Joan Bonham (1929 - 2011)

“I see your still up to the same tricks,” Joan Bonham told Robert Plant last October in Birmingham. The Mother of Plant’s ex-bandmate, John Bonham, was teasing Plant backstage at a Band of Joy concert.

Joan Bonham died this morning. She was 81.

Born in 1929 Joan had three children, Led Zeppelin drummer John (1948 - 1980), photographer and writer Michael (Mick) (1951-2000) and daughter Deborah (1962). Sadly, she is predeceased by both of her sons and her husband, John Henry Sr., who died in 1998.

To help supplement the family income when she was younger, Joan ran a news store in Redditch. In the past few years she sang for the geriatric rockers The Zimmers.

In Ritchie York’s biography of Led Zeppelin, The Led Zeppelin Biography John Bonham credits Joan with starting him on drums:

When I was 10, my mum bought me a snare drum.

Achilles Last Stand reports that Joan Bonham has been ill since Christmas, and died this morning in her sleep. She is survived by daughter Deborah, her grandson, drummer Jason Bonham and granddaughter, singer-songwriter Zoe Bonham.

Condolences go out to friends and family of Joan Bonham.