No other bands did more to lay the groundwork for hard rock and heavy metal than Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Others may have heavied up the blues before them, but the records this holy musical trinity released in the late 60s and early 70s provided the template for everything that followed.
All three emerged out of the fertile late 60s British music scene, and their paths crossed man times during their respective rises and beyond. Inevitably, there was both respect and rivalry between them – not least Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, both of whom had ties to Birmingham, the industrial city in which both the members of Sabbath and Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham served their early musical apprenticeships.
Speaking to Classic Rock in 2014, Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi looked back on the friendship and competition between his own band and Led Zeppelin.
“In the early days there was a rivalry between Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but not a bad kind of rivalry,” he said. “We weren’t horrible to each other. Deep Purple we really didn’t know, but we were friends with Zeppelin.”
Iommi revealed that their friendship with Zeppelin dated back to their days on the Birmingham scene before either band had gotten off the ground.
“We knew Planty and John Bonham. John and I used to see each other in the days before Sabbath,” Iommi said. “Bill [Ward, Sabbath drummer] and me were in a band called The Rest, and John used to be in two or three other bands. He’d be in one band, then they’d fire him because he was too loud, and then the next week he’d turn up in another band. John used to have this bass-drum case where he had the name of the band he was with.”
When Zeppelin took off, Bonham garnered a reputation as a wildman, though that didn’t stop Iommi – who himself had no compunctions about getting into scuffles with journalists who badmouthed Sabbath in the press – from asking the drummer to be best man at his wedding.
“I think it worried everybody, though my wife was fine about it,” said the guitarist. “Of course, the night before my wedding we went out in Birmingham for my stag. It was getting on for two o’clock, and we went to this one last club. We go in there and John orders 12 bottles of champagne. I thought he was going to treat everybody in the club, but he turned to me and said, ‘Go on, drink it – that’s yours.’ I said, ‘I won’t be fucking get married if I drink all that!’ So he went along the bar and drank 12 glasses, one from each bottle. Within 30 minutes, he was gone – absolutely gone. I eventually got him home and put him in the hallway, up against the radiator. I said, ‘You’re not going to turn up tomorrow, are you?’ And he just slurred and stuck his thumb up.
“The next day, he turned up alright, his suit on, his top hat and tails. I’d literally just got out of bed. Of course, he had some coke on him. He said, ‘Here you are – have one of these.’ And that’s how the day went. The embarrassing thing was when we were in the church. My wife’s family were quite well-to-do. And on my side there was our band and other musicians. And they’re all nipping out of the church, three or four of them at a time. My wife’s mother said, ‘What’s the matter with your friends, all coming and going all the time?’ They were behind the church doing coke…”
Any rivalry between the two bands fell by the wayside as they both began to become successful. During one memorable session, members of Sabbath and Zeppelin actually staged an impromptu jam.
“We actually jammed with Zeppelin,” said Iommi. “We were in Morgan Studios, doing an album, and they turned up. Only Jimmy Page wasn’t there. John [Bonham] said, ‘Can I have a play?’ So our session went totally out the window. We just started jamming. John said, ‘Let’s play that song of yours I like.’ That was Supernaut. So we played that and, well, I don’t remember what else. We were just jamming, making stuff up. It was good, but it totally ruined our session. But it was good fun.”
It’s not clear whether this mythical jam was ever recorded, let alone released, meaning a Black Zeppelin/Led Sabbath supergroup remains something fans of both bands can only dream of.
