The eternal rock god in homecoming gig - Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant on playing Wolverhampton Civic

The pair would borrow Noddy’s dad’s window-cleaning van for their gear and ride around the Black Country with buckets clanking in the back. They eventually got deals at a similar time.

Robert told Noddy they’d signed with CBS.

Noddy told him that was fine, his band had signed with Columbia.

Robert then embarked on the greatest rock career of them all. Though it was still a number of years before Led Zeppelin’s debut album came out, they were on their way. Robert became an international rock god, all mane, roaring vocals and pin-up good looks.

When he looks back now at those early days of Led Zeppelin, he hates the vocals he recorded during that era. But the progenitors of heavy metal enjoyed the best career of any rock band, became the biggest band in the world and released nine albums before disbanding following the tragic death of drummer John Bonham.

He died after chocking on his own vomit after taking drugs to combat his anxiety. The band split up and a statement at the time said: “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”

The band went their separate ways and Robert embarked on a remarkable solo career. He had already influenced such rock singers as Freddie Mercury, Axl Rose and Chris Cornell and more recently was named ‘the greatest voice in rock’ in a Planet Rock Poll. Rolling Stone readers, meanwhile, ranked him the greatest of all lead singers.

Robert returned in October with a new album, Carry Fire, and he’s back on the road, with a headline gig at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Monday.

The singer has created a remarkably eclectic and diverse range of music during a career unlike any other. Embracing blues, folk, rock and world music, not forgetting country, he created rock radio epics in the 1980s with Big Log before becoming switched onto north African music. His passion was lit by a 1972 holiday to Marrakech and he has returned many times since. He told a recent interviewer: “I hear the chord progressions of Coldplay in Marrakech now, which I’m trying to get away from! But Berber music burrows into me, and why it does fascinates me. Why do I feel so enriched by hearing it? Can I try and do something with it that is part of me, part of the band, part of everything? So I did.” His 2007 album with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand, changed the game. He’d discovered Alison after turning into his radio one night while driving home from a pub on the Shropshire border. He was so inspired that he pulled over and wrote down her name. Soon after, they got together to sing in Cleveland, Ohio, and they discovered a shared passion for music.

At the time, Robert said: “I was basically tutored by Alison. She’s a very precise singer who’s done more duets than you can shake a stick at, and I was thinking: help, I’m a rock singer, no matter what I do. But, of course, I’m not: I’m just a guy that sings songs. She’d hit the talkback button from the control room, lean into the microphone and say: ‘Robert, why don’t you sing the same thing twice?’”

Robert lived in Texas during the early 2010s and created his Band of Jow. He teamed up with Patty Griffin, who became his partner for a while, but he grew homesick and decided to return to his roots. He missed the cider farm orchards near the south Shropshire border – rituals and routines that he favours over being a rockaday Johnny in America.

More recently, Plant has embraced classical music, including such poignant pieces as Górecki’s Symphony No 3.

He called his album Carrying Fire because that’s how he often feels, as though he’s carrying fire. But once he steps away from the microphone, he returns to the things that bringing his the greatest joy – like watching his beloved Wolves. He still plays five-a-side back home with his friends – and plans to until he runs out of gas.