In the 1970s, the biggest band in the world title often swung back and forth between The Eagles and Led Zeppelin. Now, of course, some other bands were fighting for the No. 1 spot, but in totality, the battle seemingly came down to these two forces of nature. Regardless, Led Zeppelin was always at the top during the decade, and for that reason, and others, these three acclaimed rock ‘n’ rollers weren’t fans of the band that ruled the rock ‘n’ roll scene of the 1970s.
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Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend has never been one to mince words. That being said, when he doesn’t like a band, he makes it very obvious, and he’s done so on numerous occasions, including when he criticized The Beatles in an interview with Rolling Stone. Well, he did something similar in this 1995 TV interview.
“I haven’t liked a single thing that they’ve done,” said Townshend. “I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them. I just never, ever liked them. It’s a real problem for me because, as people, they’re all really, really great guys. I just never liked the band.”
Eric Clapton
Unlike Townshend, Eric Clapton is far more reserved and closeted with his opinions. Though he wasn’t when it came to Led Zeppelin, which says a lot, as Clapton was not one to bash his contemporaries on a regular basis.
Even though Clapton didn’t go scorched earth on Zeppelin, he did share his perspective once upon a time. “We had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz. Led Zeppelin took up our legacy. But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for,” said Clapton, per The Uncut.
Jack Bruce
Arguably, the most polarizing take on Led Zeppelin comes from Clapton’s former bandmate, Jack Bruce. In a 2008 interview with Classic Rock, the former Cream singer did go scorched earth on Zeppelin as he passionately stated, “Everybody talks about Led Zeppelin, and they played one *** gig, one *** lame gig, while Cream did weeks of gigs; proper gigs, not just a lame gig like Zeppelin did.”
“F— off, Zeppelin, you’re crap. You’ve always been crap, and you’ll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they’re sold. Cream is 10 times the band that Led Zeppelin is. You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with f—ing Jimmy Page?”, added Bruce, per Classic Rock, via Ultimate Guitar.
Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage
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