Jimmy Page’s opinion on John Bonham as a drummer

After The Yardbirds broke up, Jimmy Page decided to form his own band, which later became Led Zeppelin. He joined forces with John Paul Jones, whom he already knew and had worked with as a session musician in London, and two talented musicians from the Birmingham area, Robert Plant and John Bonham. The band’s musicianship was extraordinary and when Bonham tragically died in 1980 the remaining members decided they couldn’t continue without him. Over the decades, Jimmy Page has spoken about Bonham many times, explaining why he was so important to the band.

What is Jimmy Page’s opinion on John Bonham

“John Bonham was an extraordinary musician who had this incredible technique that was head and shoulders over anyone around him when he was still in his teens. It was just absolutely phenomenal and he kept finessing his technique and vision of the drums. He had a definite vision to drums and how they should be played. How they would fit in with a band and also how would be soloed as well in his solos. It’s without doubt that his technique was as I say beyond everybody else’s. That’s why he is so looked to and looked back to with such reverence and love really. Because he was absolutely extraordinary.”

“(I first met him when) I went to see him play with Tim Rose. For those who don’t know, (Rose) he was known for singing ‘Hey Joe’ and Hendrix of course did that. I went to see him play in a club and at the time I was putting Led Zeppelin together and was head hunting people. I did actually have a drummer in mind, but this incredible talent that was there in the Midlands. The reputation of John Bonham hadn’t really come outside of the Midlands.”

“But he got this gig with Tim Rose, playing in London, in a small club. I heard him and thought he was absolutely amazing, he is definitely the drummer to try and pull on board. It was his attitude to his playing but the dynamics as well. That was a key to what I was going to try and get together in Led Zeppelin,” he said in an interview with Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 in 2011 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

His favorite memory of John Bonham

When asked which was his favorite memory of the late legendary drummer, Page explained that it was the joy of playing with him. “He had joy in his playing, it was so inspiring to play with John Bonham. He had such an incredible technique and obviously he had been in various sort of bands before coming to Led Zeppelin but with Led Zeppelin gave him the vehicle to be able to play the drums that John Bonham really wanted to play. Because there was a freedom in it.”

“So that’s how you arrive at something like his drum patterns in ‘Good Times, Bad Times’. He never played like that before. I mean, even though the first album was supposed to be a tour de force of guitar. I mean, I hadn’t played as good as that either, same with John Paul Jones and Robert Plant. The sum total of the four musicians just gave us the ability to be able to just become like a rocket individually and collectively,” Jimmy Page said in an interview in 2014 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

While John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page lived in London and were for years already respected session musicians, Robert Plant and John Bonham came from the Midlands region, were Birmingham is located. It was a perfect connection, since with the experience two of them had in the studio, it made it easier to introduce Robert and John to that universe. Jimmy Page was the producer in all the studio albums released by the band.

Jimmy recalls how Bonham’s drum parts like the introduction to “Rock and Roll” would spark the band’s songwriting creativity

The way songs are written varies greatly from band to band. With Led Zeppelin, although Plant and Page wrote most of the lyrics, the musical ideas could come from any instrument. That was the case with the classic “Rock and Roll”, which, according to Page, began when Bonham suddenly started playing that powerful drum introduction.

“Bonham’s playing just brought so much to everything (Led Zeppelin) was. It was so much more than if another drummer had played. So there was so much spirit in the band. Of course, you had four people in Led Zeppelin, which were sort of musical equals if you like. I think drummers are the backbone of the band. They got to be the most reliable one. (…) John Bonham plays this drum introduction and I just stop playing. ‘Rock and Roll’, that opening, sort of 12-bar thing, (and we all were like) let’s stop what we’re doing, let’s do this.”

He continued:

“So that’s literally something that just comes from thin air. It’s just hearing the opening, it’s like a Little Richard drum intro, actually. I recognized what it was and where it came from, it’s like from ‘Keep a Knockin’ by Little Richard. Then I’m playing the guitar, I’m following on immediately in the way that I would hear a brass section, like in Little Richard’s band. So that riff is like that in my mind and it’s being played as a 12-bar. We just stopped and then we had fun doing that,” he said in an interview at Oxford University in 2018 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

John Bonham tragically passed away in 1980 at the age of 32. After his death the band and their manager Peter Grant decided they couldn’t go on without him. The reason was because he was one of the driving forces of their musical partnership. Over the decades the three surviving members reunited on stage a few times. The last one in 2007 when they performed in London with John’s son, Jason Bonham, on drums.