Carmine Appice Claims His Drumming Style Was Ripped Off By LED ZEPPELIN’s John Bonham

In the third part of a Q&A video series for Artists On Record Starring Adika Live!, Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge) shared how his drumming influenced Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, specifically on the song ‘Good Times Bad Times.’

Fans will recall when last year Carmine claimed that a woman named Carol Kaye was the ghost bassist for Nikki Sixx on the early MÖTLEY CRÜE albums, only to later walk that statement back shortly after. TMD has been tipped off that real ghost player for Sixx was actually David Bowie’s bassist Carmine Rojas.

“I rest my case regarding Nikki Sixx… Carol Kaye.” – Carmine Appice

Now Carmine claims his own playing influenced the world’s most legendary rock drummer to ever live how to apply a certain drumming technique (Triplet Bass-Drum Motif) for one of Led Zeppelin’s most famous songs.

He recalled Vanilla Fudge’s first American tour in 1968-1969:

Talking about Bonham’s skills during the live shows, the drummer went on:

“Then, we did some more shows with them. And I got to know Bonzo and his right foot. I loved his right foot. And when I said to him, ‘Man, I love what you did on ‘Good Times Bad Times.’ Awesome.’ He said, ‘I got it from you.’ I said, ‘I don’t do that.’ He said, ‘You did do that.’ He pointed it somewhere on one of my albums.”

He commented on the late musician’s parts in Zeppelin’s first single:

“Instead of repeating it – I went like [mimicking his beat] with the bass drum, he just kept it going [mimicking Bonham’s beat], you know. So, he got the concept from what I did and did his own thing to it.”

Appice was called a “washed up drummer” last year by Nikki Sixx and Appice challenged the fake bassist to a jam off. Appice also claims to have set up Tommy Lee’s drum sound on Theater of Pain album.

The real jam off that should have taken place is between Bonzo and Appice.