Jason Bonham, An Xperience Interview (Part I)

Jason Bonham, An Xperience Interview (Part I) – by Liam Sweeny.

If you don’t know who Jason Bonham is, you hold the unique position of living under a rock in multiple generations. Bonham is an accomplished drummer in multiple projects, and, as the son of the late legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, a standard bearer for rock itself.

I had a chance to talk with Jason.

RRX: You’re coming to the Palace Theatre on December 4 with “Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening.” What are people gonna get that they couldn’t get from a really good tribute band and also couldn’t get from a reunion show?

JB: Well, good question. If people have seen the show before or been following me while I’ve been doing this, this journey of JBLZE (as we call it now) – the fact that we are 14 years in when I only originally wanted to do one tour – it’s proved to be a wonderful experience. We’re all getting older together, and it was something I promised the audience every year when we did it. I said, “I’ll keep doing this for as long as I can play it and as long as you want me to,” and I said, “Let’s grow older together.” So we’ve been doing that, and it became like a little family.

We had a couple of small changes about seven or eight years ago and actually gave it a new lease on life when we changed it from “Experience” to “Evening.” And that was with the Japanese guitar player, “Mr. Jimmy” Sakurai. He is a breath of fresh air, and his knowledge of all the Led Zeppelin stuff is so amazing, all the live stuff. It really opened my mind to be able to take the show a little further, and I promised that this time around, we wouldn’t stick to the script. We would try to change things up, and we’re gonna bring back some of the songs we did on the first-ever tour, which are songs like “Dazed and Confused,” the full-length versions (and I say full-length like “The Song Remains the Same” versions). So they’re 22 minutes long, a lot of things going on in them. Also, a friend of mine kept challenging me to try “Achilles Last Stand.” It’s a song that I’ve kind of steered clear of ‘cause I never thought we did it good enough, but I’m willing to keep trying and get it to the point because it’s such an amazing song. So yeah, we’re gonna have some fun. There’s some new stuff in the show. Definitely.

The show is long. The difference from anybody else doing it is that this is something I’ve grown up with all my life. I’ve been around those boys; my dad was who he was, but it’s just a feeling of family and sharing the stuff and the stories, they tell a few things about what it was like growing up with Dad. And that’s why it became more of an evening with me, and talking about some of the greatest music ever written. So if you’re coming down, you won’t be disappointed. Plus, it’s a lovely part of the world. I was there recently in the summer, so I look forward to it.

RRX: I did watch a few of them on YouTube. I was sitting in here for a couple of mornings having a blast. It was great, it was a really good time. So I have seen them.

JB:  Thank you very much.

RRX: This ties into what you were saying, ties into a couple of questions I had. You were originally gonna do just that one tour of JBLZE, and then you decided to extend it. What went into the decision to extend it?

JB:  Well, after we did the 28 shows (which at the time was all we were gonna do), I was thinking to myself, you know, “This is too good.” I thought that we hadn’t played to enough people. There were still a lot of people saying, “Well, why don’t you come here? Why don’t you come there?” and I said it’s not really my decision to stop this. I said we will do it as long as people want to see it. So I kind of put it out there to the agent and the people that were in charge, and there were lots more offers that came in, and it just kept on growing, but growing organically; we never went out and did massive press releases, and we don’t really do that. You know, it’s not like we’re promoting a product. We’re not trying to sell anything other than “come to the show and enjoy yourself.” If you love that, then you’ll have a good time.

So that was the cool thing about it. It naturally grew in a nice, organic way. And we got to the point where people in Australia were asking us to come and play, and then we got offered to do some tours with different artists, and I never imagined doing JBLZE as … I always thought it was gonna be a storytelling video wall of movies. Once we took it to the outdoor sheds and we did some shows with Foreigner and Whitesnake, and then Foreigner and Cheap Trick, I suddenly went, ‘This is a lot of fun,” and we did the Peter Frampton tour in 2019. And then, just recently, we got to do some shows with Billy Joel, which was phenomenal, and he’s a huge Zeppelin fan. So that was a real honor to do that, to go and play a stadium, open up with Billy. And then he says, “You can’t leave. You have to watch my show too because you’re gonna be playing a Zeppelin song with me.” And he’s such a sweet guy, such a great time. It’s got to the point now when I just feel very humbled by how much people still love to come and see the show 14 years down the line.

RRX: Wow. Funny thing. We just interviewed [former Billy Joel drummer] Liberty DeVitto.

JB:  Alright.

RRX: Yeah, we just interviewed him. I got an invite to go to a drum course that he’s doing right now over in Rocky’s Music Studio in Rensselaer, which is near here. So I’m gonna go see him. So that’s cool.

JB:  Well, send him my best.

RRX: I will. So now JBLZE is out there, and nothing’s performed in the vacuum. No shows are performed in a vacuum. If you were a Led Zeppelin tribute band, you play your heart out, and there’s some guy at the end of the bar, he’s got a Led Zeppelin T-shirt on. He walks up; he’s got something to say because that’s every bar. But it was your show. If you do a show somewhere, that person sitting at the other end of the bar might be Robert Plant coming up to say something to you. Have you gotten any kind of encouragement or advice on the show from anyone in the band?

JB: No, I mean, the weirdest thing is, it’s quite a few years ago now, I remember mentioning it to Robert, and he said, “Well, you know, you do what you’re gonna wanna do.” He goes, “You know, there are other things,” and I went, “Yeah, I know, this is just one thing I do.” And he goes, “Yeah,” and he goes, “And why not?” He said, “Your knowledge of your dad’s music and our music is ridiculous.” He said, “So enjoy.” So I remember talking to his keyboard player. I went to see Robert play the show, and we were playing the Greek three days after he played, and he [the keyboard player] said to me, “You know, he watches your clips on YouTube. He might not tell you he ever does, but he does.” And at the Greek, he said to the audience, “Hey, is anyone going to see ‘Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening’ in a few days?” and some people cheered. Yeah, he goes “OK. Well, that’s how it used to sound, and this is how it sounds now,” and he went into a Zeppelin song.

So it was very funny. I found that very complimentary in a way. The best is the Warner Chappell thing, one of those things online which finds if music is being used without permission. I can always tell if we do a really, really good job, they think we’re using Zeppelin, so they take down a clip. And that’s the best compliment ever, but then you start going, “Why aren’t your other songs good enough? Why aren’t you taking this one down, you know?” So there must be some kind of computer program that says when it’s being used. And it’s, that’s the best compliment ever.

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