{"id":649966,"date":"2026-05-18T08:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/649966\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:11:10","slug":"the-classic-rock-band-stewart-copeland-couldnt-take-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/649966\/","title":{"rendered":"The classic rock band Stewart Copeland couldn’t take seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ A&M Records<\/p>\n

Stewart Copeland has had one hell of a life. The drummer made his name drumming for best-selling British rockers The Police, <\/a>before going on to write orchestral works for ballet, opera, and film. <\/p>\n

As a musician who frequently crops up on \u2018Hall of Fame\u2019 lists, it\u2019s no wonder Copeland has some pretty strong opinions about the world of rock, as well as some of its biggest names, including Led Zeppelin and their drummer, John Bonham. <\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Radio 4<\/a> back in 2019, Copeland explained that he supposedly met the infamous rock drummer just before his death. \u201cHis son Jason (Bonham) says we met,\u201d Copeland began. \u201cBut how can I not remember meeting John Bonham for Christ\u2019s sake? So I don\u2019t have a memory of meeting him. Although I\u2019m told that we met. How is it possible? Because it was before (Copeland got famous), he was him (Famous) and I was just little old me at the time. It\u2019s hard to imagine.\u201d <\/p>\n

Never one to shy away from telling the truth, Copeland <\/a>went on to explain that Bonham \u201cwas not known to be wonderful company as a human being. But dang, drummers argued long into the night about how did he get that monstrous sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copeland continued, \u201cThe size of it, not just what he plays but how he plays it. It\u2019s like he is playing on a mountain, the earth shakes when he hits those tom-toms. How does he do that? We are all scratching our heads about that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t take Led Zeppelin seriously because of that singing. I never even got as far as checking out the drums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart Copeland<\/p>\n

Despite his latent reverence for Bonham, it took Copeland to fully appreciate Led Zeppelin\u2019s music, mainly because he wasn\u2019t a fan of Robert Plant\u2019s singing. But it wasn\u2019t just Plant. After confessing that he\u2019d never been much of a fan of Keith Moon, Copeland said: \u201cI wasn\u2019t a Bonham guy either until years later. I was a Mitch (Mitchell) guy and a Ginger (Baker) guy. Bonham I didn\u2019t get. I didn\u2019t notice him because the singing put me off. So I couldn\u2019t take Led Zeppelin seriously because of that singing. I never even got as far as checking out the drums. But later on, I came to realise what a monster he was.\u201d <\/p>\n

Copeland\u2019s comments reveal an interesting divide between different generations and styles of drummers. While Bonham\u2019s power and thunderous groove became the blueprint for countless hard rock players, Copeland was initially drawn to more jazz-influenced musicians like Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker, whose playing relied more on agility and improvisation than sheer force. <\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

Coming from that perspective, it makes sense that Led Zeppelin\u2019s bombastic approach took longer for him to fully appreciate.<\/p>\n

Even so, once Copeland looked beyond Plant\u2019s vocals and focused on Bonham\u2019s playing, he recognised what made him so singular. Bonham wasn\u2019t merely keeping time behind Zeppelin; he was dictating the weight and momentum of the entire band. <\/p>\n

Few drummers have ever managed to sound simultaneously so heavy and so fluid, which is why his performances on tracks like \u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 and \u2018Kashmir\u2019 still feel almost physically overwhelming decades later.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ A&M Records Stewart Copeland has had one hell of a life. The drummer made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,57349,19810,216,72178,72176],"class_list":["post-649966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-john-bonham","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-music","tag-stewart-copeland","tag-the-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}