(Credits: Far Out / digboston)
Mon 6 April 2026 16:30, UK
Ever since the first song was made, since the first person hummed a tune or clapped their hands, the devil has been intrinsically linked with music, and his claws continue to sink into the world of rock.
With every riff, solo, and screeching vocal, the close-minded had images of the devil conjured up – eventually, rock ended up taking ownership of such imagery, as bands like AC/DC would wear devil horns when they took to the stage; meanwhile, songs would contain themes of fire, flames, and all things devilish.
Roger Waters, when talking about the band that changed his life the most, made reference to these hellish comparisons. The Pink Floyd member isn’t alone in his adoration for Led Zeppelin, and when he was talking about what made the band great, he focused on their flamboyance by speaking first about the vocal stylings of Robert Plant, and then about the guitar legend, who is Jimmy Page.
“The sex god with the glory of the halo around his head, the hair, you know?”, he said, “And you had, if I may say so, the son of the devil on guitar.”
It might seem like a harmless figure of speech, but there were people who genuinely thought that rock music had been infiltrated by the devil, and that Led Zeppelin was an example of as much, and there was some logic behind this, as the bible says that we have God to thank for our vocal abilities, but then the leader of God’s choir (Lucifer) fell from heaven and turned songs against the divine.
In Ezekiel 28:13, it’s said, “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” – this essentially meant that the musical ability of an individual was given to them by God, explaining why so many religious people opt to sing praise songs, and also explains why they think that those who worship the devil would do something similar.
The be-all and end-all is that Led Zeppelin rocked too hard, and that’s why so many people thought that they must have made some kind of deal with the devil. No humans were able to rock so hard without divine intervention, and the devilish nature of rock music and how people align metal with hell meant that a lot of onlookers thought there must have been some kind of foul play going on.
Led Zeppelin were massively influential to artists like Roger Waters, as they saw the potential in rock music and took it to another level. When you think of the excellent music that Pink Floyd made, how layered it was, its experimental nature and the storytelling embedded within their elongated concept albums, these are all traits that Led Zeppelin possessed.
Some people heard the work of guitarists like Jimmy Page and thought that he was the offspring of the devil and therefore should be shunned. Meanwhile, other people heard the work of guitarists like Jimmy Page and thought that he was the offspring of the devil and therefore needed to be studied. Lucky for us, Waters fell into the latter category, and it helped him go on to make some of the greatest psychedelic rock to ever grace this side of hell.
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