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Best Interview Ever


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I could listen to JPJ all day.  He is especially interesting when it comes to getting an understanding of song construction.  He wisely and very diplomatically brushes aside the tales from the road stuff.  I think most of us know that the effects of drugs and alcoholic did, in fact, impact some performances, most notably with Page and Bonham.

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Wow. First off, thank you so much. This is the best thing a Zeppelin fan can do. Sometimes we think we've seen it all, but I never saw this. Not a great interviewer, but as said above, what a classy man. Such sincerity, probably the most believable guy in music.

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Thanks for posting :D 

Jonesy dishes out a decent interview doesn't he.  Cheeky and I like that.   Journalist always
find a way to slip in those questions.   He answered them the best way possible.  I'm
paraphrasing here on out in my  post.   He didn't make the band sound guilty of non-stop
lewd acts,   or say they were trafficking underage girls and cocaine on the Starship,   but he
also didn't clutch hold of his pearls and claim they were boy scouts -- the band and road crew
all tucked into bed by 10 PM in ' 70s.   Other bands partied,   it was par for the course -- You
needed to find a way to 'unwind'  after a gig.   He also added that maybe some of those things
happened,  maybe they didn't.    

When it came to the drugs he did admit that at the end of the 70s things were coming to a
head,  but it was a period when suggesting  rehab or therapy was unheard of.   You didn't
meddle in the other members lives that way.   He was truthful when he mentioned things
peaked drug wise when I T T O D was being written.   It's likely my  biased opinion.  I  T T O D  
always seems to be looked at differently in members eyes.   Jonesy's  small little Freudian slip
of  'unfortunately'.   I often think the group never praises that album the same way they do
the other releases because it never felt like a whole team effort from start to finish.   It only
gets praised because it's  a Led Zeppelin  album and a  miracle something was achieved
after Plant lost Karac and while Jimmy and Bonzo each had one foot in the grave.  They band
members always kind of make a point of saying it was a rough period,   but even when times were
tough we could come up with an album that sounded relatively decent.  I could be so way off base
though.  Fans of that album are shunning me.  
:bagoverhead:

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You get the impression that Jonsey wouldn't hurt a fly and he's a very kind and humble person, but Plant seems to have a real problem with him.

Plant barely acknowledges Jonsey on-stage at the O2, or looks at him in any of the group interviews post-Zep. The body language speaks volumes. It's a strange one. My gut feeling is that it's more a personality clash than any real rancour between the two.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Brigante said:

Didn't Robert once say that he'd played Pictures At Eleven to JPJ before it was released and Jonesy's response was 
'I'd've thought you could come up with something better than that, old chap?'

Never heard that one. I know in Dave Lewis Celebration book it says that Plant played Pictures at Eleven to Jimmy and he approved.

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3 hours ago, Boleskinner said:

Never heard that one. I know in Dave Lewis Celebration book it says that Plant played Pictures at Eleven to Jimmy and he approved.

The only place I've seen that quote about "I'd have thought you could do better than that" is Paul Rees' biography of Plant. To me it seems rather a rude and out of character thing for JPJ to actually say, maybe Plant meant that was the impression Jones conveyed without using those actual words?

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  • 2 months later...

I think there is a quote attributed to JPJ in The Hammer Of The Gods where he advised someone who was attending one of Plant's gigs on his first solo tour "to arrive early because it all goes down from there." The two of them clearly had a falling out post-Zep. It is very common within families and such, when someone dies, for a couple of people to develop hostility towards one another. I don't know why it is, but is a very common thing. On the contrary, while they may have not hung out much, Jimmy has always praised JPJ and his importance to LZ. And JPJ speaks glowingly about Bonham.

 

ITTOD must have been hell to compose with Jimmy and Bonzo arriving whenever they felt like it. It just wasn't a team effort. I also think the band made a mistake by not putting out that 3-song EP of ITTOD outtakes that Jimmy wanted to put out. There was such a huge gap between the release of Presence and the release of ITTOD, as well as the recording of ITTOD and the release of the album. The 3 song EP might've stirred  up some momentum. Especially with "Wearing and Tearing" and its punk feel.

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You would think that with the long stay in England after the end of the 1977 tour that Bonham would've been less crazy. A lot of his booze problems were always attributed to his life on the road and being away from his family. Instead, by 1977 it just seems as if the alcoholism had taken a hold of his soul  - that it was too late. And then, as we know, he ended up getting involved in other things. The situation still saddens me, because EVERYONE who knew him has said that when sober or a bit tipsy he was the nicest chap in the world.

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11 hours ago, blindwillie127 said:

 Thank you for linking this blindwillie :D

Oh that's was an interesting interview wasn't it. Sadly depressing in many ways, but still very
 enjoyable.

I like hearing Jones speak about the band because he does it in such a down to earth kind of
way.  He doesn't speak in riddles or answer questions with a question.  He paints a relatively
clear picture for the reader, more so than his other two band mates.  Jimmy often speaks in 
in a cryptic circle and side steps many questions.  Robert can lean that way too. 


What a shame nothing musically every came to fruition with Jones and Page after all this time. 

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16 hours ago, blindwillie127 said:

Awesome link, thanks.

What an interesting read. The one thing that struck me as odd is the run of questions that were all Page, like a giddy schoolgirl asking a barrage of questions to a male friend about another guy. (Not the perfect analogy, but I'm running with it). I wonder if at any point Jonesy's inner voice was "Hey, you could ask me about No Quarter, or how I liked playing Achilles or TSRTS or Celebration Day live or how I contributed to certain songs, or MY drug use! SHEESH"

Jones - he is just a consumate professional and gives brilliant answers as Kellygirl points out. What a champion.

There is no reunion now. It's well over as many others here pointed out waaaay earlier than I was prepared to. There is however the chance that Page and Jones will do something. Something new that springs from what has passed. That, I like to think, remains a good chance.

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This is indeed a great interview. I wish there were more lengthy interviews with the surviving members about the Led Zeppelin DVD because the project was a career spanning collection, and hence, it was an opportunity for interviewers to talk about the band's entire past. Whereas with the BBC project, for instance, discussion was confined to a very specific time in the band's history.

Imagine if the interviewer had asked JPJ, "How did you feel when you came into his bedroom and saw Bonzo dead?" I guess it was JPJ and an assistant who discovered Bonzo's dead body. That just had to have been an awful experience. Probably caused many nightmares.

It also had to have been so difficult for him to stand by and not say anything to Jimmy and Bonzo's issues. And despite what JPJ said (he was just being nice), it did influence the concerts at times. There were good shows as well, but we all know that the 1977 tour simply was as consistent as 1972, and it was for a reason. But it wasn't just because of the quality of the gigs. Despite whatever strife might have existed between the members, they had to have cared for each other. But you also don't want to be telling people  how to run their own personal lives. Very difficult.

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Although there were a weird ass load of Jimmy related questions -  I have to give props to
Jonesy.  He's such a class act.  How many people would sit there and answer question after
question about someone else without getting up and walking out.  

As much as the band didn't outwardly appoint  Page as  'leader' of the group,  it is kind of
telling that he had a major smack problem and was never threatened to clean up or told to
leave the group.  A lot of other groups it does not work that way.  HA! Peter would have had
a major cow at somebody saying Jimmy needs a timeout from the group.  

 




 

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