Carmine Appice has spoken out about the rumours that Led Zeppelin asked him to join after John Bonham’s death.
The veteran rock drummer is best known for playing with Vanilla Fudge and Cactus, as well as in Rod Stewart’s band, and when Zeppelin legend John Bonham passed away in 1980, there was speculation that Appice would be a candidate to replace him.
In a new interview, Appice has confirmed that he was aware of the rumours at the time, but has said he was never approached by the band in any formal capacity.
Speaking on the Talk Louder podcast, he recalled that he had heard that it might come down to a choice between himself and Cozy Powell of The Jeff Beck Group, but that even if he had been asked, he would have been unable to accept, as he was on tour with Stewart at the time.
“I would’ve, but I was with Rod,” Appice explained (via Blabbermouth). “It’s not like I was with nobody, we’d just finished doing six nights at the Forum [in Los Angeles].”
“So, Rod said to me, ‘Are you gonna join Led Zeppelin?’ I said, ‘Not that I know of.’ I said, ‘I know there’s rumours, but I never got a call or nothing.’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s good. Let’s keep [the rumours] going. There’s rumours that I’m gonna retire, so let’s keep it going. We’ll just sell more tickets.’ I said, ‘OK.’ So that’s what we did. But I was never asked.”
Bonham passed away on September 25, 1980 at the age of 32 after aspirating vomit following heavy alcohol consumption. In the end, Led Zeppelin chose not to replace him, feeling he was irreplaceable, and they disbanded the group shortly afterward.
Phil Collins filled in on drums for their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, while Bonham’s son Jason has played at the few subsequent Led Zeppelin shows, including their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1995 and at the huge Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert in London’s O2 in 2007.
Elsewhere, Robert Plant was named as this year’s Record Store Legend as part of Record Store Day 2026, while Jimmy Page shared the “original home demo” of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Ten Years Gone’ last month.
