Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who suggested that a super-group containing themselves, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, would "go down like a lead zeppelin", a term Entwistle used to describe a disastrous gig.

They didn't form a super-group. Moon and Entwistle did The Who, Jeff Beck formed The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, which left Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham to form Led Zeppelin.

They deliberately dropped the "a" in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it as "leed".