In their early days, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin maintained a friendly rivalry, with six of the eight musicians familiar with each other through the Birmingham music scene. Zeppelin drummer John Bonham even jammed with Sabbath at a few of their early shows, much to the chagrin of Sabs sticksman Bill Ward.
When Zeppelin took off, Bonham swiftly garnered a reputation as a wildman, but that didn’t stop Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi – who himself had no compunctions about getting into scuffles with journalists who badmouthed Sabbath in the press – from asking the drummer to be best man at his wedding to Susan Snowdon, a wannabe singer and a relative of the British royal photographer, Lord Snowdon, in November 1973. It was, perhaps, asking for trouble.
