Classic rock is a rather loose term, and Pete Townshend is sick of it being bandied about. In his view, only two groups justifiably exist in that canon: The Rolling Stones and The Who.

To him, anything either side of that British duo is either rock ‘n’ roll, an entirely different genre altogether, or some perverse mutation like heavy metal. And like a musical geneticist, Townshend loathed mutations of the form more than anyone. Well, anyone other than Keith Richards, that is.

You see, Richard always felt that rock needs to swing, and by the 1970s, too many bands had lost sight of this. “Rock ‘n’ roll I never get tired of, but ‘rock’ is a white man’s version,” he said of the creeping heaviness that he thought weighed down the genre in the ‘70s in Under the Influence, “and they turn it into a march, that’s [the modern] version of rock. Excuse me, I prefer the roll.”

So, while the heavier bands that arrived in the wake of The Beatles might have argued that they brought something new to the genre, Townshend and Richards were aligned in thinking that they actually stripped something vital away. And it was Led Zeppelin who bore the brunt of their ire.

While Townshend told theToronto Sun that he thought The Who “sort of invented heavy metal with [our first live album] Live at Leeds (1970),” he was never happy with what followed. “We were copied by so many bands, principally by Led Zeppelin, you know heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar,” said Townshend. Alas, imitation was not the finest form of flattery on this occasion. In fact, he viewed it as the highest source of embarrassment.

In 1995, he was far more cutting. “I don’t like a single thing that they have done, I hate the fact that I’m ever even slightly compared to them,” he said. “I just never ever liked them. It’s a real problem to me cause as people I think they are really, really great guys. Just never liked the band.”

Richards’ critique was similarly laden with backhanders. He was wise enough not to rubbish the esteemed band across the board. “Jimmy Page is a great guitar player,” he once declared in a rare moment of praise, “and a very respected one.” In fact, he even went a step further in another interview and stated: “To me, Led Zeppelin is Jimmy Page if you want to cut the story short.”

But on his own website, Richards candidly extended the story to include a rather more robust dismissal: “As a band, I felt aptly named, it never took off for me musically. At the same time, Jimmy Page is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever known. Bonham was a hell of a powerhouse drummer, although I think he’s kind of heavy-handed, myself — that’s when the ‘Led’ comes in.”

Rounding off his assessment later down the line, when he told Rolling Stone: “I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?” 

Alas, this hallowed hollowness that Richards and Townshend both put their finger on outsold classic rock as soon as it arrived, resonating with fans more so than peers or critics. At one point, Led Zeppelin IV was even among the five best-selling albums of all time. But this was also something Townshend recognised, commenting, “Well that became so much bigger than The Who in so many ways, in their chosen field…” before promptly concluding for good measure, “I’ve never liked them.”