Robert Plant recently pondered how difficult it must be to write songs in the current state of society.

The musician released the first episode of his Digging Deep podcast, where he discussed the songwriting process from his Led Zeppelin years. He said he “never imagined a full-scale album project without the other guys, and even less the idea of new writing partners. But then, since 1981 I’ve enjoyed many amazing exciting musicians in the sharing, in the writing, the production and engineering – men and women who encouraged and enlightened, introducing me to crazy curves I could never have imagined.”

Plant also reflected on what it would be like to write lyrics today. “Right now, in 2019, I think we’re so confused and battered by circumstances within and outside our own existence, all around us. I can’t even imagine how anybody would go about writing a song, because these times are so intense,” he admitted. “I’m sure somewhere on Tin Pan Alley or that street in Nashville called Music Row – where there’s a lot of to-let signs, it’s a very quick turnover in a lot of areas – people are actually able to write ‘la-de-da’ love songs. … The writing has always been on the wall. We’ve always been kinda of aware of stuff; but it’s never been so evident and so heavy as it right now.”

Listen to the podcast below.