Robert Plant
Singer-songwriter
Robert Plant, the singer whose voice defined Led Zeppelin, was born on 20 August 1948 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, and grew up in Kidderminster, Worcestershire — so he is English by birth, not Welsh. To be clear about that from the outset: Plant's link to Wales is real, but it is one of adopted home and deep affection rather than ancestry, and famouswelsh.com presents it honestly on that basis.
That connection runs deeper than a passing visit. Growing up close to the Welsh border, Plant made regular boyhood trips into Snowdonia, and in 1973, at the height of Led Zeppelin's fame, he bought a remote Welsh hill farm, reportedly as a retreat from the pressures of global stardom. He later took Welsh lessons and immersed himself in Welsh mythology, an interest that fed directly into Led Zeppelin's lyrics and imagery, most famously on tracks written during the band's celebrated 1970 stay at the cottage Bron-Yr-Aur near Machynlleth.
In the 1980s Plant went further, buying The Argoed, a Grade II-listed 17th-century manor house in Penallt, Monmouthshire, which he owned from around 1985 to 1990 while recording at the nearby Rockfield Studios in Monmouth. He has continued to perform in the area since, including a hometown-style show at Monmouth's hall in 2011, and is still associated with the town by local residents today.