“It felt pretty damn good” – John Paul Jones on playing with Led Zeppelin one last time

Originally published in Uncut Take 132 (May, 2008 issue)…

John Paul Jones is interviewed by telephone on Monday, January 28, a few days before he presents an award to, and performs with, John Martyn at the Radio 2 Folk Awards, and less than a fortnight before he appears with the Foo Fighters at the Grammys, conducting the orchestral arrangement to their song “The Pretender”.

Jones, 62, is one of the most respected musicians in the world, whose recent activities (notably as a mandolin player) have seen him collaborate with artists as diverse as Robyn Hitchcock, Ben Harper and Gillian Welch.

Jones, who could be seen playing a banjo backstage during the hours before Zeppelin’s O2 Arena concert (“It calms me down”), is a famously dry‑witted soul, who precedes most of his answers with a slightly puzzled‑sounding “erm…”. Uncut receives a preliminary call from Jones’ office, 20 minutes before the interview, just to check that we’re ready and that we are who we say we are. Jones does not sound like a man who enjoys having his time wasted.

UNCUT: Firstly, what did it feel like to be playing with Jimmy again at the O2?

JOHN PAUL JONES: Pretty damn good. We put a lot of work into it – I’d done a lot of playing with him in the months preceding it – and it was fun revisiting the numbers and playing with a really good player again.

UNCUT: Is he as good as the Page of old?

JONES: Yeah, he is. I know it sounds obvious, but he was always one of my favourite guitarists and as soon as we started rehearsing, I was amazed to hear how he’d actually improved. He seemed to have grown since I saw him last.

UNCUT: It’s difficult for him, isn’t it, to perform these songs live? Because some of them have upwards of five or six tracks of guitar on the recordings…

JONES: Obviously, we always used to do songs that had a lot of overdubs, and we used to have to come to some arrangement about doing them live. So we’re kind of used to it, but yeah, you’ve got to be powerful and nimble to cover all the important parts. He did it without a second thought.

“YOU’VE GOT TO BE POWERFUL AND NIMBLE TO COVER ALL THE IMPORTANT PARTS. HE [PAGE] DID IT WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT.”

John Paul Jones

UNCUT: He came on wearing shades. Was he nervous?

JONES: Ha! No, he seems to like wearing shades… for pictures and things like that.

UNCUT: I know that Ahmet Ertegun was the reason for the reunion, but what do you think it meant to Jimmy?

JONES: Ahmet meant a lot to us all. We wanted to be on his label in the first place, so, yes, it was a tribute to a very important man. That we did a full Zeppelin show… albeit a short one, at two hours… Jimmy was very happy. It’s probably similar to what it meant to all of us, which is: it’s nice to be able to do it, to prove to yourself that you can do it.

UNCUT: Can we read anything into the fact Jimmy oversees all re‑releases and DVDs? Does he care more about Zeppelin’s legacy than you and Robert?

JONES: No. It’s true that he certainly puts more work into it – he was the producer in the band, and so it’s more a continuation of those duties, I suppose. But the band was his original vision, it holds a very special place in his heart. It holds a special place in all of our hearts.

UNCUT: I know you weren’t involved with Unledded, but was there a part of you that was glad to see Jimmy working with Robert again?

JONES: [Doubtfully] Yeah… I wasn’t particularly glad for anybody at that point. [Laughs] But yeah… it was mitigated by that thought. At least he was playing. It was probably good for him.

UNCUT: Can you and Jimmy joke about that now?

JONES: We don’t actually joke about it. It was quite a hard time for me. But we’re past it, if you know what I mean.

UNCUT: Would you like to make another Led Zeppelin album?

JONES: Errr… I’d have to think about that.

UNCUT: Really?

JONES: Led Zeppelin’s a… I mean, it was great to do the O2 show. We spoke afterwards, and we both thought the same – it felt like the first night of a tour. You think, “Oh, I could do that a bit better, or change something in that song.” And we didn’t get a chance to do any more.

UNCUT: Would it be hard to build that momentum back up again? Because Robert’s off on tour with…

JONES: [Interrupting] Yeah. Yeah.

UNCUT: Do you think the reunion began and ended at the O2?

JONES: It’s possible. It is possible.

UNCUT: You don’t sound too certain about the prospect of an album.

JONES: No. I’m not sure. I’m not too certain about anything, right at the moment. I’ve got no idea what’s going to happen. But I’d certainly like to play with Jimmy again.