My love of Led Zeppelin is a very poorly-kept secret. Tossed into the endless, jumbled mix of artists I enjoy, Led Zeppelin will always come out on top in the end. 

I can ramble on about how amazing some other band or artist is, but there’s just no comparison for me when Zeppelin enters the conversation.

But as Led Zeppelin wields the hammer of the gods, do we immediately condemn every band that has a similar sound as nothing more than a golden calf, revered as a false idol? Some would say so, but they would be wrong.

When we spent a day at the Austin City Limits Festival with our teenage daughter Marissa in 2021 I was introduced to Greta Van Fleet. She was excited and I was indifferent. As we talked about them, she said “a lot of Led Zeppelin fans don’t like them because they believe Greta Van Fleet is trying to be Led Zeppelin.”

I laughed, and thought, “It’s not even possible,” followed by “who do they think they are?”

Their performance at ACL was nothing special, but we were far from the stage, it was hot, and their set was short. I really didn’t think about it again. A couple of years later, though, the Fleet (that’s what I call them because I’m old) came back to Austin and Marissa really wanted to go. I decided I could survive it and we went. 

I’m really glad I did. That night, the band rocked the Moody Center as well as anyone has, putting on an old-school rock and roll show that would make any legendary rock band proud.

With the band in town, the debate kicked up again locally about the Fleet being little more than a Zeppelin wannabe group of kids born nearly two decades after the greatest rock band to ever take the stage called it quits.

Let’s be fair, a number of their songs – “Highway Tune,” “When the Curtain Falls,” “You’re the One,” and “Safari Song” for instance – sound in many ways like they could have been plucked out of the Led Zeppelin catalog. 

But they weren’t. “Highway Tune” was first recorded in 2013 before any member of the band could vote. It would go on to spend four weeks at number one a few years later.

Greta Van Fleet’s music is all theirs, regardless of their influences and who they may pattern themselves after at times. The truth is, the band sounds like a heavy-handed, wailing classic rock band nostalgic for the 70s. Who doesn’t love a throwback?

And hit play on “Heat Above” and tell me you don’t get a little bit of a Rush vibe. Should Geddy Lee be offended?

I don’t want to wade into too much controversy here, but it’s Led Zeppelin that admittedly emulated older artists and failed to give credit to those influences for decades. American Blues music played a pivotal role in what Zeppelin would become. It was a style of music the band shot steroids into, pumped through amplifiers, and belted out lyrics from as it rose to superstardom. Robert Plant has even admitted to lifting lyrics and Jimmy Page took a lot of the blues he revered and put a hard psychedelic edge on it to make the Zeppelin sound. Are we mad at Zeppelin for being influenced by Willie Dixon?

Zeppelin band members have since given credit to their inspiration, but it seems awfully ironic that Zeppelin fans would bristle at the idea Greta Van Fleet might be enjoying its own stardom with a familiar sound from the past.

One of my favorite radio slogans from 80s was, “It may not be your favorite song, but it has a lot of the same notes.” Indeed.

What we should all do is create a solid playlist of Greta Van Fleet and Led Zeppelin favorites, hit random, turn it up really loud for a few hours, and enjoy how two different generations could create music that makes us want to rock out the same way.