Keith Richards has branded Led Zeppelin “hollow”. The Rolling Stones rocker has revealed he’s never been a fan of the band and while he thinks Jimmy Page is a great guitarist he didn’t like him performing with the other members of the band.
When an interviewer said he wasn’t keen on Led Zeppelin, Jimmy agreed: “Me neither. I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler. He had cornered the market there. Jimmy is a brilliant player. But I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?”
After bad-mouthing the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ hitmakers he decided to also lay in to The Who by writing Roger Daltrey off as “all flash” and describing the band as “crazy”.
He explained: “I always thought [Roger] Daltrey was all flash. And I love Pete Townshend, but I always thought the Who were a crazy band, anyway. You would say to [Keith] Moon, if you were in a session with him, ‘Just give me a swing,’ and he [couldn’t] … He was an incredible drummer, but only with Pete Townshend.”
While discussing other musicians though he praised Ed Sheeran and admitted he wishes Amy Winehouse had had the chance to reach her full potential before tragically dying from alcohol poisoning in 2011.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: “What’s interesting about him [Ed] is he’s almost a one-man band, to start with, which is always very interesting. I don’t know, I feel a very genuine feel from the music and what he’s doing. And I love it when you meet people and you realize immediately that fame isn’t the only thing on their mind. I mean sadly, now, Amy Winehouse could have been that. She already was, but she’s sadly missed. To [think] what she could have done, what she would have done.”