John Bonham is the drummer of one of the biggest rock and roll bands ever- Led Zeppelin. And many regard him as the best rock drummer ever. Below are some of his inspiring quotes about drums and making music-
“My names John Bonham, I’m a drummer and I’m potty about cars.”
“Brushes..? Nah. Hit ’em as hard as you can.”
“Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at.”
“I don’t consider that I’m particularly influenced by anyone or anything. But when I started playing, I was influenced by early soul. It was just that feel, that sound.”
“I just like to play drums, you know. I don’t care about all the other stuff. I mean, I just want to play the drums.”
“I never had any lessons. When I first started playing I used to read music. I was very interested in music. But when I started playing in groups I did a silly thing and dropped it. It’s great if you can write things down.”
“I think every drummer wants to play loud. But you’ve got to learn to play soft too, you know?”
“I think that feeling is a lot more important than technique. It’s all very well doing a triple paradiddle – but who’s going to know you’ve done it? If you play technically you sound like everybody else. It’s being original that counts.”
“I was determined to be a drummer as soon as I left school.”
“I’m the Best Keith Moon-type drummer in the world.”
“I’ve always been obsessed with drums. They fascinate me. Any other instrument – nothing. I play acoustic guitar a bit. But it’s always been drums first and foremost. I don’t reckon on this Jack-of-all-trades thing.”
“I’ve wanted to be a drummer since I was about five years old. I used to play on a bath salt container with wires on the bottom, and on a round coffee tin with a loose wire fixed to it to give a snare drum effect. Plus there were always my Mum’s pots and pans. When I was ten, my Mum bought me a snare drum. My Dad bought me my first full drum kit when I was 15. It was almost prehistoric. Most of it was rust.”
“My nerves before a gig got worse; I had terrible bad nerves all the time. Once we started… I was fine.”
“Not everybody likes or understands a drum solo, so I like to bring in effects and sounds to keep their interest.”
“Sometimes you’d come up against a brick wall… or sometimes you go into a fill and you’d know halfway through it was going to be disastrous.”
“There were times when I blundered and got the dreaded look from the lads. But that was a good sign. It showed I’d attempted something I’d not tried before.”
“There was absolutely no intention of splitting up. We had so many great ideas to use on the new album. John Paul Jones was incredible, coming to the studio each day with new instruments to play.”
“With Zeppelin, I tried to play something different every night in my solos. I’d play for 20 minutes but the longest ever was 30 minutes. It’s a long time, but when I was playing it seemed to fly by.”
“When you play with feeling, the notes come out from the heart, and they come out naturally.”
“You can’t hurt them drums. You know why? ‘Cause they’re already dead.”