5 Musicians Who Hated Led Zeppelin: ‘John Bonham Couldn’t Swing a Sack of S***’
Led Zeppelin seemed to burst onto the music scene. All it took was one stellar concert in early 1969 for singer Robert Plant to realize the band might mean something special. Yet the band’s members played in various bands (or worked as anonymous session musicians in the case of John Paul Jones). They won over fans almost immediately, but several other musicians hated Led Zeppelin with intense passion.
Led Zeppelin’s members disliked some of their own work
Several musicians hated Led Zeppelin and let the world know. Zep members have freely criticized their own work over the years.
Jimmy Page hates “Living Loving Maid” from Led Zeppelin II, even though he has himself to blame for its radio airplay over the years. His loathing of the butchered version of a classic Zep song is spot on, though.
Bassist Jones hates one Zep song from Houses of the Holy because of John Bonham’s drumming. His rhythm section partner felt the same way. Singer Robert Plant outgrew his love of Zeppelin’s signature song, “Stairway to Heaven,” as the band’s career wore on. Years after the band broke up, he said people were right to criticize Led Zeppelin in the late 1970s.
Those harsh words seem like gentle critiques compared to these five musicians who hated Led Zeppelin.
Jack Bruce
Cream and Led Zeppelin were barely contemporaries. Cream broke up in late 1968 and released a posthumous album in early 1969. Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, formed in late 1968, dropped its debut in early 1969, and became one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1970s.
Still, the bassist of one of the first and finest power trios didn’t hide his Led Zeppelin hatred. Jack Bruce laid into Page and Led Zeppelin during a 2008 award show, as George Case writes in Led Zeppelin FAQ:
“F*** off, Zeppelin, you’re crap. You’ve always been crap, and you’ll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they’re sold. Cream is 10 times the band that Led Zeppelin is. You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with f***ing Jimmy Page?”
Jack Bruce
Bruce hopelessly missed the mark with his hate for Led Zeppelin. The band had to fight for respect in England as many media members said they were all hype and no substance. People weren’t being sold anything. Page wasn’t as technically proficient on the guitar as Eric Clapton, but his riffs stand the test of time with fans. The salty Bruce (who died in 2014) didn’t hide how much he hated Led Zeppelin, but he was in the minority. Zep’s status as rock legends won’t be changing anytime soon.
Pete Townshend
Page played rhythm guitar on The Who’s first single, but that didn’t spare him from earning some disdain from Pete Townshend.
The Who guitarist accused Led Zeppelin of copying his band’s sound. Many musicians tend to be very protective of their artistic achievements, which could be a reason he detests the band. During one interview (available on YouTube), Townshend said he hated Led Zeppelin comparisons.
“I haven’t liked a single thing that they’ve done,” Townshend said. “I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them. I just never, ever liked them. It’s a real problem for me because, as people, they’re all really, really great guys. I just never liked the band.”
Keith Richards
Led Zeppelin never felt any competition with The Rolling Stones in the 1970s. That might have been because Zep supplanted their fellow English group as the most popular rock band around.
Keith Richards didn’t like many other bands of the era. He appreciated Page’s playing, but he didn’t like Led Zeppelin overall. Richards said Bonham was too heavy-handed, and the music sounded like a bunch of thudding away.
Richards is on the short list of musicians who hate Led Zeppelin, but his bandmate doesn’t share that opinion. Mick Jagger saw Zep play live in the 1970s and at their 2007 reunion gig, and the band blew him away each time.
Ginger Baker
Look at that. Another Cream member who hated Led Zeppelin! The band’s drummer loathed the band, but he reserved the harshest criticism for Bonham, saying he “couldn’t swing a sack of s***,” (per Uncut).
Legions of fans, including star drummers, would beg to disagree. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich calls Bonham the best drummer ever. Dave Grohl said the Bonham drum solo “Bonzo’s Montreux” was enough to make Coda his favorite Led Zeppelin record.
Of the musicians that detested Led Zep, Baker’s hatred might be the most misplaced.
Eric Clapton
It’s the Led Zeppelin-hating Cream trifecta. Eric Clapton wasn’t a fan of what Page did in Led Zeppelin even though they had a shared lineage as guitarists in the Yardbirds.
Clapton’s Cream bandmate Jack Bruce laid into Page and Led Zeppelin. Slowhand shared a similar opinion, but he said it more delicately.
“We had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz,” Clapton once said, per Uncut. “Led Zeppelin took up our legacy. But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for.”
Perhaps he was jealous of Led Zeppelin’s fame. Maybe he was resentful that Zep lasted far longer than Cream (which existed from 1966 to 1968). It could have been that Page’s band overshadowed Cream’s contribution to heavy, blues-based music. Whatever it was, Clapton was firmly a musician who hated Led Zeppelin.
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