(Credits: Far Out / Dick Barnatt / Atlantic Records / John Paul Jones)
Mon 16 February 2026 16:30, UK
Fans always do an exceptional job at describing why they love the bands they do, and that’s why I often find myself turning to this line from Jack Black when discussing Led Zeppelin.
Given Black has managed to intertwine his love for movies and music throughout his career, he’s always been pretty vocal about the bands he loves, and there’s none he’s more devoted to than Led Zeppelin. Catch the School of Rock superstar talking about music and see how long it takes for him to bring up the legends that are John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
When giving a speech about the band, he described what it was he loved about them so much, and you have to admit, he certainly has a point. When talking about his admiration for the four-piece, Black said it was the versatility present on every single one of their albums that keeps him coming back. He also said that the only way you can really appreciate this is by listening to every record one after the other.
“Led Zeppelin… the greatest rock and roll band of all time. Better than the Beatles, better than The Stones,” he said. “And if you don’t agree with me, that’s because you haven’t done the Zeppelin marathon. It’s when you sit your ass down and listen to all nine Zeppelin albums in a row. The jams of Led Zeppelin are second to none.”
Black certainly has a point, as when Jimmy Page originally started Led Zeppelin, he did so with the intention of making a band who perfectly blended various genres in a bid to give listeners a completely unique and haphazard style of music. They certainly succeeded in this, as when you listen to a Led Zeppelin album, you’ll come across everything from soft and sweet-sounding acoustic music to some of the greatest hard rock imaginable.
When John Paul Jones was asked what Led Zeppelin song he’d most like to be remembered for, his choice was the best reflection of this unique aspect of the band, and while he recognised how hard it was for them to blend so many different styles, he also appreciated how great it sounded when they all came together.
“I would also include ‘Stairway To Heaven’, but for more positive reasons,” he said. “It contains all the classic Zep elements, from folk/Celtic through jazz and R&B to hard rock. It also encapsulates the soft-to-heavy dynamics that the band was famous for.”
John Paul Jones liked the song for more selfish reasons than that as well, as while he thought the entire band played well on the rock classic, he loved his own individual performance too. Granted, he felt it was somewhat overshadowed by the unrelenting force that was a Jimmy Page solo, but nevertheless, he liked what he put into that song.
“As for my own performance, it made me smile when a journalist once told me that he considered the bass line at the end of the song one of the finest ever recorded,” said Jones, concluding, “Unfortunately, it happens to be underneath one of the finest guitar solos ever recorded!”
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