3 Musicians That Disliked Led Zeppelin

When a band is as renowned as Led Zeppelin, it can be hard to believe that anyone would have their qualms with them. However, there are a few that don’t recognize Zeppelin as the universal talent many of us would be inclined to dub them as–including the three musicians, below.

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1. Kurt Cobain

For many of us, “morals” wouldn’t be the first word of association with “punk rock.” Historically, it has been thought of as the genre of the angry, the vengeful, and the outspoken. However, according to Kurt Cobain, he found punk rock to be the voice of reason in rock. Cobain found punk to lack the “sexism” found in the classic rock of Led Zeppelin.

“Although I listened to Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, and I really did enjoy some of the melodies they’d written, it took me so many years to realize that a lot of it had to do with sexism,” Cobain once explained. “The way that they just wrote about their dicks and having sex. I was just starting to understand what really was pissing me off so much, those last couple of years of high school. Then punk rock was exposed and then it all came together.”

2. Keith Richards

There don’t seem to be many musicians that haven’t gotten a slight or two from Keith Richards. His “dislike” list (even if resigned to temporary hatred) is sprawling. Among those names is Led Zeppelin.

“Rock n’ roll I never get tired of, but ‘rock’ is a white man’s version,” Richards once said about Zeppelin‘s metal-esque musicianship. “And they turn it into a march, that’s [the modern] version of rock. Excuse me, I prefer the roll.”

Elsewhere he has claimed that Robert Plant’s voice “Got on his nerves,” but did reserve some praise for his fellow guitarist, Jimmy Page.

3. Cream

Cream didn’t have much love for their fellow English rockers. According to the relatively short-lived band, Zeppelin took elements of their own name-making sound and infiltrated it with their sonic direction. For some, that might be the textbook version of taking inspiration. For the “Sunshine of Your Love” band, it was a damning offense.

“Led Zeppelin took up our legacy,” Eric Clapton once said. “But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for.”

(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)