Robert Plant gets RSD honor

Robert Plant is getting a new kind of plaque this month, and it is not going on an arena wall. Record Store Day named him its 2026 Record Store Legend and had him unveil the honor at Spillers Records in Cardiff, the shop widely billed as the world’s oldest record store. (recordstoreday.com) (billboard.com) The timing is precise: Record Store Day 2026 is Saturday, April 18, and Plant is tied directly to that shopping event with an exclusive release sold through participating independent stores. Record Store Day says the annual event’s 2026 list lands in stores that day, not through a normal wide release rollout first. (recordstoreday.com 1) (recordstoreday.com 2) The release is a 12-inch vinyl extended play record called Saving Grace: All That Glitters… with Suzi Dian. Record Store Day lists 3,500 copies and labels it an exclusive release, which is the kind of scarcity that gets collectors lining up before doors open. (recordstoreday.com) This is not a Led Zeppelin nostalgia product. Nonesuch says the four-song record continues Plant’s current Saving Grace project, which features singer Suzi Dian and the band of musicians he has been working with from the English countryside. (nonesuch.com) The four tracks are not random leftovers either. Record Store Day lists new studio recordings of “Blackest Crow,” “Poison,” “Orphan Girl,” and “She Cried,” pulling from traditional folk material as well as songs tied to Bert Jansch and Gillian Welch. (recordstoreday.com) The award itself is unusually selective. Record Store Day says Elton John was the first Record Store Legend in 2017, Johnny Marr received it in 2025, and Plant is now the latest name in that short line. (recordstoreday.com) (recordstoreday.co.uk) That helps explain why the ceremony happened in a shop, not at a generic press event. Record Store Day framed the honor around Plant’s long public attachment to record stores, and Plant himself said physical records are where listeners get closer to what an artist was considering. (recordstoreday.co.uk) The wider event is built for exactly this kind of moment. Record Store Day UK says the 2026 edition is the 19th, with more than 280 United Kingdom shops and thousands of stores worldwide taking part through exclusive physical releases and in-store events. (recordstoreday.co.uk) Plant is not the face of the whole campaign, which makes the distinction clearer. Bruno Mars is the official 2026 Record Store Day ambassador, while Plant gets the separate legend honor and his own limited release inside the same April 18 rush. (recordstoreday.com 1) (recordstoreday.com 2) So the story is less “classic rock star gets another award” than “a 77-year-old artist with a current band gets folded into the biggest annual day for indie record shops.” On April 18, the plaque at Spillers and the 3,500-copy EP are both aimed at the same thing: getting people into record stores while the bins are still full. (billboard.com) (recordstoreday.com)