Sixty-five year-old Black Country rocker and ex-Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant continues to keep busy, playing gigs with his latest band The Sensational Space Shifters.

And in the autumn he headlined Bluesfest at the Royal Albert Hall as he continued his successful post-Led Zeppelin career, playing the blues and discovering its musical roots from Africa and America. He also played sell-out gigs at Manchester Apollo and Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

He is currently planning to launch his own independent record label – YamYam345 – and a new biography “Robert Plant – A Life” by Paul Rees has just been published.

Meanwhile his 2007 pairing with country and bluegrass singer Alison Krauss continues to be a musical and financial success. 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.

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

All this is on top of earnings from Led Zeppelin publishing fees. But don’t hold your breath for a Led Zeppelin reunion.

Rumours of a Led Zeppelin reformation followed the band’s one-off reunion concert at the O2 Arena in 2008, but Robert Plant himself has consistently denied that he has any plans to link up with his former band members.

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

Passionate Wolves fan Robert Plant had a Black Country childhood – 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 and John Paul Jones.

Led Zeppelin has since sold more than 300 million albums worldwide.

In 1995 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2011 readers of Rolling Stone voted Robert Plant the best lead singer of all time.

Robert Plant divides his time between homes in England, Wales and Texas.