Led Zeppelin - I am your father

Officially they stopped in 1980, after the death of drummer John Bonham, but in fact Zep just stays up in the air thanks to regular reunions (among others in 1985, 1988, 1995 and 2007) that come down to satisfying the fans and the band members taking on ballast in their wallets.

They are from London and are considered to be the founding fathers of the hard rock and heavy metal genres, which does not sufficiently credit them because their musical legacy is more versatile than that. 

Success has many fathers and the same goes for successful band names.

Not surprisingly the paternity of the band name Led Zeppelin is claimed by more than one person. Main claimants are the drummer of The Who, the late Keith Moon, and the bass player of the same group, (the also late) John Entwistle. 

The most common explanation is that Keith Moon came up with the band name.

Moon apparently told guitarist Jimmy Page, when he was about to launch a super group (The New Yardbirds, the future Led Zeppelin) that such a group 'would go over like a lead balloon’, freely interpreted: it would have just as much chance of success as a lead balloon has a chance to fly.

Page immediately saw the potential of the expression. 

John Entwistle appeared to be rather piqued that all the credit went to Moon; he claimed that on several occasions Moon and he had been about to leave The Who to continue as Lead Zeppelin (with an 'a' in Lead).

Jimmy Page: 'Well, I don't know about that at all. [...] Maybe John Entwistle did think of the name and told it to Keith Moon, in which case he might have cause to be a bit angry.' 

Active: 1968-1980, GBR

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/

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