Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have announced their return to North America. Reunited once more - and much sooner than the twelve years that passed between their previous two tours - the Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer and 27x Grammy-winner will hit the road this spring and summer for nearly 30 headline dates and counting.
Krauss and Plant jumped on a Zoom with Rolling Stone for their only interview about the new tour, explaining why they just can’t quit each other, discussing future plans, breaking down their set list, and much more. An excerpt from the chat follows...
Rolling Stone: Robert, there’s people of your generation retiring. Do you think about retirement? You seem to love being on the road, so do you want to just push it as long as you can push it?
Robert Plant: "The camaraderie, the things that you share up there, and the frailties that you know you’re carrying with you quietly, the exposure of yourself to yourself, is something that I would hate to say goodbye to. I can’t just sit back. Out there in the real world, people say to me, 'What about the book?' And I say, 'Are you kidding? What? This is spectacular. Why think about it twice?' This is today. What happened in Schenectady in 1969 is another story. And for me, the continuum must keep going. Today, I was pulling all my lyric books out and going, 'Gotta get the groove back. I’ve got something to say.' So yeah, I’m going to keep going — as long as they’ve got effects machines that make me sound good [laughs]. Well, it worked for Elvis! Listen to the compression on his voice on some of those big ballads in ’57."
RS: Robert, you sang “Stairway To Heaven” for the first time in many years at a charity event last year. What did that feel like?
Plant: "It was cathartic. People go, “Oh, that’s good. He never was going to do that.” But I didn’t really do it! I just blurted it out. ‘Cause it’s such an important song to me for where I was at the time and where I was with Jimmy and with John and Bonzo. So on that night, it was what it was. It was a trial by fire, but I felt better at the end than at the beginning.
RS: I was thinking it could be the last time you ever sing that song. Would you be OK with that?
Plant: "Yeah, I think you’re probably right. I haven’t got around to doing the ice-skating rinks in Finland yet with a small orchestra [laughs]. So I don’t think I’ll be doing that, but I don’t know. Who knows? Something could change somewhere. Spirit and heart could come back in the soul. It’s a long song. Who can remember all those words?"
Read more at Rolling Stone.
Beginning June 2nd with a centennial celebration for the legendary Cain’s Ballroom, the Can’t Let Go Tour will see Plant, Krauss and their all-star band bring spellbinding vocal performances and uncanny arrangements to amphitheaters, pavilions, opera houses and other historic venues from coast to coast. With additional stops to still be revealed, dozens of cities will have the opportunity to experience the live show hailed as “a master class of a concert” (Chicago Tribune) and “a collaboration that should last for evermore” (Variety).
Tickets for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss’ Can’t Let Go Tour are on-sale at 10 AM, local time this Friday, February 16, following a series of pre-sales beginning at 10 AM, local time today, February 14. Find more information at plantkrauss.com.
Dates will feature support from JD McPherson, who also plays lead guitar for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, alongside an ace ensemble of drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Dennis Crouch, multi-talented string player Stuart Duncan, and Viktor Krauss on keys and guitar. Drawing from both of their monumentally acclaimed, T Bone Burnett-produced LPs – 2007’s Grammy-sweeping Raising Sand and 2021’s chart-topping Raise The Roof - Plant and Krauss will deliver a cosmic collision of early blues, country deep cuts, revolutionary folk-rock and lost soul music written by legends and unsung heroes like Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch, Ola Belle Reed, Brenda Burns and more, as well as reimagined renditions of Led Zeppelin cuts like "The Battle Of Evermore," "Rock & Roll,” "When The Levee Breaks” and other surprises in store.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss want to give fans, not scalpers, the best chance to buy tickets at face value. To make this possible, if fans purchase tickets for a show through Ticketmaster and can't attend, they'll have the option to resell them to other fans at the original price paid using Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange. To help protect the Exchange, the artists have also chosen to make tickets for this tour mobile only and restricted from transfer. This applies to all shows ticketed by Ticketmaster. Please note, a valid bank account or debit card within the country of your event is required to sell on the Face Value Exchange.
Can’t Let Go Tour 2024:
June
2- Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
4 - Camdenton, MO - Ozarks Amphitheater*
5 - Lincoln, NE - Pinewood Bowl Theater*
7 - Prior Lake, MN - Mystic Lake Amphitheater*
8 - Madison, WI - Breese Stevens Field*
11 - Des Moines, IA - Lauridsen Amphitheater at Waterworks Park*
12 - Highland Park, IL - Ravinia Festival*#
14 - Toledo, OH - Toledo Zoo & Aquarium - Amphitheater*
15 - Burgettstown, PA - The Pavilion at Star Lake*
18 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap*
19 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap*
August
8 - Missoula, MT - KettleHouse Amphitheater*
9 - Missoula, MT - KettleHouse Amphitheater*
11 - Edmonton, AB - Edmonton Folk Music Festival!
13 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
14 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
16 - Seattle, WA - Venue TBD*^
17 - Seattle, WA - Venue TBD*^
19 - Eugene, OR - The Cuthbert Amphitheater*
21 - Murphy's, CA - Ironstone Amphitheatre*
22 - Stanford, CA - Frost Amphitheater*
24 - Paso Robles, CA - Vina Robles Amphitheatre*
25 - Highland, CA - Yaamava’ Theater*
26 - Flagstaff, AZ - Pepsi Amphitheater*
28 - Santa Fe, NM - The Santa Fe Opera*
29 - Santa Fe, NM - The Santa Fe Opera*
31 - Colorado Springs, CO - Sunset Amphitheater*
September
1 - Vail, CO - Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater*
* with JD McPherson
# on-sale April 24
! on-sale June 1
^ on-sale March 25
