12 Music Legends Annoyed By Led Zeppelin, 1 Will Really Surprise You

Unquestionably, one of the most recognizable rock bands in history is Led Zeppelin. With their exhilarating fusion of heavy metal and blues, the band developed a genre, led by John Bonham’s thunderous drumming, Jimmy Page’s brilliant guitar work, and Robert Plant’s forceful vocals. With timeless hits like “Immigrant Song,” “Whole Lotta Love,” and “Stairway to Heaven,” their music has stood the test of time and is now considered a mainstay of classic rock. They have sold millions of records and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their first attempt, even though they have never had a No. 1 single.

Legends, however, are not without their detractors. Surprisingly, other rock artists are among the band’s most vocal critics. Some of the biggest names in music have been critical of Led Zeppelin for a variety of reasons, including their success, style, and overall dominance of the rock world. Let’s examine why certain celebrities simply weren’t lovers of the powerful Led Zeppelin and delve into the backstories of these surprising feuds.

12. Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend, guitarist for The Who, doesn’t shy away from sharing his thoughts on Led Zeppelin, and let’s just say he’s not a fan. While The Who and Zeppelin dominated the rock scene in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Townshend has consistently called out Zeppelin’s sound as derivative. “We sort of invented heavy metal with Live at Leeds,” he told the Toronto Sun (via Far Out), referring to The Who’s groundbreaking 1970 live album. “We were copied by so many bands, principally by Led Zeppelin — you know, heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar.”

In a 1995 interview, Townshend doubled down, admitting, “I just never, ever liked them. It’s a real problem to me, ’cause as people, I think they’re all really, really great guys. Just never liked the band.” He even acknowledged their massive success, adding, “They became so much bigger than The Who in so many ways, in their chosen field — I’ve never liked them.”

Always one for a cheeky comment, Townshend quipped during a 2011 Radio Festival lecture, “The Who were okay, but without me, they would have all ended up working in the flower market, or worse — in Led Zeppelin.” Classic Townshend!

11. Keith Richards
Keith Richards had mixed feelings about Led Zeppelin right from the start. When their debut album dropped in 1969, the Rolling Stones guitarist was initially impressed—until Robert Plant’s vocals wore on him. “I played their album quite a few times when I first got it, but then the guy’s voice started to get on my nerves,” Richards admitted to Rolling Stone. “Maybe he’s a little too acrobatic. But Jimmy Page is a great guitar player, and a very respected one.”

Decades later, Richards still wasn’t sold on the band as a whole. He admired Page’s guitar skills but couldn’t get past the rest of the Zeppelin vibe. “I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler,” he said in another Rolling Stone interview. “Jimmy is a brilliant player. But I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?”

10. Jack Bruce
In the late 1960s, British rock saw two powerhouse bands redefining blues guitar: Cream and Led Zeppelin. While both pushed the limits of guitar-driven music, comparisons between Cream’s Eric Clapton and Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page didn’t sit well with Cream’s Jack Bruce. “What? You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with that f***ing Jimmy Page? Would you really compare that?” Bruce asked during a 2008 interview with Classic Rock Magazine (via Ultimate Guitar).

Bruce’s critique didn’t stop at Page. Following Led Zeppelin’s one-off reunion show, Bruce had some fiery opinions. “Everybody talks about Led Zeppelin, and they played one f***ing gig — one f***ing lame gig,” he said, contrasting it with Cream’s own reunion. “Cream did weeks of gigs; proper gigs, not just a lame gig like Zeppelin did, with all the keys lowered and everything.”

Bruce didn’t hold back his disdain for Zeppelin, boldly declaring, “F*** off, Zeppelin, you’re crap. You’ve always been crap… Cream is 10 times the band that Led Zeppelin is.”

9. Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker, the legendary drummer of Cream, brought jazz finesse to the blues-rock trio alongside Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton. Known for his fiery personality, Baker shared his bandmate’s less-than-glowing opinion of Led Zeppelin. Reflecting on Zeppelin’s rise after Cream’s breakup, Baker told Forbes, “I don’t think Led Zeppelin filled the void that Cream left. But they made a lot of money.” He admitted to liking “about 5% of what they did,” calling the rest “heavy bish-bash, jing-bap, jing-bash bulls***.”

When it came to Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, Baker didn’t mince words. “There’s no way John was anywhere near what I am. He wasn’t a musician,” Baker claimed, highlighting his own formal training and ability to write music. Summing up his opinion in the 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker (via the Miami New Times), Baker quipped, “Bonham had technique, but he couldn’t swing a sack of s***.”

8. Eric Clapton
Often hailed as one of rock’s most innovative guitarists, Eric Clapton hasn’t held back when discussing his conflicted thoughts regarding Led Zeppelin. Clapton didn’t share Zeppelin’s passion for the blues-rock sound, even though he helped create it with supergroups like Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos. The fact that Clapton was formerly a member of the Yardbirds and Jimmy Page, one of Zeppelin’s founders, is interesting and adds to the similarity.
Reflecting on Cream’s influence, Clapton told Uncut in 2012, “We had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz. 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.”

His skepticism wasn’t new. After attending an early Zeppelin show in 1969, Clapton described it as “unnecessarily loud” in Ritchie Yorke’s Led Zeppelin: The Definitive Biography (via Ultimate Classic Rock). While he admitted liking parts of their performance, he felt “a lot of it was just too much” and overdone.

7. Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain, the creative force behind Nirvana, helped define the grunge rock movement of the 1990s. With powerful riffs and down-tuned guitars, Nirvana’s sound fused the raw energy of punk rock with echoes of ’70s arena rock. While those influences shaped Nirvana’s music, Cobain had complicated feelings about some of the bands he admired as a teenager.

Reflecting on those years, Cobain told The Observer’s Jon Savage in 1993 (via PRX), “Although I listened to Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, and I really did enjoy some of the melodies they’d written, it took me so many years to realize that a lot of it had to do with sexism.” He was disillusioned by the way their lyrics often glorified machismo and objectified women.

Cobain explained that this realization hit him in high school: “The way that they just wrote about their d**** and having sex… I was just starting to understand what really was p***ing me off so much.” Punk rock became the antidote, he added, saying, “It just fit together like a puzzle.”

6. Jimi Hendrix
Like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix had a great love for the blues and frequently honored the genre by performing its classics. Despite the terrible end of his life and career in 1970, he had a brief encounter with Led Zeppelin’s early years and wasn’t really fond of them.

Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice remembered Hendrix giving his opinions when they were on tour. In a 2006 interview with Classic Rock Revisited (via Blabbermouth), Appice disclosed, “Jimi Hendrix personally told me that he didn’t like Zeppelin because they were like excess baggage and that they stole from everybody.” Hendrix noted that Jeff Beck’s rendition of “You Shook Me” and Led Zeppelin’s were comparable, and that “Dazed and Confused” had echoes of Vanilla Fudge.

Following Hendrix’s lead, Appice identified further possible appropriations, such as riffs that resembled compositions by Jeff Beck and even Tim Bogert, the bassist for Vanilla Fudge. “I believe a band member told me that Tim Bogert’s bass line was the source of the ‘Good Times Bad Times’ riff,” Appice continued.

5. Angus Young
As Led Zeppelin’s reign in hard rock was winding down in the late 1970s, AC/DC was just hitting its stride, churning out high-energy, no-frills stadium anthems. But not everyone in the rock world was a fan of Zeppelin’s approach—especially AC/DC’s own Angus Young. In a 1977 interview with journalist Harry Doherty, Young didn’t hold back his critique of the direction rock had taken, placing some blame squarely on Zeppelin.

“They musta progressed the wrong way,” Young said (via Classic Rock). “I’ll tell you when it stopped getting good—when the Rolling Stones put out ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Street Fightin’ Man.’ Past that, there’s nuthin’. Led Zeppelin and all that have just been poor imitators of The Who and bands like that. That’s when I reckon it stopped.”

Young’s disdain solidified after watching a less-than-thrilling Zeppelin show. “I’ve seen that band live, and they were on for three hours. For two and a half hours, they bored the audience, and then at the end, they pull out old rock ’n’ roll numbers to get the crowd movin’,” he said. “That’s sick. They’re supposed to be the most excitin’ rock ’n’ roll band in the world.”

4. Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is renowned for both his music and his lyrical lyrics; in fact, his songwriting earned him the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan, who is well-known for writing complex and frequently perplexing songs, didn’t need to use a lot of words to make a pointed criticism of Led Zeppelin.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ian McLagan, who had previously played keyboard for the Small Faces and the Faces, joined Dylan’s touring band. McLagan described a notable conversation between Dylan and Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin, in his memoir All the Rage (via Vulture).

At a high-profile gathering in the middle of the 1970s, Grant went up to Dylan and introduced himself.“‘Hello, Bob. I’m Peter Grant. I manage Led Zeppelin,’” Grant said. Dylan’s quick, biting reply? “‘I don’t come to you with my problems.’” Sometimes, especially when it comes from Bob Dylan, one line speaks for itself.

3. The band Spirit
Randy California, a talented guitarist and Jimi Hendrix protégé, tragically died in 1997. His most well-known work was with the psychedelic rock group Spirit, which also featured Jay Ferguson, who penned the theme song for the US version of The Office and went on to achieve a top 10 success with “Thunder Island.”

California’s estate sued Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin in 2014, alleging that the famous guitar intro to “Stairway to Heaven” was lifted from Spirit’s 1968 instrumental, “Taurus.” The case was dropped in 2016, but it was brought up again by an appeals court, which resulted in a new trial. In 2020, Led Zeppelin again won the legal battle.

Spirit’s estate lawyer, Francis Malofiy, wasn’t afraid to voice his annoyance. “What you have here is a big win for the multi-billion dollar industry against the creatives,” he told Rolling Stone. “I love Led Zeppelin, but they’re the greatest art thieves of all time… They absolutely stole that piece of work.”

2. Paul Simonon
In response to bands like Led Zeppelin’s extravagant, bluesy rock, punk music emerged in the late 1970s. Punk embraced a more raw, simpler style with short, rapid songs and brutal lyrics, whereas Zeppelin’s grand, mystical compositions dominated the arena rock scene. Zeppelin was not noisy, rebellious, or politically motivated like punk bands like The Clash were.

Paul Simonon, the bassist for The Clash, expressed his feelings regarding Led Zeppelin in 1977. Simonon didn’t mince words when asked if he enjoyed their music. “Led Zeppelin? I don’t need to hear the music,” he responded. Zeppelin’s high-flying, theatrical rock and punk’s stripped-down, in-your-face attitude clashed wonderfully in his comment, “All I have to do is look at one of their album covers and I feel like throwing up.”

1. John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones, the bassist for Led Zeppelin, generally looks back at the band’s work with pride. However, there’s one track from 1973 that still bugs him: the reggae-influenced “D’yer Mak’er.” He wasn’t happy with John Bonham’s drumming on it. “It would have been all right if [Bonham] had worked at the part,” Jones explained in an interview with Chris Welch (via George Case’s Led Zeppelin FAQ). “The whole point of reggae is that the drums and the bass really have to be very strict about what they play. And he wouldn’t, so it sounded dreadful.”

After Bonham’s death in 1980, Led Zeppelin ended, but the surviving members reunited for charity concerts in 1985 and 2007. Still, when Robert Plant and Jimmy Page teamed up in 1994, Jones felt left out. “I just thought I should have been informed about it,” he said to Rolling Stone. “To find out about it in the papers was a bit odd.” Jones also admitted that despite their success, Led Zeppelin wasn’t really a close-knit group. “We weren’t friends,” he revealed in a 2007 Q interview.