Robert Plant named legend

Robert Plant is getting a vinyl-world honor that has only gone to a handful of artists, and he is using it to roll out a new release at the same moment: Record Store Day named him its 2026 “Record Store Legend” on April 8, ahead of this year’s event on Saturday, April 18. (recordstoreday.co.uk) This is not a lifetime-achievement trophy from a hall of fame. It is an award created by Record Store Day’s United States and United Kingdom organizers for artists with a long public connection to independent record shops, and the first recipient was Elton John in 2017. (recordstoreday.co.uk, goldminemag.com) Johnny Marr received the same award in 2025, which makes Plant only the third named recipient in the public list Record Store Day highlighted this week. That small list is part of the point: the award is less about chart totals than about being visibly tied to record-store culture. (recordstoreday.co.uk, goldminemag.com) Plant fits that image neatly because this announcement was paired with a visit to Spillers Records in Cardiff, which is widely billed as the world’s oldest record shop. Record Store Day and Billboard both framed that stop as part of the 2026 campaign around his award. (billboard.com, recordstoreday.co.uk) He is also not treating the honor like a museum plaque. On February 4, Nonesuch announced that Robert Plant and Saving Grace would release a vinyl extended play record called *Saving Grace: All That Glitters...* on Record Store Day, April 18, 2026. (nonesuch.com) That extended play record is a four-song release, and Record Store Day lists it as a 12-inch vinyl exclusive limited to 3,500 copies. In record-store terms, that is exactly the kind of scarce, one-day item that gets people lining up before doors open. (recordstoreday.com) The release is tied to Plant’s current band, Saving Grace, and to singer Suzi Dian, not to a Led Zeppelin reunion or a greatest-hits package. Nonesuch says the EP follows his recent *Saving Grace* album and features Dian plus the group of musicians Plant has been working with in the English countryside. (nonesuch.com) Record Store Day’s listing says the four tracks are new studio recordings, and it names the songs as “Blackest Crow,” “Poison,” “Orphan Girl,” and “She Cried.” The choices lean toward traditional, folk, and songwriter material, which tells you where Plant’s late-career interests are sitting right now. (recordstoreday.com) One small detail shows how closely the release is being folded into the event itself: the official Record Store Day page gives April 18, 2026 as the release date, the same day thousands of independent shops are holding in-store events and selling limited editions. The award and the EP are not separate stories running in parallel; they are one coordinated Record Store Day push. (recordstoreday.com, goldminemag.com) So the picture is pretty clear by now. A 77-year-old singer best known for filling arenas with Led Zeppelin is spending April 2026 being celebrated by independent record stores while also giving those stores a new Robert Plant record that fans can only get through the same vinyl ecosystem. (yahoo.com, recordstoreday.com, recordstoreday.co.uk)