[asset|aid=27|format=image|formatter=asset|title=1039_0.jpg|width=240|height=163|align=left|resizable=true] Is it the Wicked Witch and the Cowardly Lion? Nope, it's me and Robert Plant in the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly after I grilled the PG Tips-loving Led Zeppelin frontman about his new record with Alison Krauss, his secret of live performance ("to be panic-stricken at all times") and the drink he prefers to imbibe in his local pub back home on the Welsh Borders ("a white wine spritzer", inexplicably).

Apart from my rendezvous with old Percy and Alison, Nashville was an absolute dream too. Honky tonks as far as the eye can see, steak and eggs for breakfast and enough vintage clothes stores to satisfy the most avid cowboy-shirt lover (including Muir, our photographer, who bought half the town). I'd love to go back there, and would like to know if any of you lot have dusty deep South stories you'd like to share too...