John Bonham was already a towering figure in rock by the time Led Zeppelin took over the world, but his taste ran deep into the heavier sounds being shaped by his Midlands peers. According to Bill Ward, Bonham had a real soft spot for Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” one of the standout tracks from Vol. 4, released in 1972. Ward recalled that Bonham knew what Sabbath was doing on a musical level and recognized the power of that song immediately.
The connection between Bonham and Ward goes back to their teenage years in the Black Country. The two drummers first crossed paths when Bonham was just 16, long before Zeppelin or Sabbath became world-famous. Ward said that when he first watched Bonham play, he could not quite make sense of his approach at all. Bonham’s bass drum patterns seemed unusual and even off-kilter at first, but Ward later realized that what he was hearing was a completely different kind of rhythmic language.
That revelation says a lot about why Bonham became so influential. He did not play drums like a metronome. He attacked the kit with force, swing, and a sense of movement that made heavy rock feel larger and more alive. Ward described him as a drummer whose bass-drum work changed the way rock rhythm could sound, and he said he had never heard anyone in rock do it quite the same way before Bonham.
As both men rose to fame, their friendship remained intact. Ward said the two would sometimes hang out in the studio, and Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath even once shared an impromptu jam session, though no recording survives. That part of the story matters because it shows their rivalry was never really the point; there was mutual respect between two drummers who understood each other in a way most people around them could not.
Ward’s memory of Bonham and “Supernaut” is especially revealing. He said Bonham knew the song extremely well and loved it enough to stop by while Sabbath were in the studio. When Ward was working through the double-bass-drum part, Bonham reportedly told him he would do it “on one,” a remark that fit his effortless, no-nonsense confidence behind the kit. Ward also called him, without hesitation, the best rock drummer in the world.
That praise feels fitting for a song like “Supernaut,” which is one of Sabbath’s most relentless grooves. Released on Vol. 4, the record came out during a chaotic period for the band, but the song itself is all forward motion and muscle, the kind of track that would naturally grab a drummer like Bonham. It is not hard to hear why he connected with it so strongly.
In the end, the story is about more than one favorite song. It captures the bond between two of heavy rock’s most important drummers and shows how deeply they were listening to one another, even as they helped define different sides of the genre. Bonham’s love for “Supernaut” is another reminder that the biggest players in rock often recognize brilliance in each other long before the rest of the world catches on.
