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, October 2, 2009

Dave Grohl, as drummer, loves his new band with John Paul Jones and Josh Homme

Dave Grohl's back on drums! That's what a lot of the buzz is that's currently surrounding Them Crooked Vultures as the band sets off to cruise across North America.

In the Foo Fighters, Grohl's talents behind a drum kit were hidden away in a bushel basket so that he could be the frontman, screaming indelicately into a microphone with a guitar strapped to his back. But the former Nirvana drummer has consistently returned to the drums whenever he's linked up with Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, himself an ample guitar player, singer, songwriter and frontman.

So it's long been Grohl's dream -- and probably fans of his -- to be able to return to the drums in a tight-knit group. Grohl envisioned himself forming a band with Homme years ago -- and who better to play bass than John Paul Jones? But who among us wouldn't desire to recruit Jones to join a rhythm section in much the same way we draft reliable running backs for fantasy football? Grohl probably never seriously thought he could form a band with both Homme and Jones.

Until he got that unexpected phone call.



As Grohl explains in his backstage interview with radio station KUT 90.5 Austin:

"I'd worked with John on a Foo Fighters record and asked him. I guess it was about a year ago. I bumped into him in London, and I said, 'Hey, I got this project I think might be kind of fun. Me and my buddy Josh are gonna do something outside of our bands.' And he kind of went, 'Oh, yeah, right.' And then I didn't hear from him for a while, and then a month later, he called and said, 'Hey, when do you think you're gonna do it?' So I called Josh, [and I'm] like, 'F***, man, I think he actually wants to do it! This is amazing!'"
Grohl says that when he, Jones and Homme all started jamming together for the first time, it took him only as much as two or three minutes to realize it was the best band he'd ever been involved with.
"John, I mean, you know, John is ... he's ... he's an incredibly gifted musician. Anything that he picks up, he plays with feel, he plays with passion. He's ... he's a ... you know, he's a classically trained f***ing genius. But he rips on anything! He'll pick up a mandolin and just blow your head off! You know? And ... and everybody knows what he can do with a bass guitar, and watching the two of them go at each other, you know. I get to sit there and watch those two every night, and it's awesome."
It was presumably Grohl's first interview about Them Crooked Vultures since the band's formation early this year, and so he gushed over the fact that he was finally able to talk freely about the band.
"Nobody knew; we kept it a secret for eight months. Nobody knew. And that was the best part. I'm actually relieved now that I can talk about it because I used to -- you know, I had to keep it a secret. It's like I had a secret lover for eight months and I was trying to hide her away from everybody. You know? I couldn't tell anybody!"
The only remaining secret with the band that neither Grohl nor Jones was at liberty to address in their interviews with KUT 90.5 Austin was when Them Crooked Vultures will be releasing any of their studio recordings. When Grohl was asked if he could reveal anything about their record, he clammed up, reverting to the tight-lipped nature of the band since its public debut in August. Grohl simply told the reporter:
"No. You'll see."
While some media outlets are still reporting the band's debut album will be titled "Deserve the Future" and released late this month, it's really not even certain there will be an album release in the traditional sense. As I said one month ago yesterday:

For all we know, Them Crooked Vultures may forego an in-store physical album release altogether. Too passé!

Why not drop the entire album free of charge over the course of a month, hiding uncompressed digital files on different Web sites. We'd have to follow the social networking accounts of a couple dozen different henchmen affiliated with the marketing scheme and click incessantly on suspect links to various indistinguishable vultur.es URLs. Most would reveal comical images of crooked vultures, while only a handful would be those proverbial needles in the haystack, unleashing track by track the powerful music created for fans of loud rock.

Truly, then, only the most patient and ardent fans would deserve the future.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Users agree to refrain from posting obscenities and defamatory statements.

About the author

Other Led Zeppelin information from Lemon Squeezings

Lemon Squeezings archive

Like what you see?


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?