Robert Plant honored

Robert Plant is getting a new kind of rock-star tribute this month: not a hall of fame slot or a lifetime-achievement speech, but Record Store Day’s “Record Store Legend” award just 10 days before the 2026 event on Saturday, April 18. The award is jointly given by Record Store Day in the United States and the United Kingdom, and Plant follows Elton John in 2017 and Johnny Marr in 2025. (recordstoreday.com) (recordstoreday.co.uk) Record Store Day is the annual push that turns independent music shops into release-day destinations, with limited vinyl, live sets, and store events built around one Saturday. The 2026 edition is the 19th annual celebration, and thousands of independent stores are expected to take part worldwide. (goldminemag.com) (recordstoreday.com) Plant fits the award because this one is partly about record-shop culture, not just chart history. Record Store Day’s announcement says he was honored for his impact on music and for supporting new artists, record shops, and the wider record-store community. (recordstoreday.co.uk) (officialcharts.com) The visual attached to the honor was unusually literal: Plant visited Spillers Records in Cardiff, Wales, to oversee installation of the official plaque. Spillers describes itself as the world’s oldest record shop, which makes it the kind of place this award wants to celebrate in the first place. (recordstoreday.com) (billboard.com) He is not just picking up a plaque and moving on. On April 18, Plant is also releasing a Record Store Day exclusive 12-inch vinyl extended play record called “Saving Grace: All That Glitters… with Suzi Dian” through Nonesuch. (recordstoreday.com) (nonesuch.com) That extended play record has four new studio recordings and a small pressing by modern superstar standards: 3,500 copies. The listed songs are “Blackest Crow,” “Poison,” “Orphan Girl,” and “She Cried,” which keeps the release aimed at collectors who actually show up at independent shops on the day. (recordstoreday.com) The music itself says a lot about where Plant is now. Instead of revisiting Led Zeppelin at full volume, this release continues his recent work with Saving Grace and singer Suzi Dian, a group centered on folk, Americana, and older songs reshaped by a smaller band. (nonesuch.com) (recordstoreday.co.uk) That is why this award lines up neatly with this particular release. Record Store Day is built around formats, scarcity, and crate-digging, and Plant’s new project is a four-track vinyl-only item made for people willing to go into a shop and find it in person on April 18, 2026. (recordstoreday.com 1) (recordstoreday.com 2) So the story is not just that Robert Plant got honored. It is that one of rock’s most famous singers is being used to spotlight the older ritual of browsing bins in independent stores, and he is doing it with a limited record made specifically for that ritual. (recordstoreday.co.uk) (nonesuch.com)