“We jammed with Zeppelin. John Bonham said, ‘Let’s play that song of yours I like.’ That was Supernaut”: Tony Iommi on the rivalry between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin – and their lost jam session

A composite image of Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Led Zeppelin.

No other bands did more to lay the groundwork for hard rock and heavy metal than Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Others may have heavied up the blues before them, but the records this holy musical trinity released in the late 60s and early 70s provided the template for everything that followed.

All three emerged out of the fertile late 60s British music scene, and their paths crossed man times during their respective rises and beyond. Inevitably, there was both respect and rivalry between them – not least Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, both of whom had ties to Birmingham, the industrial city in which both the members of Sabbath and Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham served their early musical apprenticeships.