John Paul Jones gives first interview since debut of Them Crooked Vultures; bassist compares band's onstage improvisation to that of Led Zeppelin

John Paul Jones has given his first interview since the debut of Them Crooked Vultures. In his interview for KUT 90.5 in Austin, Texas, he commented on a number of topics all related to the new band.

There were no questions about the status of a Led Zeppelin reunion.



How Them Crooked Vultures got together:

"It's all Dave's fault. It's all Dave's fault. He came up to [the] GQ Awards in London last year to present us with, um, Men of the Year, I believe it was, with Zeppelin. And we got to talking, and he says, 'Well, you know, if you're ever not doing anything, I want to get a little band together with Josh singing, and give you a call.' You know, so, I found out I was doing nothing after a while. ... I just came over in February, met with Josh for the first time, went pretty much into the studio, and just started having fun basically."

On the fact that the band got together despite none of the three members needing to have another band at this time:

"It's got to be fun. It really has."

On the blues-based groove present in the band's songs:

"Yeah, yeah. There kind of has to be. Josh is pretty bluesy too, and I suppose my history is blues-based. Blues-based rock. And it all comes from the blues for me. I just like the sound of it, I like playing it, and we're doing basically what we want, you know."

On releasing their studio recordings:

"Yes, it is hard to come by, but ... There will be music ... real soon now, as they say in the computer world."

On the method of release:

"I can't really comment on that, but it'll be everywhere soon, don't worry."

On the band's ambitions and longevity:

"We're still a young band hoping to go places. It is, yeah. They're all still growing. We all play 'em fine, of course, but this is again one of those bands where different things happen onstage and you take the songs from different places and discover new stuff about bits. It keeps the interest, and it's good fun to do. ... Yeah, I think it's going to go for a while. Honestly, you know, their respective bands will call them back eventually, but I think we're going to get a good run of it before anything like that happens."

In a separate interview for 90.5 KUT, Dave Grohl discusses the status of the Foo Fighters and explains what it is like playing in a band with John Paul Jones.