System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan says Van Halen was one of the few bands who could be inspired by Led Zeppelin yet still create their own sound.
“I wanted to play drums before I knew who Van Halen was but Van Halen introduced a different style,” Dolmayan said during a recent appearance on The Paltrocast. “I guess you could say some of the drumming was derivative of John Bonham but that’s really only because everybody’s drumming is derivative of John Bonham after John Bonham right? You’re always going to have a flavor of it but Van Halen did it differently. It was more straightforward. It was heavy. It was kind of like a merging of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, and [it had] exceptional musicianship, which you had quite a bit of at that time but not many people played as melodically as Van Halen did. And I feel like everybody in Van Halen had something unique and interesting to bring to the table irrespective of how they were perceived.”
Van Halen Performing Led Zeppelin’s “The Rover” (1976)