In 1960s England, rock bands were coming and going like airplanes on a tarmac. Often, the careers of these bands would be fleeting, and then players would go start and join new bands that would also be fleeting. Every so often, a band would contrast that narrative and create something that would last, and one of the few individuals who did was Jimmy Page and The New Yardbirds, best known as Led Zeppelin.
Videos by American Songwriter
The Band, The Yardbirds, was a revolving door of players that featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and several other notable players. Following Clapton’s departure in 1965, he went on and started Cream roughly a year later in 1966. Subsequently, Page and Beck joined the group, but their time together didn’t last long as Beck left in 1966, and two years later, Page left in 1968, dissolving The Yardbirds entirely.
As most of you rock historians probably know, when Page left the band, he went on to start The New Yardbirds, which would later become Led Zeppelin. He recruited Robert Plant, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, and nearly one other player, Ronnie Wood.
Ronnie Wood Wasn’t Going To Play With “That Bunch of Farmers”
Around the time Wood got this offer, he was playing with Page’s former bandmate, Jeff Beck, in The Jeff Beck Group alongside Rod Stewart and Micky Waller. Subsequently, in 1969, Stewart and Wood would go on to join The Faces. Not that Wood made that wrong decision, as he went on to become an integral member of several iconic rock bands, but still, saying no to an opportunity such as this still has to make one scratch their head.
Concerning the offer, Wood stated on the Ronnie Wood Show Podcast, “Peter Grant used to manage myself and Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart and Mickey Waller and Nicky Hopkins back in the good old days.” “He was behind a band that was going to be called The New Yardbirds, which I had an offer to join, and I said, ‘I can’t join that bunch of farmers’. Anyway, they eventually changed their name and turned out to be Led Zeppelin, and he managed them as well.”
If you are confused about that arbitrary “farmers” statement, then you are not alone; we don’t know what Wood meant as well. Nevertheless, Wood missed an opportunity with this decision, but ultimately, it never caught up to him. Regardless, what would Led Zeppelin have sounded like if it featured Ronnie Wood? Who knows, but yet again, here is another decision that changed the history of rock ‘n’ roll.
