The classic rock band Robert Plant blasted as boring: “Dull, obvious and sad”
Say what you like about Led Zeppelin, but they were never boring.
From Satan worship and partying with pornstars to allegedly getting frisky with fish, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones were never far from some form of debauchery, mythologised or otherwise.
They’ve come to encapsulate the glamour and excess of the 1970s rock scene. And they had a sound that boldly followed suit. But even the wildest parties must come to an end. Here, Robert Plant discusses the classic rock band that he felt lost their edge.
For Led Zeppelin, the end came on September 25th, 1980, when John Bonham was found dead by tour manager Benji LeFevre and bassist John Paul Jones. He’d been put to bed the evening before but had asphyxiated on his vomit during the night.
After the drummer’s remains were cremated and his ashes interred on October 12th, 1980, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin spent two months debating whether to carry on without Bonham. On December 6th, they called it quits. They knew that the magic of their sound was all in the mix, and things simply wouldn’t be the same.
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were,” they explained in a statement.
It would be years before the remaining members of Led Zeppelin would share the same stage again at Live Aid. In 2007, they reunited for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, during which Bonham’s son Jason drummed for the group. Until then, however, frontman Robert Plant had expressed resistance towards reforming Zeppelin, using The Who as an example of how “dull” reunion tours can be.
“I was frightened of the bandwagon,” Plant told Rolling Stone. “I saw the Who trundled around the stadiums of America, and I found it so dull, obvious and sad. The fact that they carried on without [Keith] Moon was always a mystery to me, but the fact that they did it again and again, augmenting it with more and more musicians … I don’t want to be a part of that aspect of entertainment. I’ve played Vegas already.”
In truth, even though the band only called it a day earlier in 2025, Townshend has shared similar sentiments himself. “The Who has gone on a bit too long with two of us dying,” he recently commented, “It does feel sometimes like flogging a dead horse.”
But while these remarks might reflect weariness on Townshend’s part, perhaps Plant’s scathing comments land closer to vengeance. After all, The Who guitarist wasn’t all that kind when it came to Led Zeppelin, once stating, “I don’t like a single thing that they have done, I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them.”
He continued through gritted teeth: “I just never ever liked them. It’s a real problem to me cause as people I think they are really really great guys. Just never liked the band.”
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