Carmine Appice stated that John Bonham of Led Zeppelin played like him.

In a new interview with Radio Forrest, legendary drummer Carmine Appice was asked what he thought John Bonham adopted from him in terms of sound and playing style when Vanilla Fudge and Led Zeppelin played together in the late 1960s. He responded:

"According to [John Bonham's book] 'A Thunder Of Drums,' I was the one who influenced him. That means he adopted a lot of what I use. Because if you think of the drummers who influenced and were around inspirational people, it was Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, myself and Dino Danelli. The other four guys played modestly. I, on the other hand, played very loud and powerful and spectacular. And when John saw me live, he liked it and he liked my big drums. So he asked me if I could help him become a Ludwig endorser.

Just think: no one knew him. It's hard to believe that now. People claim that when I talk about it, it's my ego. Actually it's not ego, I'm just telling the truth. Nobody knew John Bonham. I called Ludwig and said: "I think this guy is going to be famous. He wants a set like mine. It would be great if you could make him an endorser." And I swear, they agreed. We sent them the first album, and they made ego an endorser. He wasn't known yet. And then on the next tour, we did a lot of shows together, and he had the exact same drum kit as me. And he was playing like me, he was doing the same stabs like me, hitting the cymbals like me. And he'd look at me when he did it, and we'd laugh. I was giving him a thumbs up. We were friends. Me and [Vanilla Fudge bassist] Tim Bogert jammed with Zeppelin on one of the songs on that tour."