Besides being one of the most influential guitarists and songwriters in the world, The Who’s Pete Townshend is also known for being quite sincere when talking about other bands and musicians, even when he doesn’t like them. During his career, he witnessed the emergence of many incredible bands, especially in London’s music scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the years, he has shared his opinions on many musicians from that era, including the late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
What is Pete Townshend’s opinion on John Bonham
Although Pete was never really into Led Zeppelin, he recently said that he felt Bonham was the drummer who came closest to playing like Keith Moon and that he had his moments, being more of a “legitimate driving drummer.” “Although Zak (Starkey) grew up, studying with Keith (Moon), I think, he doesn’t play like him. I don’t know who does. Funny enough, the guy that I thought was the biggest fan of Keith and also played a bit like him was Bonzo, from Led Zeppelin. He had his moments but he was a more legitimate driving drummer than Keith.”
“It’s difficult because there’s going to be Who fans out there who are going to say ‘Townshend is talking bollocks’. I don’t know, having experienced from the inside what I felt was (that) I was always shocked that it worked so well and that sometimes it worked transcendently well and other times it was awkward. But maybe that’s the same for every band,” Pete Townshend said in an interview with Classic Album Review in 2026 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
John Bonham really loved Keith Moon and curiously, Roger Daltrey also believes he was Keith’s biggest fan. “I think Keith’s biggest fan was John Bonham, who always watched Keith intently when he could, sitting in for the entire recording of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’,” he told GQ in 2018. Although Pete likes the members of Led Zeppelin as people, he had previously said that he didn’t like their music.
He said:
“I haven’t liked a single thing that they’ve done. I hate the fact that we’re ever even slightly compared to them, I just never, ever liked them. It’s a real problem for me because as people I think they’re all really, really great guys. Just never liked the band, you know. I don’t know if I just got a problem block to them. They became so much bigger than The Who in so many ways in their chosen field. But I never liked (them),” he said in an interview for History of Rock N’ Roll in 1995 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Pete Townshend might be starting to like Led Zeppelin’s music
“You know, in a way (we might have been an inspiration too). But I do think the difference really was that bands like Black Sabbath and all the other big Heavy Metal bands, until Led Zeppelin came along, who combined Heavy Metal with some softer songwriting, ballads and so on. Heavy Metal was almost a religious philosophy. It was rooted in a sense of darkness and often ironically, I think. But also the musicianship it’s extraordinary in Heavy Metal. So a lot of Heavy Metal players cited the ‘Live at Leeds’ album as giving them permission in a sense to go nuts. To stretch out and to go nuts.”
Pete Townshend continued:
“But you know, I think ‘Live at Leeds’ is probably as explosive as it got. But meanwhile, we were still doing. Like in Woodstock we played a good chunk of ‘Tommy’. Then we played some heavy stuff as well, we did both. The only Heavy Metal I really listened to was AC/DC and I never really got into Led Zeppelin. Which is strange because today I’ve recently been trying to get Jimmy Page to have lunch with me. I sent him a note recently just saying: ‘You know, I’ve been listening to all of the Led Zeppelin again. I thought I should and you know, there’s some f*cking great stuff there.”
“It’s just that at the time, I didn’t like it as they were in a sense, trying to pinch our audience (laughs). I’d been through it before with Jimi Hendrix coming over with his big amplifiers and his distortion and his wah-wah pedal and everything else. Having to admit ‘wow, here’s a guitar genius’. You know, Eric Clapton was my friend, Jeff Beck was my friend. Jimmy was somebody that I knew really well, I knew he was a great shredder if he wanted to be.”
He continued:
“I was kind of surprised really when I started to listen to Led Zeppelin. The variations (of their music), I really don’t know about bands like Black Sabbath and so on. Because I didn’t listen to them, despite the fact, I think, can I put it like this? I think they were great fun and enjoyable. I really love parts of the music business where people don’t take them too seriously. That was my issue, in my early days. I felt I was carrying a big cross, a big manifesto for Rock and Roll. I felt this was important for me to deliver,” he said (Transcribed Rock and Roll Garage).
Pete thinks a great supergroup could have emerged from members of Zeppelin and The Who
The Led Zeppelin member Pete always praised and said he admired was Jimmy Page. But he once revealed that he felt something great could come out of a supergroup featuring members of both bands. “I’ve always felt there was a real potential for something explosive and nuts with the Who and Led Zeppelin.”
“The principals in Led Zeppelin are much more musicians than they’re perceived to be by the Heavy-Metal fans who just think it’s about heavy (things),” he told Los Angeles Times in 2022. Moon and Bonham were good friends and, in a sad coincidence, both tragically died at the age of 32.