Diamond Head guitarist Brian Tatler has defended Greta Van Fleet over Led Zeppelin ripoff accusations in a new Record Collector interview, claiming that because Metallica have so many imitators, Greta Van Fleet have the right to imitate Led Zeppelin.
“Well, I like the singer [Josh Kiszka] – I think he’s really good – but I think the hype surrounding Greta Van Fleet is incredible.
I’ve never seen a band hyped as much as Greta Van Fleet. I think it will possibly destroy them or it will be tough to survive this kind of microscopic attention being placed on Greta Van Fleet.
I hope they can do it. They’re young, good-looking guys, the world’s at their feet, but it’s a hell of a lot of pressure – more pressure than bands like Zeppelin, or Sabbath, or Purple have had back in the day. So we’ll see what happens.”
Tatler said the Zeppelin influence in Greta Van Fleet’s music is “pretty obvious,” adding that Josh Kiszka “does sound a bit like Robert Plant.”
“You’ve gotta draw a comparison with Zeppelin, with that guy’s voice. There’s a lot of bands that sound like Metallica, there’s a lot of bands that sound like Iron Maiden – why not have a band that sounds like Led Zeppelin?”
