Led Zeppelin. They are as much a part of me as my very DNA. But there are tons of other bands I love just about as much. In no particular order:
Bob Dylan (my favorite single artist)
Bob Marley
Toots & The Maytals
Peter Tosh
The Beatles
The Yardbirds
The Who
Pink Floyd
The Black Crowes (NOT the current shitshow, the Ford era was the best)
Deep Purple
Grateful Dead
Stone Temple Pilots
The White Stripes
Jack White
The Raconteurs
Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon
Black Sabbath
Iron Maiden (LOVE this band!)
Judas Priest
Neil Young
The Greenhornes (the greatest band that nobody seems to know about)
The Kinks
The Rolling Stones
Van Halen (Roth eras only)
Picking one favorite album is like trying to pick your favorite child. Here are some that had a massive impact on me growing up, and remain favorites to this day:
All Led Zeppelin's albums (and many bootlegs, too)
Just about every Dylan album up until he went all religious in '79
All Beatles albums
All Keith Moon-era Who
In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Made In Japan (Deep Purple)
Roger The Engineer - The Yardbirds
All Pink Floyd from 1967 through "The Final Cut" (although that album is weaker than its predecessors imo).
Workingman's Dead, Aoxomoxoa, American Beauty, Europe '72 (Grateful Dead)
Elvis Presley Sun Sessions and the greatest hits albums my mom used to play.
The Village Green Preservation Society, Lola vs. Powerman & The Moneygoround, Arthur, Muswell Hillbillies, Face to Face (The Kinks)
*These are just off the top of my head. There are more, I know!!
Concerts? Again, there were so many great ones. Here's a few that stick out:
The Who in the summer of 2000. The previous times I saw them, they had a stage overloaded with musicians. Worse, Pete Townshend played acoustic only at those shows. That is just wrong! So that was what I was expecting in '00. Much to my surprise (and delight), it was just Pete, Roger, John, Zak Starkey and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keys. They were AMAZING. My soundboard recording of this show has a lot of mileage on it!!
John Paul Jones in 1999. People think he was the "quiet one" in Led Zeppelin, but this show was raucous, loud and unbelievably powerful. The building literally was shaking from his bass. All I could think of was, "Jesus, imagine this bass with Bonzo on drums and Page on guitar!" JPJ is criminally underrated, and I am so glad we got to see this concert.
The Black Crowes playing under their original moniker - "Mr. Crowes Garden" - in March of 2005. This was a "secret" warmup show at a tiny venue in western Massachusetts. Marc Ford was back on guitar and Eddie Harsch was back behind the keys. They absolutely blew the roof off the place. They played the best version I have ever heard of "Don't Do It." The near-orgasmic screams and cries of the crowd on the audience recording during this song attests to its potency. Incredible night.
Stone Temple Pilots in 2002. My wife was just getting into them, and she was blown away by how good they were. The sound was perfect, and the audience was singing every single word along with them. What a great time!!
Stephen Marley in 2011. Stephen is an amazing singer and songwriter in his own regard, and he mixed songs from his then-current album "Revelation Part 1: The Root of Life" (as well as his first album, "Mind Control") in with songs by his father, many of them deep cuts instead of the mainstream Marley stuff. His band is ferocious, and every bit as good as The Wailers were, with all due respect, of course. We saw him again in 2019 and it was just as good....even if it was still over 100 degrees outside at night when the show was starting. If you love reggae, go and see him. He is amazing.
One more: The Kinks in July of 1995. It was "hot, sticky; it was rock and roll", in the words of Ray Davies that night. Someone threw paper plates onstage with requests, and they abandoned a bunch of the tired old chestnuts in favor of some of the requests, and with good humor, I might add. This was the last of many Kinks shows I saw, and probably the best of them all. I mean, they played "The Village Green preservation Society" that night! That alone was enough to make it stand out. "Death of a Clown", "Skin and Bones" and "David Watts" were just icing on the cake. I chased a good quality recording of this all around the world, dealing with tape hoarders and general assholes along the way, until some great guy in Australia hooked me up with a great copy. The kicker? I was chasing a recording around the world of a show that was played within walking distance of where I grew up!
Sorry for the book, folks. I hope you enjoyed reading this if you stuck with me.