I think feeling is a lot more important than technique. It's all very well doing a triple paradiddle, but who's going to know you have done it? If you play technically you sound like everyone else - it's originality that counts. I yell out like a bear when I am playing to give my playing a boost.
We made the first album as soon as we flew back from our tour as The New Yardbirds in Scandinavia. We had only been together a month. But at that time I don't think I had any idea the group would acheive so much. In no time it grew and grew, but it was at least 1969 before there was any reaction in Britain. We went to the states because we had to. Nobody would book us in England. Our manager would try to get some dates and they'd say: "Who are Led Zeppelin?" When we came back from America and the first album was out, there was a change of tune. People went on about, "Why are you playing in America all the time?" Well, we had to because no one would book us at home. I always like playing in Britain; you can go home after a gig. In America you have to sleep in hotels and have argunments with rednecks.
