What did Charlie Watts think of John Bonham?
Charlie Watts and John Bonham were two of the greatest rock drummers of their generation. Though their approaches couldn’t have been more different, they were united by a shared love of classic American blues and rock ‘n’ roll, an adoration that led to dizzying careers in the upper echelons of the British rock scene. Before sadly passing away in 2021, Charlie Watts was asked for his opinion on some of his contemporaries. Here, we revisit his thoughts on Bonham.
Watts was never one for self-glorification. Even when Sam Cutler started introducing The Rolling Stones as “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world” in 1969, Watts felt doubtful. “I didn’t believe it,” he told Classic Rock “What about Little Richard? Then you have Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino, Chuck Berry’s studio band – there isn’t a better rock’ n’ roll band.”
Watts viewed the music of his contemporaries with similar scepticism. “A lot of white bands to me are vastly overrated,” he continued. “I say white bands because most of the music I love to play on record is by Black American musicians, 40s and 50s stuff. When white musicians did get hold of the blues, they seemed compelled to expand it in all directions. Led Zeppelin, Cream, 15-minute versions of ‘Crossroads’. The Stones never did. Zeppelin were amazing. Just the sound of Bonham and Jimmy Page was an amazing sound in itself, without anything else. And then you had the fact that they were bloody good players.”
John Bonham was one of the last members to join Led Zeppelin. After The Yardbirds parted ways, guitarist Jimmy Page set about looking for a new group of musicians. He soon came across a singer called Robert Plant and offered him a spot in his new group. Plant accepted the offer, but that still left Page without a drummer. Robert suggested that his old Band of Joy drummer, John Bonham, might be a good fit. “I got so enthusiastic that I hitched back to Oxford and chased after John, got him to one side at a gig and said, ‘Look mate, you’ve got to join'”, Plant recalled in Led Zeppelin in Their Own Words.
During a 2005 Q&A with Rolling Stone, Charlie Watts was asked if he thought Led Zeppelin would have been the same without key players such as Bonham. “I think they would if they wanted to,” he said. “It’s like The Who: they’ve had some fine drummers. They’ve got one now — Ringo Starr’s son Zak. He’s great. He’s not Keith Moon. That was a personality. Pete Townshend and Keith — they were fantastically mad, the pair of them, onstage. John Bonham was the same with Led Zeppelin — it was a sound, thunderous. And you couldn’t have Cream without Ginger Baker.”
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