John Paul Jones Interview 2003

is it like watching it it's ten years of your life yeah or parts of today sorry ten years starting quite a long time ago well yeah didn't we look young I suppose mmm yes Cuba Thanks great thank you very much and we're all young and cute looking on you know Lum hair shiny puppy Lake but hot too you know the music's intense does it bring back memories well yes yes I mean especially I really enjoyed the alcohol stuff because it is very early days and I remember the feeling that we had in those early concerts because we just we just come back from America and people didn't really know much about us in England the concepts we've done were all small pubs and clubs and university isn't it and people used to come by word-of-mouth you know there was no press particularly around they didn't really know what we're doing and then we went to America and then we made a name in America and then the English press kind of you got hold of that and then when we came back to do do the alcohol suddenly everybody would hi there's this great American band and they're coming over and we can get to see them it was like no no we are English but I suppose the Albert Hall was a sort of here we are and this is what we do and you know lookout type of thing is great swaggering it all comes across on the DVD I think so it's exciting to watch if you compare with like the feeling of standing there at the Royal Albert Hall to the last episode so Knebworth 1979 mmm what's the difference for me the more interesting thing is the similarity the same commitment is there on the stage you tend once you walk on stage in the music starts you tend to forget about everything else and then immediately it's it's the eye contact and listening for cues and listening and you know a lot of concentration onstage in a Zeppelin concert you know you're going to be ready and you know you can't drift off thinking about things it's and that was there right from the first shows right to the end you know you can see it in nib with anybody that was still like buns and I still watching each other making sure everything's right and right place and his constant adjusting musically done I mean and that was that was always there and every concert is given the same commitment in the same way to the same treatment whether it's front of 20 people of 20,000 it was always the same everybody tried all the time it's not an hour well this is doesn't matter what we do here there was never even always a very professional attitude I'm staying with that what is everything what was the difference between the sessions you did in distilled you and their being on stage well I suppose the audience is the very difference instant feedback in the studio you get you can to a certain extent get feedback from other musicians perhaps but also in in the studio you you often it shouldn't be like that but you're trying to get things right more often because you know it's going to go down on tape and you don't want to spoil especially in the days when the when bands recorded live or less not so much in the overdubbing days we do in the recorded live because if you make a mistake and it's a really good take and you have to do the whole thing again they try not to make a mistake on stage you don't care you can take chances because you know that once it's gone unless it comes back on a DVD 30 years later it's gone you know and so you onstage attend to you can be pushed for you can go further on the stage it's freer and then plus the feedback from the audience so that can I can result in a really really good concert really good presentation you mentioned before that the press didn't know much about you right but then you had a lot of bad press how come well I don't know I don't know what it was it was the first bad press took us completely by surprise which was the the Rolling Stone review for the first album and they said and I was bad I think this they mentioned the word hype and we thought they're listening to the wrong L this is the wrong band they've made a mistake with the review because the one thing that led definitely wasn't was hyped you know it wasn't a manufacturing band in that that sense everybody was were really good musicians we were very dedicated we weren't for changes were pompous we could we knew we could do it you know we really could do it we could well and we didn't know who they were talking about it was like do they mean us and I don't know why they may have here kazumi had their own reasons and most bad press because we didn't do bad shows the shows are really good most bad press seemed to be for some some other agenda you know you couldn't quite understand it even though you you you turn out to be bigger than Rolling Stones since don't steal we're on the cover on the music magazines maybe it had something to do with it the fact that term they weren't I don't know sounds catchy can't be the room but sometimes I think that because the press didn't really have much of a hand in making us in the first place perhaps they felt that we were standoffish or or something of course in started we started getting bad press then we would definitely stand off it like I've talked to people who slag you slag you off all the time and and then I suppose the rift may be widened or was cemented in it yep yes in some cases it took to him in 1990 before we've got good press situation and suddenly we're heroes heroes of the grunge movement to go figure but he never really made much difference to us no it's hurtful when you when you know that you did a really good concert until I produced an album for the mission one yeah carlins hand yeah no children cacciatore children and I read a review in music Express or something like that and the whole review was how they hated Wayne huh Singh there was nothing about the record at all I thought this is his review this is his record review and they didn't told him by the way there's ten drags or them that's all they say it's like why why bother you know if you don't like the guy don't write about him you know it's like it's crazy but sometimes the press are like that and yet there's some really good journalists who really understood the music and really got into it and wrote great reviews you know not always good reviews you know sometimes if they thought that night wasn't particularly good they'd say so but he gets them on his criticism you go yeah you're right I know how remember the man who led Zeppelin how important was Peter grant very very important he believed in us right from the word go he had basically what he did and we'll say that I'll take care of the business and all out outside distractions and I'll keep them away from you and you just get on with the music and said you do it your way I'm not going to say anything about it I don't going to tell you you should do this or do that or you you're musicians you do the music I manage that's what I do and that's what you do he just cleared this big space around us I was talking to our meter chicken years later who said we weren't even know that we were afraid to come near you in case Peter got angry with us you know if they weren't they weren't at rid of the recordings you know studios they weren't allowed to hear the music until we were it was absolutely finished I mean it was it was a unique state of affairs for very artistically it was the best you could possibly have but he he was in it in a way he he had loud some innovations when it came to manage a rock'n'roll band yeah whatever it was well he had a very simple premise that that the whole the whole business relied on the on the band relied on the artist so what we got to do is keep the artist happier than everything all else will fall into place and I don't mean you know run and do things for the other but make sure that the artists got paid properly for his work and made sure the artist was treated properly and then everybody would benefit and the promoters say everybody would benefit and he well at the time he thought of this nobody else is doing it you know the artists were getting screwed right left and center and you know treated like animals and everybody was bitching that everybody else in oh and but he came along said look you know Pam treat them properly put them in good places to play and new be professional about it it's quite simple it wasn't rocket science in that way he was just brave enough to push it through a lot of people who were used to taking huge rake offs and concerts and they didn't like it but he said but if you know if you don't like it then look another band he was that he was that confident and it worked our good times and bad times and how did them the periods when them drugs came in to their to some members in the band how did you struggle with that or how did you managed well nobody knew that much about managing them as it were in those days you know it wasn't the age of therapy or rehab that came 20 years too late for us but as long as it didn't interfere with with the music and with stage work then we kind of had to leave it at that you know you can't really go meddling in other people's lives I suppose and it didn't interfere with her with the music in the stage work I mean occasionally you get a hangover the one who would roll into stage but soon you know they there there was a fairly transparent relationship all the time and you know you feel the odd one out if you turn up under the weather in any way you know and I don't know it's it was kept off stage I suppose hmm you did a lot of work on improving outdoor recorded in black in my hometown style wasn't it particularly bad at the time it was probably yes it probably rose to a head then but the upshot was that we put out a good album of the people who were who were there doing it Robert and I were at rehearsals first and 48 not unfortunately fortunately I just taken delivery of this big Yamaha organ synthesizer thing I mean three keyboards and full pedal board and so as is always the way with me I was very inspired with his new instrument he's like just started writing stuff and I had it delivered to the rehearsal rooms and I was there early playing it yeah and then Robert turned up next and by the time Bonzo and Jimi had turned up we kind of finished the album or not written most of the album and that's how that happened and it was sort of is really done before we went went into the studio and then we went to the studio and put it down but not much change from the rehearsal to the studio whereas normally the writing and the writing process with Led Zeppelin's is that an idea would start with any member of the band perhaps and then everybody would work on that that that idea even became property as it were how did you feed John porn when when everything ended and especially ended in the way it did while it was terrible it was a terrible shock we knew immediately that that was the end of his Eklund John Bonham wasn't the drummer of Led Zeppelin he was a quarter of discipline and you couldn't just say I'll get another drummer I never find anybody like it would be it wouldn't be the same band in the slightest you know it wasn't a song based band the the way the music was created was on a continual basis on stage it was there's a lot of improvisation and but even in the studio the way it was played with what it was about it wasn't an arrangement of a song where you could have any musicians come in and play and it would sound still like the same song but unfortunately it happened at a time when we've gone through perhaps all the lowest period at the end of the 70s Roberts had lost his son and I mean it wasn't good times for us but then after Knebworth there was this new optimism in the band when we were rehearsing for an American tour when when John John died and so there was there was a feeling that you know it's 1980 new decade and you know this and then we punkin come and gone a bit and so now we're all a bit leaner and musically a bit bit more shot sharper again and and then it just just all stopped you know it was terrible as being one quarter of the band as you say that John was is it possible for you to to play again together what three quarters you could call it three quarters at first no court after no quarter pick the record I I those who knows maybe but I wouldn't be less definite there's no way it would be there definite okay I had one more question about what do we have yes the one of your biggest song so I mean that one of the most played songs and it was a stairway to heaven how do you what what does that song mean to you well it has its gives kind of a Led Zeppelin sampler isn't it it has everything that we do in it somewhere you know it starts off with starts off quietly with the acoustic instruments and then goes and just sort of mellow ish almost jazzy vibe with keyboards and that and then the rock and roll starts with solos and the song has a really nice dynamic long dynamic um with with a bit in the middle and then this changes Garrett was you know it's got everything really it's just I think it's good than the whole of the mystical Nurik soon oh that nobody's quite sure what they mean McLuhan robert roberts kron doesn't seem to like it so he doesn't I don't know why I didn't maybe he knows what the lyrics meeting doesn't like the live it I don't know why I think it's good you know maybe he feels he's sung it too often I'm not sure why he doesn't like it but you're right he doesn't but I disagree with him I think it's good did you feel at the time at this this said it's a possible milestone of rock I don't know I don't think in terms of milestones of rock myself it was obviously a good to know page had this long on this idea of this long number that had different changes in it and it was it was obviously going to be something good in something very interesting something not done before really anywhere so there was I would call me or anything else that they were like time and it certainly when you finish a track you know how successful they are as to what you were aiming for us to what was finally realized which is really the anyway you can judge music recorded music especially and it was very successful it did all the things we wanted with the arrangement and and everything else you know as I said that's great dynamic on the solo at the end and then the final chord is just you know it was great pop music apart from anything else never mind rock it's the texture of that song and this like from the from the very beginning wimp babe I'm gonna leave you that was similar yeah with a light side and the dark side yeah blue society I'm a fragile it had that in mind when but he would also I mean we were all good musicians and so we knew the value of dynamic and light and shade to set one off against the other which is why we didn't sound like other bands good other bands seem to just do light or shade and never never consider in the same song you have a slow song a fast one or honest and to me that that that's boring passing you ignore really valuable musical dynamics etc etcetera but pay doors had this he's to work out a lot of the heavy riffs on the acoustic guitar so it was kind of interchangeable all you have to do is orchestrate there the guitar lines and somebody else met it's fascinating to have an ID which comes from one one song which you develop into all all that you did yes because you're brought in so much into it but yeah different units but also we were able to bring so much into it we were very able musicians with wide influences and wide abilities in different roles of music and so you we could make that variation I mean the some bands simply can't do it it wouldn't know what to play what do you like Kashmir right away oh yeah like oh yeah it's a big favorite of mine Kashmir yeah well I didn't write it no I but Kashmir was a great showpiece as a number it was just very theatrical and the grand gesture it was then so when the levee breaks in its own way you know but just less orchestral I suppose more bluesy a great atmosphere especially on the record the atmosphere on Libya is it's amazing what's your own favorite I have lots of favorites all for different reasons if you just you know the decid Island prior to say pull the desert island one and a Kashmir is pretty good but then looks like what is what should never be really good the way that the rhythm comes in the drums come the drums comes to magic at some changing of gear although I have to ask you also about all that the maroon was about the great myth and legend about Led Zeppelin's being there a Crusaders who came and smashed hotels and you have a few parties and they remind you of it in 30 years time or even know what but I mean got nothing else to talk about come on I thought this didn't John Bonham come to your hotel room door once and it was taking it a big swerd one smashed the door and dragged you out of bed and left Jayma hotel maybe maybe he did but does that make him any less of a drummer I mean or a man so I didn't notice so the funny thing was that they they looked at somebody else's from and said on this room smashed up as well we said no that belongs to the road manager his room always looks like Richard Cole he she calls yeah no no it's okay that one mmm so at the time when all these happened and you didn't feel that there was something strange going on there wasn't anything straight every band used to the first hotel room I it was all broken up with Herman's Hermits that sort of in Germany betta need smash something' I was I was shocked because if this is a smiley guy okay but that wasn't the interesting thing in those epilim for me I have to say why do those things happen I mean like especially in the early days you you do a show you do play for two hours or something like that and you write this you come back to the hotel on the town is closed a town close round about the third number you know Kansas City shut or wherever it was Cincinnati Ohio I mean I think it's still shut Cincinnati you know and and you just high spirits no food is known under the television to channel it all gone off you know so there's a practical side of it there is a practical side of it you know there's a lot of a lot of energy to to explain going to wind down somehow sometimes we wound down noisier than others and of course camera I mean like when you came to the US as you were quite young at the time as well but mmm that was of course that feeling but also the feeling of being number one which you then a huge success of yours yeah but why why would that have any you know but I mean like yes I did all by the party yeah we got all that Sun could not own events are number one you think it's no but you don't know you don't go wild just because you feel you're number one how was the feeling of being number one I felt I was kind of slightly removed from the feeling of you know you read about the concert you think that's great you know wow this band did really well yeah it's like you don't feel it's used on how because the feeling on stage was always the same as I said from the from the early small shows to the big ones so you didn't really feel that really running any sort pedestal or any deity or anything like that it was just oh you liked it okay great but someone can walk come up to a jump on your big event my Beatles but I'd say they're a bit silly that's that wasn't true that was it and the Beatles were household names they had hit singles they were on TV they make films you know we couldn't really be but in the rock world I suppose you know special I know thank you very much keep you know Paul thank you very much York it's great talking to you and by way nice production work also with the mission of them all right I hear at the time I interviewed both crying Alice and why not see all right so I just go a night the wrong and right job is the one off yeah exactly exactly okay all right good luck with your own whatever forthcoming so all right good yeah thank you thank you okay I see you go John keep playing Sweden yeah you shouldn't tell me that - yeah hello further to the enter the outdoor yeah okay thank you lady second awesome the names of the day life is Phil oh no no I meant for weekdays a menu in the rest of the festival as well as my watching pretty pony later Oh pre-fader you ran a huge amount she passed and disgusted

Channel: Mark Zep

Views: 241,505

Rating: 4.9266639 out of 5

Keywords: Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, live, Sweden

Id: IK78aRNSOwI

Length: 25min 52sec (1552 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2015