Foghat Drummer Remembers Sharing Bills with Zep

[SteveZ98]

Roger Earl, drummer for Foghat, recalls playing on bills with Zep when he was part of Savoy Brown. The discussion about Zep starts two thirds of the way down the article:

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/roger-earl-foghat-led-zeppelin/

[luvlz2]

Savoy Brown did a run of shows opening for Led Zeppelin. We've all heard the records and they're stamped inside of our brain as music fans now. What was it like being inside that Led Zeppelin ecosystem?

I really hung out with Bonzo [Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham] a couple of times. I remember a couple of soundchecks we did. It would be Bonzo, and Zeppelin of course were headlining. Bonzo, Clive Bunker, myself and one or two of the guitar players, either [Savoy Brown's] Kim [Simmonds] or maybe JImmy [Page] was playing, we'd do soundchecks. Bonzo was deafening. The only one you could hear was him! The dates we did with them, they were fantastic. I mean, they sounded great. I've heard stories about them having some issues onstage, but the times I played with Zeppelin, they played great. They were incredible and really powerful. They were impressive. I mean, Bonzo kind of rewrote the book on rock 'n' roll drumming. The way he played, it was traditional in so much as he understood the basics of drumming, but it was how he played. His application and his footwork, playing triplets -- nobody had done that before. He changed it for a lot of people. a lot of drummers, anyway. You know, you can do anything you want, so long as you play in time. And his time, it was Bonzo Time. It was special! [Laughs.]