OCTOBER 20/27, 2017 EW.COM 91You’ve always made music
with a message—you put out
“Dear Mr. President” in 2006.
I’ve realized that if I’m uncom-
fortably honest, then this is going
to mean something to somebody.
I wanted to be a social worker
before all of this, and that made
me realize the rest of this is
bulls---. I’m never going to win
a popularity contest and be
the prettiest—why start now?You’ve worked with hitmaker
Max Martin (Katy Perry, Taylor
Swift) for years. What’s your
creative relationship like?
We argue a lot. We never wanted
to work together. [Laughs] That
was one of the label’s decisions.
I brought three bottles of wine
and said, “You don’t want to be
here, and you can be damn sure I
don’t want to be here. We’re going
to drink this first bottle before
we even talk.” We ended up talk-
ing about music, and the more
Max talks about music, the more
you’re like, “Holy s---, this guy
is a closet punk rocker!” And he’s
a good dude. You notice I don’t
work with Dr. Luke anymore.Eminem, who was on your
last album, is featured on the
highlight “Revenge.” Were you
planning for another duet?
No, I sneak-attacked him. Max
and I started making the song,
and I wrote this rap. We were
drinking a lot of wine, and then
I went home and I thought more
wine would be a good idea. Then
I emailed [Eminem]—this is why
they call it liquid courage—andsaid, “You know I love you. I like
that you work with a lot of the
same people, like Rihanna. She’s
hotter than me, but I’m funnier.
So I’m going for a rap Grammy,
and I’d like to take you along with
me.” It was this long email, and
he wrote back right away and just
said, “Okay.” [Laughs]You and Carey have two kids:
daughter Willow, 6, and son
Jameson, 9 months. Is Willow
aware of your day job?
She’s trying to figure out what
being famous means. I keep tell-
ing her it means nothing unless
you’re doing good things. She said
the other day, “Why am I so lucky
that I get to have you as a mom?”
I’m like, “Oh my God!” And
she’s like, “No, not because you’re
a good mom, because you’re
famous and everybody wants to
be famous.” [Laughs] It was
almost a nice moment!Your VMAs acceptance speech,
where you talked about
Willow’s self-image struggles,
went viral in August. What
wasthe fanresponselike?
There’ve been so many tears!
This woman wrote me on Twitter,
“My daughter likes to shop in the
boys section in Target and girls
at school have been really hard on
her. The last couple of weeks
she’s been thinking about trying
to change. So we were going to get
her makeup and some girly-girl
skirts, and now, after your speech,
she asked me if I would take her
back to where she likes to shop.”
I have tears in my eyes right now.NOTEWORTHY Stay With Him Sam Smith will release his second
studio album,The Thrill of It All, on Nov. 3.
Out of This WorldThe Weeknd is teaming up with
Marvel for aStarboy comic book, due in 2018.I’M NEVER GOING TO WIN A POPULARITY CONTEST
AND BE THE PRETTIEST—WHY START NOW?”
—PINKFrom Led Zeppelin’s
psychedelic blues to his
2007 Grammy-winning
folk collaboration with
Alison Krauss, Robert
Plant has built his career
on a deep reverence
for American roots music.
So it’s fascinating that
Carry Fire(out now), his
stellar 11th solo album,
encompasses sounds
far outside the American
canon. Credit that in part
to the extracurricular
activities of his live band,
who bring new ideas
and influences whenever
Plant summons them
to record. “Everybody
goes off and works on
other projects and comes
back to this home,”
he tells EW. “It could be
called a mothership.”
Yet whether he’s
teaming up with Massive
Attack’s John Baggott
and channeling the “dark
techno keyboard loop
mongers” of ’90s Bristol
or working with guitarist
Justin Adams to recall
Malian folk of Ali FarkaTouré, Plant says his
approach is unchanging:
”It’s all the same, really,
just people letting it out.”
And onCarry Fire,
there’splentytoletout.
ThesetisoneofPlant’s
most political bodies
of work to date, touching
on topics including impe-
rialism (“Carving Up
the World Again... a wall
and not a fence”)
and immigration (“New
World...”). Still, it’s not
a totally bleak affair. Con-
sider the scintillating ren-
dition of Ersel Hickey’s
romantic 1958 folk tune
“Bluebirds Over the
Mountain,” for which
Plant recruited the Pre-
tenders’ Chrissie Hynde.
“Isentheracopyof
what we were doing, and
she was enthralled,” he
says. “She said, ‘So the
great psychedelic dream
comes alive again!’
I drove out, picked her
up in my car, and we
went off to the studio.
It’s nice—a sort of psyche-
delic Sonny and Cher.”Robert Plant’s
Worldly Blues
Grab your passport: The Led Zeppelin frontman is
drawing on musical traditions from around the globe
on his politically charged new LP,Carry Fire.
BY ERIC RENNER BROWNMADS PERCH