Jason Bonham: The 13th Floor Interview

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Jason Bonham continues to keep the legacy of his late father, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, alive with his Led Zeppelin Experience show.

With two dates scheduled in February, Jason will make his New Zealand debut next year.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Jason Bonham about the up coming shows, but first they discussed Jason’s other project, his participation in Black Country Communion. That band, featuring bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Trapeze/Deep Purple/Black Sabbath), guitarist Joe Bonamassa and keyboard player Derek Sherinian, has reunited and released a new album titled BCCIV.

Click here to listen to the interview with Jason Bonham:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: Your band mate, Glenn Hughes, was just in town, here in Auckland, doing a Deep Purple thing. You guys are back together again?

JB: Yes. I believe he had to cancel one show; he wasn’t very well. I was very concerned for him at the time. He said it was down to dehydration.

Black Country Communion

MD: I think he just ended his show a little bit earlier than planned, but I don’t think he had to cancel anything. He was in good shape when I saw him, though; so, he’s alright.

JB: Literally, we’ve been talking, today, with Joe about the set list which we’re going to do. We’ve got two shows in the UK just after Christmas, and we’ve been arguing over the set list; which is the typical thing: as soon as we start, it’s, “I want to do this song! He wants to do that song,” blah, blah! I just leave it up to them, and they’ll give me the list when it’s ready.

MD: Right! What were the sessions for the album like? Were they fairly sedate, or were they fraught?

JB: It’s gone so quickly, we’re still… enjoying each other’s company after five days. Before we can annoy each other we’re now separated again. The band does really well in short bursts, I think. That’s our secret to staying together. That’s why we’re only touring for very short periods of time! Musically, it’s a wonderful project that I love to be part of, and that was one of the reasons why I said “Yes” immediately, when Joe reached out and said, “Hey, I miss the project. I miss the band. Would you consider doing another album?” So, I was like, “Yep! If everyone else is in, I’m in.” It’s a good, fun thing to have. It’s not a bad thing to have as a side project, with all the rest of the stuff, and Joe is a very successful guitarist, in his own right, with his own career. Obviously, getting the time frame to go and play is the hardest thing, but it’s well worth it when we do it.

MD: Let’s talk about your trip down to New Zealand: you’re going to be here, next year, to do the Led Zeppelin Experience thing. Have you been to New Zealand before?

JB: No. This is going to be my first time and I apologize, it’s taken me fifty one years of my life to get down there, especially when I had my grandmother’s twin sister lived there all her life. I actually never got to go down and see her – God bless her – while she was alive. I’m really looking forward to this! Purely, it came about by a fan on the Facebook site saying to me, ”Why don’t you ever come to New Zealand?” and I went, “Because no one’s ever asked,” and I said, “Ask somebody to make me an offer,” and they made me an offer, and then we found out it wasn’t weirdo or a lunatic, and it was a legit company; so, here we are. When you ask us, we will come.

MD: Very cool! For folks who may not be familiar with what the Led Zeppelin Experience is all about: how would you describe it to someone?

JB: I would describe the Led Zeppelin Experience as a passion project that is totally heartfelt, witnessing the career span of Led Zeppelin, in musical terms, but from the point of view of some personal moments – of a child that grew up around it, and was part of it, all the way through – as well as the music, there are some home movies that we show. I

John & Jason Bonham

show a down to earth side of: this is the guy that became Bonzo. This is the guy, and you see him as a kid growing up. I have this wonderful stuff, and when you put it with certain music… like Thank You – is a tear jerker without even putting the images on the screen – when you put the home movies, and we see dad as a kid growing up, and where he meets my mum and introduces her to his parents – the last footage we have of him weeks before he passed. I never wanted it to be a downer in the show; it’s just a celebration of the music and the life of John Bonham, and I get to do things that we never got to do while he was alive, which was play drums together. That’s kind of how it started – very organically – and it’s just grown and grown and grown. I didn’t imagine, seven years ago, that this project I’ve started would still be going, and be in high demand; so, I’m very lucky, I’m very privileged, and very honoured to play this music.

MD: Have any of the other members of Led Zeppelin seen the Experience, or had any kind of input or comment about it?

JB: Robert’s come and seen it. A couple of his band members go; they were telling me that, “He does check out the tips, you know. Watch the stuff when you do it.” There was one incidence: we were playing the same venue the day before Robert, and I kept joking around with ticket sales. I said, “I think we’re two hundred more than Robert, at the moment,” and one of the people that came to the meet-and-greet said to me, “Robert said, ‘If you want to go and see it sound more like the album, go and see Jason’s version of it. He says we do a whole different thing;’” it was very sweet. This is just something I did as a part time thing. I never imagined people to take it to such a place where we now play for six or seven thousand people on a regular basis. I still find that a little bit weird, because we are fans as much as anybody else.

MD: … I believe I saw you the first time you played with Led Zeppelin, which was at Madison Square Garden for the Atlantic Records’ fortieth anniversary.

JB: In 1988?

MD: Yeah! I was just wondering if you had any memories of that, and what that experience was like for you.

JB: That was a very unrehearsed, fun, chaotic Led Zeppelin performance, in my eyes. I was just very, very pleased to be able to get a chance, later on in life, to correct anything that people thought I could have done better…. I look back now, and I think, “What could I do?” and listen to my music with blinkers on. It’s embarrassing: for me, it’s embarrassing when I look back on some of the earlier performances of my own.

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience comes to Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena on February 3rd and Auckland’s Logan Campbell Centre on February 4th. Click here for tickets and more information. 

 

Marty Duda
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