Drum God: John Bonham

Born: May 31, 1948
Died: September 25, 1980

John Bonham grew up in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, and he first learned how to play drums when he was five, making a drumkit out of containers and coffee tins. It wasn't until age fifteen that he received his first real drumkit from his father'a Premier Percussion kit. Bonham never took any drum lessons while he was young, but would always seek out other drummers to ask for advice. After leaving secondary school in 1964, he worked for his father, Jack Bonham, as an apprentice carpenter while drumming for different local bands. That year he joined his first band, Terry Webb & The Spiders. Two years later he joined The Crawling King Snakes, whose lead singer was a young Robert Plant. Several years later, Plant recommended Bonham for a band he'd just joined, Led Zeppelin. The rest is history.

Style And Technique
The greatest rock 'n' roll drummer in history was in fact a soul drummer. Despite all the deserved attention paid to his brilliant soloing ideas, his rhythmic sophistication, or his bass drum prowess, John Bonham was, above all else, a groover. Drummers inherently pick up on this, even if at first they don't realize what it is that draws them to Bonham. As cool as his beats and fills were, Bonham's delivery was what truly set him apart. His swing and swagger were his alone.

In the liner notes to Led Zeppelin's Box Set, Zep bassist John Paul Jones explained how, on the plane, he and Bonham would listen to James Brown tapes. "Bonzo had very broad listening tastes," Jonesy shared. "When we weren't listening to James Brown or Otis Redding, he might be listening to Joni Mitchell or Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Bonzo was a great lover of songs."

No discussion of Bonham or Led Zeppelin would be complete without talking about sound. Zeppelin guitarist/producer Jimmy Page is one of rock's great sonic architects; the inventiveness and taste he wielded while recording Led Zeppelin albums is unparalleled in rock history, and Bonham's drum sound is an integral part of that legacy. Jack Irons of the group Eleven (and Pearl Jam and The Chili Peppers) gets understandably animated when talking about Bonzo's awesome sonic presence: "Arguably he had the best drum sound in rock history," Irons states. "So, the best player also had the best sound. And his sound was certainly big, but not big in the subsonic way associated with today's recordings. It was really explosive and full of attack, and it didn't avoid overtones. And that great tone complemented his playing. Bonham couldn't be separated from his sound; it went with him."

Songs, sound, and soul. Go ahead, call Led Zeppelin the first heavy metal band, and by extension, Bonham the first heavy metal drummer. But ignore the band's advanced song craft, forget about the revolutionary tones, or miss the depth of their collective feel, and you fail to truly understand the nature of their greatness. Or the genius of John Bonham.

The Bonham Kit
Bonham can be seen in photographs playing a number of different Ludwig kits at various points in his career, featuring wood shells, then clear Vistalite models, then steel. But his classic Ludwig setup, the one we think of most readily consisted of a 14x26 bass drum, a 12x15 rack tom, 16x16 and 16x18 floor toms, and a 61/2x14 Supra-Phonic snare drum. His bass drum pedal was inevitably the famous Ludwig Speed King model, with either a hard felt or wood beater. His Paiste cymbals generally comprised a 24" medium ride mounted on the bass drum cymbal post, 18" and 20" crashes on his left and right (respectively), and 15" Sound Edge hi-hats. Often you'll see one or two timpani and a 38" gong. At the beginning of his career Bonham would use Remo Ambassador heads (or a similar Ludwig model). Later he switched over to Remo Black Dots or Ludwig Silver Dots.

Influences
Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich

Additional Info
Eddie Kramer, Led Zeppelin engineer, insisted that Bonham's famous volume didn't present him with any difficulties in the studio. "No, it enhanced [the recording]," he related. "He tuned the kit the way he heard it; the front skin on the bass drum was tuned to the point where you could touch it very lightly and it would ring like crazy. But when he hit [the drum] with a wooden beater! He was a brick layer, and he had a lot of weight in his legs. He hit it bloody hard, and that, to me, is the art of drumming. But at the same time, he could be delicate, too."

Select Discography
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin IV
Houses Of The Holy
Physical Graffiti
Presence
In Through The Out Door
How The West Was Won

MD Issues
July 1984, January 1996

Drum Gods Archive: (alphabetically, by last name)

Louie Bellson — Swing drumming great Louie Bellson passed away on February 14, 2009...

John Bonham — John Bonham grew up in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, and he firs...

Dave Grohl — More than almost any other player in recorded history, Dave Grohl 1) c...

Gene Krupa — Eugene Bertram Krupa was born and raised on Chicago's South Side, duri...

Buddy Rich — Buddy Rich was said to have never taken formal lessons, and insisted t...

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