While lots of artists can appreciate their rock star contemporaries, apparently members of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones didn’t quite understand the appeal of Led Zeppelin back in the day.
Producer/engineer Glyn Johns, who worked on both The Beatles’ Let It Be and Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin I, reveals on Rolling Stone’s Music Now podcast that George Harrison and Mick Jagger were not Zeppelin fans.
“When Zeppelin set up and started to play, I was literally pinned to the back wall by what I heard. It was nothing like what I expected,” Johns says. “But I remember taking the record and playing it to George Harrison on the way home from a Beatles session, and he didn’t like it at all.”
He adds, “And I remember playing it to Mick Jagger, because I thought they should go on the Rock and Roll Circus [TV special]. And Mick didn’t like it at all either.”
One artist Johns is a big fan of is Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, sharing, “I don’t think he gets nearly enough credit to this day.”
“He really is quite remarkable … His technical ability is average, but his feel exceptional,” Johns says. “Also, what he does, where he puts what he plays is quite remarkable. And without him, they would not have been the same band. I don’t care what anybody says.”
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