When Chris Cornell called Heart “the American Led Zeppelin”
When the grunge movement emerged from the Pacific Northwest of the US in the mid-1980s, there were a number of bands at its forefront that were helping to propel it from having been an underground subculture to a mainstream musical phenomenon. While bands like Nirvana often get all the plaudits for having pushed the genre in both an artistically exciting direction and one that was commercially viable, there were plenty of others that were just as important to its existence, such as Mudhoney and Soundgarden.
However, this movement surely wouldn’t have existed without other musical trends having captured the attention of audiences in the decades prior. The forerunners to grunge can often be found within the punk and hard rock movements that emerged primarily from the UK and the US during the ’70s. Once again, there were plenty of acts that helped bring these genres into the limelight, and if there was one act making waves on one side of the Atlantic, there was almost certainly another act concurrently achieving the same across the pond.
It could be argued that Led Zeppelin was one of the most important acts of the hard rock movement, garnering success both at home in the UK and in the States. A band that needs little introduction, their heavy fusion of blues rock with progressive elements was rapidly adopted as the go-to sound by other acts that emerged in their wake. Having debuted in 1969, they can certainly be classed as innovators within their field.
While they found success at home in the UK, they didn’t take long to conquer other parts of the world, venturing on multiple US tours within their first year of existence and releasing their first two studio albums. However, while they can lay claim to having helped birth this sound, there were plenty of acts that were evidently influenced by them and were instrumental in helping to spread the hard rock sound they had created.
In the eyes of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, a key figure in the grunge movement that was so heavily influenced by hard rock, Led Zeppelin were not without their equivalents in the US, and named a band that he grew up listening to and admiring in the Seattle area as being the “American version of Led Zeppelin”. Referring to the hard rock outfit Heart, Cornell was of the opinion that the band, fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, were not just imitators of the sound that Led Zeppelin had brought to the world but worthy rivals to them that deserved more recognition.
Best known for hits such as ‘Barracuda’, ‘Alone’ and ‘These Dreams’, Cornell was enthralled by what Heart managed to deliver as a response to their British counterparts, and when he was invited to induct the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, he praised the group for “kicking total ass” and breaking down gender barriers in a male-dominated sphere.
“You had the sense that here’s a band that knew exactly what they were doing, where they were going, taking a queue from Zeppelin and displaying astonishing range,” Cornell stated in his speech, going on to say that “their relationship is tied to their love of rock and roll.”
While Heart might not have had the same impact as Led Zeppelin on both sides of the Atlantic, their importance to the hard rock canon is difficult to argue against. When it comes to their influence on Cornell and his later contributions to the grunge scene that followed, the sheer power behind the vocals of the Wilson sisters was undeniably hugely informative to his own style.
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