Jason Bonham


Jason Bonham, son of the late John "Bonzo" Bonham, does not take lightly the responsibility of carrying on his father's legacy. Having made a head start at drumming while he was a child, Jason is now passing on the same lessons to a third generation of Bonham drummers.

John Bonham's death in 1980 left such an impact on the surviving members of Led Zeppelin that they knew immediately they could not continue as they were. Yet Jason Bonham's familiarity with the band made him a shoe-in to join his father's bandmates on the few occasions reunion concerts have taken place.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of Bonham's most successful album release to date, the Platinum-certified disc The Disregard of Timekeeping released by his band, Bonham. To mark the milestone, he recently toured with a new band and played under the banner of "An Evening with Jason Bonham."

In the past, Bonham has also toured and/or recorded with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Foreigner, UFO, Paul Rodgers, Joe Bonamassa, Virginia Wolf, Airrace, Healing Sixes and Motherland. He also acted in the movie Rock Star and appeared on the reality TV show "SuperGroup."

- What's the latest on Jason Bonham?

Friday, June 19, 2009

Jimmy Page and Jack White discuss future plans, video games at L.A. press conference

Reuters and the New Musical Express are reporting on a press conference with Jimmy Page and Jack White that took place this morning in Los Angeles. Both are in town for the city's film festival and tonight's premiere of "It Might Get Loud" there.

Both stories carried a humorous quip from White on whether he might consider playing again with Page, such as on the solo album White is rumored to be embarking on. "I think Jimmy needs to practice a little more," he commented. Yeah, he was joking.

The Reuters coverage carries more interesting remarks from both guitarists on the way music is presented to today's youth. For instance, neither thinks video games are very useful for musical practice.

White said, "That's like the only outlet now, that you have to put [your music] in a video game to get it in front of [kids]. That's a little sad."

Reuters carried a long, candid remark from Page about amateur musicians setting out to imitate their heroes:

"If you start with the first track on the first (self-titled Led Zeppelin) album, 'Good Times Bad Times,' and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that? Let alone Dad on a Christmas morning? There might be a lot of alcohol to be consumed over Christmas, he still ain't gonna get it."
Interestingly, as the NME story tells us, Page pointed out that both he and White, and also their third co-star, The Edge, are all self-taught guitarists.

The film premieres in L.A. about an hour and a half from the time of writing.

Update: Getty Images and the Associated Press have photos of Page and others at the premiere. Also, the video below is from a Q&A session at the L.A. film premiere.

1 comment:

  1. My girlfriend's 12-year-old son doesn't pay much attention to Led Zeppelin. He's an aspiring student of the electric guitar, but he somehow overlooked Zeppelin when he discovered the rock bands he idolized, which ironically enough include Def Leppard and Whitesnake.
    He was happy to point out that a certain new "Guitar Hero" game supposedly contains only the best guitar songs of the '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s. So he was quick to point out to me there was no Led Zeppelin on the game, which he used as evidence that Zeppelin was not good enough for "Guitar Hero" (when songs by Billy Idol and Ozzy Osbourne were).

    Au contraƮre, I pointed out to him; "Guitar Hero" was not good enough for Led Zeppelin! And I had Jimmy Page's words to fall back on. The boy didn't have a good comeback, although he pointed out the obvious, that kids his age would be hearing Zeppelin for the first time who wouldn't have otherwise.

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John Paul Jones is now in one of the hottest and hardest rock bands, Them Crooked Vultures. The frontman, handling lead guitar and vocals, is Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters is on drums. As for Jones, he offers not only bass and keyboard but also mandolin, keytar, lap steel and whatever else is needed.

One album was released in November, and another is forthcoming. A tour of North America completed in November, and the band now heads to Europe in December and Australia in January.

- What's the latest on Them Crooked Vultures, the group featuring John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme?

- What else is John Paul Jones up to?