour promoting his album “Fate of Nations.” In his Birmingham News concert review, Shawn Ryan wrote, “A Zep tour would be nice, but as long as we have Robert Plant, we can do better than get by, we can revel in the power of a rocker who hasn’t lost a thing after more than 20 years.”

Ryan further enthused Plant’s ‘93 Oak Mountain concert, “was everything a show should be. The music was raw and edgy, expertly played and showcasing a stunning variety of styles.” Plant’s 90-minute set included a tear through Zep’s hoary “Whole Lotta Love,” a rockabilly reboot of “Tall Cool One” and wistful current single “29 Palms.”

This tour found Plant embracing his Zeppelin roots more than ever, with readings of “Thank You,” “Ramble On,” “What Is And What Should Never Be” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” too. The Oak Mountain crowd of around 5,000 “remained on its feet throughout, Ryan wrote. The opening act was Australian band Baby Animals, known for their anthemic track “One Word.”

Page & Plant

June 1, 1998, Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum, Birmingham

Ten years after his first solo career concert in Alabama, Plant returned with his Zeppelin foil Jimmy Page in tow. Following their 1994 “MTV Unplugged” reunion, Page and Plant (sans Zep bassist Jones, who’d later quip during their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech, “Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number”) embarked on a world tour backed by orchestras, Egyptian folk musicians and a second guitarist, The Cure’s Porl Thompson.

For their next album and tour, Page and Plant scaled things back. Way back. They toured as a Zep-style hard-rock four piece, backed by longtime Plant sideman (and current bassist for The Cult) Charlie Jones (who was also married to Plant’s daughter back then) and the now late great dynamo Michael Lee (previously drummer for The Cult.) Plant and Page’s 1998 single “Most High” did something no Zeppelin recording ever did during the band’s original active years. It won a Grammy Award.

At Page & Plant’s BJCC show, the set included songs off their ‘98 album “Walking Into Clarksdale” including the title track, “Shining in the Light” and “Heart In Your Hand.” There was also a whole lotta Zep, including opener “The Wanton Song,” “Heartbreaker,” “Ramble On” and closing encore “Rock and Roll.”

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

April 26, 2008, BJCC Arena, Birmingham

Although the results and time have proven otherwise, initially the idea of Plant and Krauss recording and performing together seemed incongruent. Plant’s an instinctual singer with a hippie soul. Krauss, a disciplined roots vocalist/fiddler and graceful presence. But their debut album “Raising Sand” swooned critics and handmade-music fans alike.

“Raising Sand” was helmed by two-time producer of the year T Bone Burnett. At the time, Burnett had a magic hand with anything rootsy-sounding, from the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack to “Raising Sand,” which included a remake of forlorn Page & Plant song “Please Read the Letter.”

AL.com’s Mary Colurso covered Plant and Krauss’s ‘08 BJCC show. In her vivid review, Colurso wrote that Burnett, who also played guitar on the tour, “has a peculiar genius: He sees, hears and conceives things that others could hardly imagine. He’s out of the box. He’s ahead of the curve. Heck, he’s the creator of his own musical geometry.”

Solo

July 28, 2010, Saenger Theatre, Mobile

In his vibrant review, AL.com’s Lawrence Specker wrote Plant, “seems to understand the value of past successes: Having them is great. Not being a prisoner of them is better.” This tour featured backing combo the Band of Joy, a name copped from Plant and Bonham’s pre-Zep psych-rock group. The 2010 Saenger set included reimaginations of Zep stomp “Houses of the Holy” and a run through acoustic topaz “Gallows Pole.” Other songs in the set included a cover of roots-band Los Lobos’ “Angel Dance.” Plant’s band included Steve Earle/Emmylou Harris guitarist Buddy Miller and Americana ace Patty Griffin on background vocals. Classic soul singer Bettye LaVette, known for cuts like “Let Me Down Easy,” opened the show.

Solo

Aug. 12, 2012, Alabama Theatre, Birmingham

Ticket prices started at $45 and went up to $72. The set included versions of Zep artifacts “Friends” and “Black Dog.” There were also blues covers of Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” and, during a medley that also included “Whole Lotta Love,” Howlin’ Wolf’s “44.” Singer/songwriter Hays Carll opened the show. In his AL.com review, freelancer Jeremy Burgess wrote, “The audience stood and clapped throughout the encore as an ovation. But it’s what Plant did before the encore began that seemed to define the performance. The singer asked enthusiastically for the house lights to come up – ‘up, up, up, up, up!’ – so that he could see the packed theater. ‘Is there anybody out there?’ he joked as he smiled and soaked in the moment.”

Context: Other 2012 Alabama Theatre concerts include Gregg Allman, Brandi Carlile and Willie Nelson.

Solo

March 7, 2016, Saenger Theatre, Mobile

According to setlist.fm, Plant’s 206 return to the Saenger opened with a version of Zep snake-charmer “Dancing Days.” Also in the mix, Bukka White blues “Fixin’ to Die” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Spoonful.” You can watch a clip of Plant and his band doing some of “Whole Lotta Love” during the ‘16 Saenger show on YouTube. This Mobile show concluded with Plant howling a hot version of “Rock and Roll.” Twirling his mix-stand, Plant oozed charisma singers a third his age would make a deal with the Devil for.

Context: Other acts performing at Saenger Theatre in 2016 included Bob Dylan, John Prine, Dr. John and Evanescence.

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