43 Years Ago: Led Zeppelin Drummer John Bonham Passes Away
The thunderous backbone to Led Zeppelin’s sound went silent when John Bonham was found dead Sept. 25, 1980, effectively ending the band as an active unit.
The drummer had consumed an estimated 40 shots of vodka the day and night prior at rehearsals for the band’s upcoming North American tour which was announced exactly two weeks earlier and scheduled to kick off less than a month later. Put to bed just after midnight at guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in the south England town of Windsor, Bonham would be found lifeless the next afternoon by sound engineer Benji LeFevre and bassist John Paul Jones.
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“It was like, ‘Let’s go up and look at Bonzo, see how he is,’” Jones said. “We tried to wake him up … it was terrible. Then I had to tell the other two … I had to break the news to Jimmy and Robert [Plant].”
Police arrived at Page’s residence but ruled out any suspicious circumstances – it was just an unfortunate mishap. The coroner would later issue the inquiry verdict that the death was accidental due to “consumption of alcohol.”
To say the loss of Bonham was monumental puts it in perhaps the best terminology. The 32-year-old had been an integral part of the band’s sound from day one; he was hardly just back behind the kit holding down the beat. Take a listen to the booming attack he delivers on “Achilles’ Last Stand,” the near-funk groove on “Trampled Underfoot” or the rollicking crash and bang of “South Bound Suarez.” It wasn’t all aggressive either; Bonham could just as easily deliver a lighter touch like on the restrained “The Rain Song” or the gorgeously wistful “Down by the Seaside.”
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Page then said Bonham’s death was, “a massive loss to everybody. Everybody had been touched by John Bonham’s music.”
The drummer certainly influenced legions of players both past and present, with anyone who took a serious approach to holding the sticks looking to the man sometimes called “The Beast” for cues on how to pull-off such a complex and unique rhythmic approach to the craft.
“He was the groove master,” said Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward. “He wrote the bible on rock drumming. To learn the primal basis that will bring a drummer up to the current era of rock or metal drumming, one has to listen to John Bonham. He was an institution unto himself.”
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