The partnership between 60-year-old Black Country rocker and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, and country and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss may have seemed an unlikely pairing – but the music industry thought it was good enough to deserve no less than five Grammy awards.

Their album, Raising Sand, was a runaway success and was followed by sell-out tours of the UK and the States which brought in close to £10 million.

The album itself, and tracks from it, have been showered with awards and the pair’s collaboration on the single Gone, Gone, Gone was named as musical event of the year at the prestigious Country Music Awards in Nashville.

They also received awards for album of the year and duo of the year at the annual Americana awards.

In July of this year Plant also received the CBE.

All this is on top of earnings of around £2.5 million from Led Zeppelin publishing fees.

Rumours of a reunion and comeback tour followed hot on the heels of the band’s one-off reunion concert at the O2 Arena in 2008.

But Robert Plant himself has denied that he has any plans to link up with his former band members, and has stated that he doesn’t intend touring with anyone for at least two years.

The O2 Arena reunion was the first time the band had performed together for 19 years. The concert was held as a tribute to the late founder of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun.

Ertegun, who died in 2006 aged 83, signed Led Zeppelin to the label in 1968.

Robert Plant had a Black Country childhood (born in West Bromwich, brought up in Halesowen) and a promising career as a chartered accountant.

He pursued his music career unprofitably to begin with, subsidising his income with a variety of jobs.

In 1968, Jimmy Page recruited Robert Plant as lead singer for his new band.

They were joined by drummer, the late John Bonham (whose son Jason – currently drummer with Foreigner – played drums at the O2 Arena gig) and John Paul Jones.

Led Zeppelin have since sold more than 300 million albums worldwide

In 1995 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.