Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham once tried to punch Van Halen’s Alex Van Halen, Jason Bohnam, John’s son, has revealed.
John died in 1980 and now his son, who is also a musician, has shared memories of a frosty first meeting he had with Alex Van Halen 40 years ago – and revealed he only found out why it was tense years later after hearing about an incident between his dad and the Van Halen drummer.
“My wife and I went to Donington – Monsters of Rock – AC/DC, Van Halen. And I got to meet Alex that day,” Jason recently told KSHE 95 (via Far Out Magazine). “Leonard [Haze] from Y&T introduced me. He came up – this is a classic – and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Alex Van Halen!’”
However, Bonham’s enthusiasm was tempered when Van Halen did not reciprocate in the way he hoped.
He continued: “[Haze says:] ‘This is Jason Bonham.’ And he goes, ‘So what?’ He just went, ‘So what?’”
Now on tour with Michael Anthony, Bonham opened up about why Van Halen was so frosty during their first meeting. He explained: “[Anthony] goes, ‘Well, we heard your dad was in [Sunset Strip bar] The Rainbow, and we were playing Gazzarri’s next door. We kind of ran around The Rainbow and tried to say ‘hi’ to him.”
“Alex kind of like jumped over the [barrier] and went to put his hand out…and your dad took a swing at him! Maybe that’s why he was a little pissed!”
Alex was the drummer and co-founder of Van Halen, who he formed in 1972 with his younger brother Eddie.
The band disbanded in 2020 following Eddie’s death. They released 12 albums in the period from their 1977 signing to 2020 and both Alex and Eddie were the two constant members of the band throughout their career.
Earlier this year, Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong recalled meeting Eddie, saying he “started crying” when they met backstage.