Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening was really only supposed to last around a year or so. A decade and a half later, it’s still going strong.
“This started off as a pure, fun, love project,” Bonham recently told UCR over Zoom. “It just happened to have carried on for 15 years.”
Bonham’s current tour, which began in May, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin‘s Physical Graffiti, a trek that’s provided Bonham a great deal of joy to bring to fans. The album isn’t performed in the exact original order — a purposeful decision, Bonham says. Fans shouldn’t expect a note-for-note recreation either given that some of Physical Graffiti‘s songs were never even performed live by Led Zeppelin themselves.
UCR caught up with Bonham as his band prepares to launch the last leg of this tour, which takes them across the East Coast.
Tell us a little about how the tour has been going so far – you’ve been doing this show for about six months now.
Well, once we got the first part of it done, which was in May — we managed to split it up into three segments, which was nice, so we weren’t away for such a length of time. When we first started, I thought it would go well, but I didn’t realize how well it would go, if you know what I mean. So the Physical Graffiti concept was just something to try and give us a challenge, and when you’ve been doing a project for 15 years and you only thought it would last one, you’re always looking to do something that can spice it up a little bit. You can get very complacent and comfortable playing, you know, the biggest songs from the Zep catalog. I think we’ve probably tackled every one of them, virtually every song from Physical Graffiti before, but never as a show, never put them all in the same night, so we were always like, ooh, is it going to be good? Are they going to enjoy it?
So first of all, I said, we can’t do it in the order, because if we do that — “Kashmir” is like, the fourth song in or whatever. So I was like, oh, so how are we going to do this? … I’d rather people not have to go “I know what’s coming next,” you know? So they can plan their toilet or a drink break when they go, “Oh, I don’t like that one very much. I’m gonna go.” No, no, no. This is a show. We’re going to do it as we can. And it’s been going amazingly well. …
It’s just nice to be able to do it in a different way. It’s given me — especially this whole concept has made me think of how I could approach others, other albums, or, you know, do a multi-album night where you do, like, say, [Led Zeppelin IV] and Houses of the Holy, or [Led Zeppelin III] and [Led Zeppelin IV], or [Led Zeppelin I] and [Led Zeppelin II]. I know because the concept idea has worked really well, I’d love to then go into another realm of maybe do a Hollywood Bowl [show] with a full orchestra doing songs like “Rain Song” — all the main string songs. [It] would be, you know, a phenomenal thing to do, to do “Stairway [to Heaven]” with the full horns, brass, strings, the lot, you know?
Wow, you’ve got big plans!
I have! And the sad part about it is when you get to 59 you start going, I don’t know how much longer I can perform to the ability that I want to be able to perform at, because I always said…I wouldn’t want to go out there and couldn’t play and just to take a check. I want to enhance things and make it fun, make it an evening that people want to enjoy.
This whole concept made me think about it as not just going out there and playing the same thing most nights, to maybe even go out with another band, like an Australian Pink Floyd and have an evening of such amazing classical music — we could then have a much bigger show and lasers and the whole — take it to another realm. You know, even to the point of: if we had the content, if we had the visual content…the Sphere! That’s it! All we need is someone to create the content, we’ll provide the music. If somebody comes up with the most amazing visuals for Zeppelin, we will go and perform the music to the best of [our] ability, because the Sphere, to me, is not about who’s on stage, it’s about the sound and then the visual.
Watch Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening Perform ‘Custard Pie’
Do you ever have moments when you’re performing where you think to yourself, “Oh, that was very much like my dad, what I just played there,” or you notice you’re doing something in a similar way to your dad?
I mean, for this, because I’m doing his music, I’m hoping for those moments in the show constantly, whether they happen or not. I also kind of have like — been doing it for years now — having a running, like, conversation with him while I’m playing. When I’m in the right zone, I’ll do something and go “You hear that, Dad? Yeah, you like that don’t you? I can imagine you doing that one right there.”
I’ve heard you say before that separate and apart from you being John Bonham‘s son, you and your bandmates are really and truly fans of this music. That must come across in your performances.
Yeah, it has. I think the honesty of it has to. If it was done any other way, we wouldn’t be here now. It’s funny, Julian [Lennon] said, “I don’t get it.” I said, “What you have to do, Julian, is come to a show.” And he came to the Greek, and he ran backstage afterwards and went “I get it, I totally get it.” Once he saw it, and he saw what was happening with the audience and the interaction…because on paper it was: “Oh, you’re doing Zeppelin songs? Really? I can’t ever imagine doing my dad’s songs anymore.” And I always like to say, since then, he’s actually opened up and actually has done a few of his dad’s songs now. And, you know, there’s a few more children in the music industry now, [they’re] going out and playing with their parents, you know. Like Sting‘s son — he goes out and sings some of the songs, the early stuff. Roger Taylor from Queen, his son was on tour with Queen for a long time before he went in to another band. So there’s this whole — I like to go, “Yeah, I made it okay for all the kids.” It’s okay for them to embrace what their fathers did.
I’d like to do a little lightning round here. First, what’s your favorite Led Zeppelin song to perform live?
“Rain Song.”
If you could drum for another other band, contemporary or not, who would it be?
Without upsetting Zak [Starkey], I would have loved to play with the Who one night. That would have been fun.
If you were stuck on a deserted island, what three albums would you want with you?
I think, definitely Abacab, Genesis, would be one. Um…oh! The first Rage Against the Machine album. … I’m trying to think of…what’s an album I play more than everything else — which would be Escape by Journey! I have more copies of that album, because I played it so much. I’d be happy with those.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone who wants to be a rock drummer?
Learn how to play every other instrument and sing as well. Learn how to write. Definitely own everything. Don’t think if you get a deal, your dreams are now beginning — it’s just an investment.
