Phil Collins explains why John Bonham had “the best bass drum of anybody”
With Peter Gabriel’s exit in 1974 and Steve Hackett’s following just three years later, Genesis was left increasingly under the leadership of Phil Collins. After the legendary drummer took over lead vocals, he blazed a more chart-orientated trail for the prog-rock group.
During Genesis’ prolific spell in the early ’80s, Collins kick-started a solo career on the side, releasing his two most popular LPs, Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going. Although he humoured his affections for soul music and contemporary pop, Collins never forgot his key percussive influences in rock ‘n’ roll, The Who’s Keith Moon and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham.
Collins’ highly accessible oeuvre was never void of propulsive, accentuating beats, none more iconic than in 1981’s ‘In the Air Tonight’. Intriguingly, the drummer was prepared to drop out of Genesis in 1978 to replace the recently deceased Moon in The Who. Collins even made an offer to bandleader Pete Townshend, but Kenney Jones had already been offered the position.
Collins was most attracted to Moon and Bonham’s explosive power, which gave a sturdy backbone to highly influential classic rock songs of the late 1960s and ‘70s. The Genesis drummer recalled seeing Bonham perform live for the first time in an interview on BBC Radio 6 in 2016. He had the rare opportunity of seeing the master in action before his Led Zeppelin fame.
“I saw John Bonham play at the Marquee Club with Tim Rose, who was an American singer, and he did this hit version of ‘Morning Dew’. He was on tour and had this guy John Bonham on drums,” Collins recalled. “I went to see Tim Rose, but when I saw Bonham, I had never seen anything like it.”
“He had the best bass drum of anybody I’ve ever seen, and I became a convert there and then,” he continued. “So I started to follow him wherever he was going to be playing in a band. Next time I saw him was with Led Zeppelin, when they were still called The New Yardbirds. The early Led Zeppelin was something to behold because nobody was doing that.”
Following Bonham’s tragic death in 1980, aged just 32, Led Zeppelin decided to disband. The group’s iconic frontman, Robert Plant, set off on a solo career in the 1980s and invited Collins to play during some of his early live shows.
In a 2023 interview with Vulture, Plant recalled Collins’ deep adoration for Bonham. “He came on tour with me and basically said, ‘Robert, the guy that sat behind you for all those years was my hero,’” the singer remembered. “That was it. He said, ‘Anything I can do to help you to get back into fighting shape again, I’m here.’ That was at the time when ‘In the Air Tonight’ came out. Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive and successful time.”
Watch Phil Collins perform behind Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin at Live Aid 1985 below.
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