The drunken argument between John Bonham and Ritchie Blackmore
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones ruled the roost as the most successful British invasion rock bands in the 1960s. However, as the decade came to a close, several groups emerged with a heavier sound, ready to take the mantle from the Fab Four when they eventually parted ways in 1970. The Who and Led Zeppelin brought metallic weight to progressive rock compositions, while Black Sabbath and Deep Purple became the first fully-fledged heavy metal bands.
Thanks to John Bonham’s quaking percussion and Jimmy Page’s weighty guitar hooks, Led Zeppelin became heavily associated with the early heavy metal wave, lumbered in with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple in the so-called ‘Unholy Trinity’. With overlapping fanbases, these three bands crossed paths on various touring campaigns and social events. For the most part, each was complimentary about the other’s successes, but friendly rivalry could erupt into bitter disagreement when it came to comparisons.
Bonham was, for the most part, a reserved and humble man. However, when it came to his field of expertise, he was well aware of his excellence and perfectly willing to fight his corner, especially after a beer or two. As far as Bonzo was concerned, he and Cream’s Ginger Baker were the two greatest rock drummers in history.
Baker, a notably conceited yet hugely talented drummer, had his thoughts on Bonham’s analysis. “John Bonham once made a statement that there were only two drummers in British rock ‘n’ roll: himself and Ginger Baker,” Baker wrote in his humble memoir Hellraiser: The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Drummer. “My reaction to this was: ‘You cheeky little bastard!'”
In Baker’s mind, nobody could rival his jazz-infused percussion. Either way, Bonham was one hell of a drummer confident with his band’s claim to The Beatles’ throne in the 1970s. For the most part, Bonham would let the music do the talking, but in the throws of alcoholism and drug abuse, his thoughts sometimes surfaced in swipes at his contemporaries.
In a 2016 conversation with Classic Rock, Ritchie Blackmore, the iconic guitarist of Deep Purple, reflected on his friendship with the Led Zeppelin drummer. “I used to be very friendly with Bonzo from Led Zeppelin,” he revealed before recalling one occasion when Bonham started an argument between the two bands during a pub visit.
“We’d be sitting drinking in the Rainbow [popular club in LA], and he’d be really up and drunk or really depressed – and he’d be looking at the table,” Blackmore remembered. Out of the blue, the drummer launched an attack on Deep Purple’s signature track, ‘Smoke on the Water’: “It must be really hard to stand there and go: ‘der-der-derr, der-der, de-derr'” he said mockingly.
In return, Blackmore targetted Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’. “At least we don’t copy anybody!” he said before accusing the band of lifting the main hook from Jimi Hendrix’s version of ‘Hey Joe’. “‘You got it from ‘Hey Joe’, you just put it to a rhythm,'” Blackmore recalled saying. “He was not a happy man, but he started it.”
Allegedly, Bonham was prone to passionate and sometimes violent outbursts when inebriated. He would often become contrite after sobering up a touch or unwinding with a sprinkle in the pub toilet. “We’re both there, weeing away, and he says: ‘Rich, did you mean all that?’ I said: ‘No, not really, I was just having a go back at you,'” Blackmore added, remembering the swift hatchet burial. “He says: ‘Oh. I didn’t mean it either. There’s room at the top for everybody.’ So we carried on weeing, then went downstairs and started drinking again.”
Any rivalry between Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin might have been greater had the former made a bigger splash in the global pond. Undoubtedly, Deep Purple had a crucial hard rock influence with seminal releases like Machine Head and Deep Purple In Rock, but their success, both commercial and critical, cannot measure up to that of Led Zeppelin.
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