LED ZEPPELIN singer ROBERT PLANT and blue-grass goddess ALISON KRAUSS spoke exclusively to Absolute Radio DJ Ben Jone recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

BJ: But you've been on quite a musical discovery of recent, spending time I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, in places like Africa and South America, and (Raising Sand) wasn't really the career move that I think even us as fans had predicted from you.

Plant: "For me, well I don't have a career, I just have a bunch of great events in my life and a few dips and troughs. I don't think I've ever had a career. I think when Led Zeppelin… when we lost John in 1980, I was desperate to not reinstate but do something for myself, free from the kind of shackles of people's expectations. And from that moment on, along the line, of course it would be great to get a reflection of your work, but career, it's not something I think about. I mean, if this works now, it's certainly worked up to now with Alison and with everybody around, its been a spectacular Technicolor adventure for me. I couldn't even have imagined this, its just really quite something very, very different and very challenging. And she said to me about an hour ago, we were sitting and she said what's the matter with you, I said I'm frightened by the limitations that I've got in this environment, it's quite spectacular really. But career? Oh no, this is just a bonus."

BJ: So Raising Sand, recorded in Nashville, which is where you are right now, probably the most famous musical city in the world. Why do you think it is the Mecca I suppose of music?

Krauss: "I think it helps it's in the middle of the country, what do you think? A shorter drive than going to one of the coasts. But this is right around, not far from where Jimmy Rogers was and where he grew up in Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee, that border of the two states, that the town shares the same name and it's the home of the Carter family. You know, some of the best country music came from there, the beginning of rock and roll came from there, and it's not far. And this was probably the next biggest city, and then of course the Grand Ole Opry started here and everybody loved that, ELVIS loved it. Its kind of Nashville and then the Louisiana Hayride, Grand Ole Opry and Louisiana Hayride, and everybody visited those places, all different types of music. It's so much more known for country music now, but it really was the home of all popular music for a while."

Plant: "Yes, yes. I mean, Memphis is only 200 miles from here, and that's a whole different… that's where Stax records is a high records one. That's where they were, and that's where Elvis recorded, and then of course when he slammed RCA he came to Nashville. I mean, that's when the studios were great, the quality of recording, equipment, and the history of RCA and the whole deal about the legacy here. Alabama state line is not that far from here, and then you drop down, once you go passed Memphis, you drop into Mississippi and wow, it's amazing."

Krauss: "You get blue collar music from all walks, all races here. They all came here."

BJ: Robert, I wanted to try and avoid any mentions of these constant Led Zeppelin rumours, but hear my question, because I think it's an interesting play. You've got your reasons as to why there isn't going to be the Led Zeppelin reunion with you, and its nice that you finally sort of set that out, because then we can put the rumours to bed. But you can understand I suppose the interest and why the public's appetite is still so intense.

Plant: "I guess I… well, you know, the thing is, look at it like this, the reason that it stopped was because we were incomplete, and we've been incomplete now for 28 years. And no matter what you do, you have to really guard the discretion of what you've done in the past and make sure that you have all the reasons in the right place to be able to do something with absolute, total conviction. I mean, if my great award is to do this, then I don't want to do anything where we challenge what we did in the first place by just going back and visiting it without having a new, fresh makeover start. I mean, you only get one shot at these things, and if they're spectacular on day one, if on day 10 they aren't so good… As Alison said, when we cut out, started to make Raising Sand, we gave ourselves a deal about if we don't get anything going in three days, let's just go out for lunch and say see you later. And I think the thing about it is really, is that to visit old ground, it's a very incredibly delicate thing to do, and the disappointment that could be there once you commit to that and the comparisons to something that was basically fired by youth and a different kind of exuberance to now, its very hard to go back and meet that head on and do it justice."

To read the entire interview head to this location.