The classic rock band Led Zeppelin couldn’t stand touring with: “He was a raving nutcase!”
Touring often breeds tension among bands sharing the same bill, with rivalries surfacing even when they’re expected to act as a cohesive musical fraternity. For Led Zeppelin, this dynamic was particularly strained on one notable tour, where camaraderie was far from the reality.
Although the support act is often deemed to be an artist handpicked by the headliner, this is not always the case. Instead, outside interference from record labels or concert promoters typically dictates who will appear on a tour together.
During the 1970s, most bands would have done unspeakable things to land a spot supporting Led Zeppelin. They were the biggest band on the planet, selling out arenas in every city they descended upon, and touring alongside the rock behemoths was an opportunity to tap into their huge audience.
Initially, Jethro Tull were thrilled when the chance came calling to support Led Zeppelin. However, things didn’t turn out as planned. At the time, both groups were on the verge of superstardom. Rather than rise up the ranks together and bond over the joint experience, the two bands didn’t grow close during the run as Led Zeppelin made their support act feel unwelcome.
From the outside, it should have been a perfect pairing. Two bands rising through the ranks, sharing stages at a time when rock was expanding in every direction, with the promise of mutual respect and maybe even a bit of shared momentum.
But those kinds of assumptions rarely hold up once the tour actually begins. Long stretches on the road have a way of magnifying differences, and what might seem like minor contrasts in approach can quickly turn into fundamental divides when you’re playing night after night in close quarters.
In this case, it wasn’t just about personalities clashing, but philosophies. Zeppelin thrived on spontaneity and excess, while Tull leaned into precision and structure, and that gap proved difficult to bridge once the lights went up and expectations started to pull in different directions.
Before taking to the road together, the groups had some shared history due to being in the same scene in London. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson was full of admiration for his contemporaries. However, it wasn’t a mutual feeling on Led Zeppelin’s side, who were less than impressed with their touring buddies. Drummer John Bonham cruelly called them Jethro Dull backstage and labelled their show ‘Bore ’em At The Forum’.
Allegedly, the main reason Led Zeppelin were unimpressed with their support act was the predictability of their set. Rather than being a rock ‘n’ roll bonanza full of surprises, Jethro Tull rigidly stuck to the same setlist on a nightly basis, even interacting with the crowd in a tediously scripted manner during every show.
In the eyes of Led Zeppelin, a rock band should be able to improvise and feed off the crowd’s energy, whereas Jethro Tull planned everything in their set down to the nanosecond. In that sense, the two bands were a stark contrast, and Led Zeppelin believed their peers represented the antithesis of rock ‘n’ roll. Furthermore, the rock legends were unafraid about letting their feelings be known to Tull.
During the run of dates, Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant was particularly hostile to the support act and secluded himself away from the band rather than acting hospitably. For decades, murmurings about Led Zeppelin’s dislike for Jethro Tull followed them, and in 2020, the band’s frontman, Ian Anderson, finally had his say on the matter.
Playing down the rumours, he told Eon Music: “So when people ask me about my ‘feud’ with Robert Plant, then they can expect a sharp retort, because there was never a feud between me and Robert Plant. It’s one of these absurd things that seems to come up.”
Anderson then recalled the tour: “Led Zeppelin were Led Zeppelin; they were rock gods, and we were the humble support act. … We rarely spoke, particularly to Robert, who was on a higher plane, as a vocalist, and as a person. Jimmy Page was a little bit more friendly, but Bonham, you steered a mile away from, because he was a raving nutcase! He was always polite enough to me, but I probably just saw him on a rare good mood.”
While there may have been no bad blood on his side towards Led Zeppelin, Anderson did say he received an apology from Plant, which suggests the feud was real on his side. The Jethro Tull frontman explained: “He said, ‘I hope we can put that behind us,’ and I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Whatever it as we are supposed to be feuding about,’ and I said, ‘Exactly!’ We never had a feud, because we didn’t really communicate.”
Although it wasn’t the most heated rivalry in rock ‘n’ roll history, Led Zeppelin were hostile to Jethro Tull during that tour. However, it seemed mainly to be about them as live performers rather than genuine disdain for them as humans. Nevertheless, the fact that Plant felt obliged to apologise for his actions proves that he believes he was in the wrong, and Led Zeppelin could have been kinder to their touring buddies.
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