Robert Plant has described his life and music career as "a wardrobe of attempted personality changes".

Robert Plant

Robert Plant

The 69-year-old Led Zeppelin legend is fast approaching his 70th birthday and has just released his 11th solo studio LP 'Carry Fire'.

Plant has found himself pondering on his artistic output and believes his musical journey has been a succession of "remarkable gifts and experiences" all of which feed into his songwriting.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, he explained: "You know, this is not a career. It's an assembly of remarkable gifts and experiences. If I'm going to weave some words around three or four-minute pieces of music, it's got to be what's going on in me and around me. I've tried a lot of guises as a man and it's been like having a wardrobe of attempted personality changes."

On a slightly less profound note, Plant admits he loved recording his cover of the song 'Bluebirds Over The Mountain' - which he made with Chrissie Hynde, 66, for his latest album - because it gave him the opportunity to sing his favourite word 'baby' once again.

He added: "I haven't done enough of that for a while. In 1972, I think somebody in the back of Melody Maker counted the number of 'babys' that were uttered on one of our [Led Zeppelin's] albums.

"As a kid, I was into the Ritchie Valens version of 'Bluebirds Over The Mountain'. It's stunning and so simplistic. I was born in 1948, so in the middle of everything else happening today, what a relief to just sing a song that goes, 'Bring my baby back to me.' "