What 10 Other Bands Think About Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin is the band that defined the 70s. That much is cleared. The songs, the performances, and even their image marked this decade, even beyond rock and the birth of metal. It is a testament that the band ended in 1980 because of the tragic passing of drummer John Bonham and their legacy is still going strong to this very day.
In that regard, it is very logical that a lot of bands would have a lot to say about Led Zeppelin. Some notorious acts were colleagues of theirs while others were influenced. There is also the fact that everyone has an opinion regarding a band of this caliber. Some of these words are positive while others are a bit more controversial. However, all of them highlight the importance of this group in the history of music, not just rock and metal.
1. Megadeth
It’s no secret that Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine is a very vocal man. When he has an opinion, he is going to say it, consequences be damned. In that regard, he has stated several times that he loves Led Zeppelin but also that they declined during their latter years.
“I remember when Led Zeppelin came around,” Mustaine said in AXS TV in 2024. “It was the last time that they toured while John Bonham was alive. And I had heard ‘The Song Remains the Same‘ live album, and I thought, ‘These guys aren’t playing good anymore.'”
Moreover, the Megadeth frontman also stated that he has never managed to connect with the band’s guitarist, Jimmy Page.
“It’s funny though, I’ve never really been able to make a connection with Jimmy. We’ve talked several times. I know he’s a friendly person, but just never been able to connect with him.”
2. Van Halen
Van Halen could be considered Led Zeppelin‘s successor in terms of the relevance they had in the 80s. Moreover, Eddie Van Halen took over as the definitive 80s guitarist, possible taking over Jimmy Page’s place. In that regard, when talking to Guitar World in 1981, Eddie had a rather controversial when it comes to Page.
“Jimmy Page is an excellent producer. ‘Led Zeppelin‘ and ‘Led Zeppelin II‘ are classics. As a player, he’s very good in the studio. But I never saw him play well live. He’s very sloppy. He plays like he’s got a broken hand and he’s two years old. But if you put out a good album and play like a two-year-old live. What’s the purpose?”
Later on, in 1993, Eddie Van Halen gave a speech when Page was added to Hollywood’s Rock Walk, highlighting the man’s career and achievements.
“I don’t think there is anybody here who has not been afected or touched by Jimmy Page’s music, his guitar playing. So the guy is a f*cking legend, you know. He influenced me and everybody that I know. What more can I say? Thank you for being here, I’m honored for being here, thank you.”
3. Glenn Hughes
The legendary “Voice of Rock” was fortunate enough to be good friends with Led Zeppelin, particularly with drummer John Bonham. And when he was talking about his favorite records with Louder Sound back in 2021, he mentioned the role Bonham had in his love for the album “Harvest” by Neil Young in 1972.
“Bonzo (John Bonham) played ‘Harvest’ over and over and over again while I was at his house and I grew to love it. I moved to Laurel Canyon in LA partly to get close to where those (singer-songwriter) guys were all based. It was sacred ground and I wanted to be where Joni (Mitchell) lived. I’d like to think it rubbed off on me – I’m a student of the human voice.”
4. Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath were not only colleagues but also friends of Led Zeppelin. Guitarist Tony Iommi, in particular, had a good friendship with the likes of vocalist Robert Plant and John Bonham. Speaking at the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, Iommi shared some secrets regarding what makes the English titans tick as a musical entity:
“In some bands, guitars are the thing. But in Led Zeppelin, the drums were the main power behind the band. (Their sound) was a sort of a mixture of all sorts of stuff in there, even Reggae. Let’s put it this way… Can you imagine music without Led Zeppelin? Because I can’t!”
The leader of Black Sabbath would return to talk about John Bonham and his loud playing still in 2020 when he spoke to Guitarist Magazine.
“We knew Planty and Bonham. Bonham was the best man at my first wedding. I used to knock about with him a lot. We used to play the same gigs. We’d be playing at this club and he’d be with another band. ‘They fired me.’ ‘What happened?’ ‘I’m too loud.’ And then he’d go with another band and get fired from them because he was too loud. He was constantly in and out of bands.”
“In the early days there was a rivalry between Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but not a bad kind of rivalry,” Iommi said to Classic Rock in 2014. “We weren’t horrible to each other. Deep Purple we really didn’t know, but we were friends with Zeppelin.”
5. Cream
Legendary bassist and singer Jack Bruce might stand out in this list. Back in 2008 when Led Zeppelin reunited for the “Celebration Day” performance, the former Cream member went on a rant, highlighting how his band was superior to them.
“Everybody talks about Led Zeppelin, and they played one f… gig while Cream did weeks of gigs. Proper gigs, not just a lame gig like Zeppelin did, with all the keys lowered and everything. We played everything in the original keys.”
“F… off, Zeppelin, you’re crap. You’ve always been crap, and you’ll never be anything else. Cream is ten times the band that Led Zeppelin is. You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with that f… Jimmy Page? Would you really compare that? No! Eric’s good, and Jimmy’s crap. Zeppelin came along and had a very easy ride in that way. We were the pioneers, and pioneers don’t always get the recognition they deserve, maybe.”
It is understandable, to a degree, that Bruce has a cheap on his shoulder. After all, Cream perhaps never got the credit they deserved worldwide for their contributions to rock music. However, there is no denying that his perception of Page and co. is quite scathing.
6. Greta Van Fleet
The recent band Greta Van Fleet built their reputation through strong similarities to Led Zeppelin. While it might be a bit unfair, it is true that they sounded too much like Page and co. Therefore, it is not surprising that they had to talk about these comparisons at some point in their careers.
When speaking at Talk is Jericho back in 2021, singer John Kiszka and drummer Danny Wagner shared their views on this topic
“Yeah, I always tell people if they bring it up, it’s like – how long ago was it since a band went into a studio and played in a room live to record it that way, using 100% real instruments and real takes without any budging around and everything?,” Danny said. “Yeah, you could probably date it back to the ’70s – no s… we sound like that.”
“I guess there’s a certain similarity in the approach, but as far as influences go, we’re eclectic, really. Sam (Kiszka, bass), Jake (Kiszka, guitar), and I – I mean, my father had a pretty big collection of music. Vinyl, cassettes, all of that stuff- CDs,” Josh added. “He kind of inherited a lot of the stuff from my grandparents, we were listening to stuff like Sinatra or Big Bands, or even as strange instrumental albums from the ’60s, crazy exotic world music, and stuff. Jake was really the big rock ‘n’ roll guy, that’s where he was coming from, so that’s why kind of Zeppelin or Jethro Tull, and a lot of blues stuff, like Howlin’ Wolf, that kind of stuff, and then some folk stuff, ’70s folk stuff.”
7. Deep Purple
These legends and colleagues of Led Zeppelin have shared their opinions on the latter throughout the years. Bassist Roger Glover, talking to Barbara Caserta of Italy’s Linea Rock in 2017, shared his thoughts regarding Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as well as the evolution of heavy music in the 60s.
“I didn’t actually know much about Black Sabbath,” Roger said. “I thought ‘Paranoid‘ was a great single; I loved that. But the depths of the albums I never really got into. Zeppelin I heard before I joined Purple — just within a couple of weeks. And I loved it — that first Zeppelin album blew me away and changed my thinking about music, actually.”
“But I’d suddenly realized, when I listened to Zeppelin, especially ‘Dazed And Confused‘ and ‘How Many More Times‘, ‘heavy’ didn’t mean loud and big; it was an attitude. That was the key. And right on the heels of that came meeting Deep Purple. So it was a meeting of disparate things that all of a sudden I actually got the knowledge of where I’m going a little bit as opposed to just shooting in the dark.”
Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore also cited Led Zeppelin as an influence in 1995 when interview by Classic Rock.
“I was impressed with what Zeppelin did,” Blackmore explained. “I wanted to do that kind of stuff, and if it doesn’t take off, we’ll go and play with orchestras the rest of our lives. So we did it, and it was ‘Deep Purple In Rock‘, which, luckily, took off. We’d purposely made it so it hammered along every song, there was no lull. I was very pleased with it because I never wanted to work with an orchestra again.”
8. Rush
There is no denying that Rush is one of the greatest and most respected rock bands to ever live. Their musicianship, professionalism, and consistency have made their career an example for bands everywhere. In that regard, it is no surprised that Led Zeppelin was a major influence of theirs, especially considering the similarities in sound when it comes to the latter’s debut album.
“They were a huge, huge influence on us,” bassist and singer Geddy Lee said in Classic Rock in 2021. “We wanted to be them instantly. But their stuff was hard to play. We tried a number of Zeppelin songs when we played in the bars, but we felt we couldn’t pull them off. We did have ‘Livin’ Lovin’ Maid‘ in our set for a while, though.”
“Plant’s extreme vocal range and Jimmy’s guitar histrionics put this band way over the mark,” Lee said in his 2023 autobiography, “My Effin’ Life: From Holocaust Roots to Rock and Roll Stardom“. “And for me John Paul Jones’s emotionally moving bass lines welded perfectly to the drum parts, grounding the band and creating a rhythm section for a new age of rock. The Who were full of abandon, rockin’ hard and melodically brilliant; Jimi was musical voodoo and flamboyance incarnate; Cream was a showcase of bluesy virtuosity; but this? This was heavy, man. Zep had reforged the blues in an explosive and very English style that would speak to our generation of players like no other. For us there was Rock before Zep came along, and there was Rock after. This was our new paradigm.”
9. Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden is one of the greatest metal and English bands of all time, so, naturally, they had things to say about Led Zeppelin. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson talked about his love for both Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin in Loudwire’s YouTube channel back in 2015, highlighting the latter group’s English folk roots in their sound.
“The early Robert Plant stuff, really early Zeppelin was unbelievable,” Dickinson said in 2015. “My favourite stuff from that era, they did like Danish TV shows and they did live. Wow, it is like completely unedited. Raw as it was and it’s just astonishing, it’s primal.”
“I was always a bigger Purple fan than Zeppelin. But I never saw either Zeppelin or Purple when I was a kid, when they were in their heyday. Zeppelin were adopted by American radio big-style. But I’ve got to confess that the thing I loved most about Zeppelin was their English folk roots. Not their copies of American blues tracks.”
10. Kingdom Come
Before Greta Van Fleet, there was Kingdom Come. The German hard rock band started in the 80s and were constantly accused of being a Led Zeppelin clone. In fact, Jimmy Page criticized them for that and Irish legend Gary Moore took a jab at them with the zone “Led Clones” in his “After the War” record, featuring Ozzy Osbourne on vocals.
This was further emphasized by a comment vocalist Lenny Wolf said in Kerrang! Magazine, claiming he never heard of Led Zeppelin. While he meant it in a ironic matter, this comment only made the situation worse. Even to this day, some people think that the comparisons hurt Kingdom Come‘s chances from making it big.
“Like I said, we took it as a compliment and were excited,” Lenny Wolf said in 2011 when talking to Southeast of Heaven. “We were playing in London the night before Robert Plant was playing and we went down to see him. He was goofing with us, having fun and he was so relaxed. Robert Plant is like above all. He’s really above everything. He was joking with us and it was really great. It really made me sad when I noticed Jimmy Page, who was one of my heroes, starting to whine about little Kingdom Come who was never really a threat at all. I’m very happy and very grateful that whatever happened happened because I could be driving a truck here in Germany delivering washing machines or whatever so who am I to complain?”
