Music Mogul Danny Goldberg has described the late John Bonham, Led Zeppelin's original drummer, as a “an angry and mean drunk”.
Goldberg, who worked as a publicist for the band, makes the comment in a new book, Bumping Into Geniuses, which details his life inside the music industry.
He also recalls an interview where Bonham, who he regards asthe “greatest drummer in rock”, responded angrily to a critic who questioned his lengthy drum solos.
“Bonham grabbed the reviewer's lapels and yelled, 'Look, I've had about enough of you people!'” he writes.
The exerts, which appeared in the New York Daily News, also highlight how the atmosphere around the band in 1973 "was one of tension, exacerbated by huge quantities of cocaine. Violence was one bad mood away."
Bonham's son, Jason, took over his drum seat when the band reformed at the O2 Arena in London last December.
Goldberg's book is released next month.
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- And this guy is an ass for slaggin a dead man!
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- ...it’s people like Danny Goldberg that drove Bonzo to drink in the first place...who the hell would want to buy this book?
I think at the time also, the media was always giving Led Zeppelin a hard time, including Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page was receiving death threats from every where and had glanduar fever problems, and yes, drugs entered the circle, started to split the band apart...it’s not an excuse, but when something like Led Zeppelin was as big as they were and getting bigger, they were taking as many lumps for who they were as stars as they were for just being targets of everyone tryin to figure them
- I saw the drummer from Heartless Wager, a band from NY that went on to bigger things, pull a John Bonham one night at a huge party.
I think that Bonham set a negative example for the kids, although he was a great drummer. Drink and drugs are bad.
- i was there too, was it at the coach inn? he drank a whole bottle of jack and was hammerd. i think his name was jj.
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