John Paul Jones speaks about his early days (interview part 1 of 22)

This is the first part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: Your original name, was it John Paul Baldwin?

JPJ: No. Just John Baldwin. No middle name. It’s not common in England, middle names.

SPS: I have a brother, John Paul Sauer.

JPJ: Oh, right? There’s a lot more John Pauls these days, especially in Ireland, after the pope.

SPS: When did you change your name?

JPJ: I'd forgotten, to be honest, until I read the Andrew Oldham book. Andrew Loog Oldham – and he reminded me in there that in fact he thought of the name. [inaudible] movie poster for John Paul Jones the American. So, working that back, it would have been 1964.

SPS: So, after – I guess it started out when you started playing at those American naval bases over in England?

JPJ: No, I had done all that. I was John Baldwin. It was really when I became an arranger for Andrew Oldham. That was its purpose. And also I had a single out at the same time. Oh, that’s right! He produced it. He produced my first single. And that came out under John Paul Jones.

SPS: Now, I know that you were a session musician. Why was it that you put out the "Baja" single?

JPJ: I wasn't a session musician before "Baja." I was just, just breaking into it, which means like maybe a couple of sessions a week as opposed to when I left it about three sessions a day.

SPS: So we're talking about something like 30 years ago you were looking at solo stardom!

JPJ: Yeah. Well, I'd been in a band. I'd had enough of the road.

SPS: The guys from the Tornados?

JPJ: No, it was the guys from the Shadows, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan. ... And we were playing for like 200-500 people a night. ...

SPS: Backtracking a little bit, there was something I wanted to know about your dad and your mom. They toured together on some sort of an act?

JPJ: That's right. They had what you'd call a vaudeville act.

SPS: What was that basically?

JPJ: Musical comedy. It was actually based around -- she was the singer, and she had a really incompetent accompanist or willfully difficult accompanist. He’d start playing, he’d do like long introductions. [Singing:] "Oh, sweet mystery of love…" And then a bell would ring. He goes to the piano, he’d pull out an alarm clock, and the audience gags. So she’d never really get through a song.

SPS: How old do you think you were? I read that you'd toured with them.

JPJ: That's right.

SPS: Was that even before your teens?

JPJ: Oh yeah. That's probably right. ...

SPS: Your dad then played for the Ambrose Orchestra. Were you along with him on there?

JPJ: No, that was before.

SPS: I've always wondered the date that you were married.

JPJ: The date that I was married? I don't know if she'd necessarily want it printed, to be honest.

SPS: There goes out the next question. I was gonna ask when your three daughters were born.

JPJ: Yeah. Information like that…

SPS: And your social security number?

JPJ: [Laughs]

On to part two: John Paul Jones on the Yardbirds.

Robert Plant returns to the stage

The following news update appeared originally at a previous Web site of mine, "From Black Dog to Hot Dog."

Adding to the recent activity of Led Zeppelin members, Robert Plant played to a packed audience of 150 at Bishop's Gate in Shropshire, UK.

The opening act was local musician Pete Keely. Plant's set included blues-rock numbers like Donovan Leitch's "Season Of The Witch" and Tim Rose's "Morning Dew."

Zeppelin connections:

• Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played as session men on some of Donovan's recordings, but not "Season Of The Witch," a song which would become a concert staple for Page and Plant. The Vanilla Fudge, who toured with Zeppelin in the early days, recorded a spooky version of the song.
• "Morning Dew" was co-written by Tim Rose, whose drummer in the summer of 1968 was John Bonham. The Jeff Beck Group subsequently recorded "Morning Dew" for their début album Truth that same year, which featured John Paul Jones on some tracks.

Recent activity from all three Led Zeppelin members

The following news update originally appeared on a previous Web site of mine, "From Black Dog to Hot Dog."

In the last few months, the former members of Led Zeppelin have been making headlines.

Jimmy Page

Gibson, the manufacturer of many of Jimmy Page's guitars, is opening a new London office with a private party honoring the work of Scotty Moore, the guitarist on many of the early Elvis Presley records that inspired Page to pick up a guitar, namely "Baby Let's Play House" among others.

Page is to attend tonight's party at record producer George Martin's Air Studios in North London, where the new Scotty Moore model Signature Guitar, based on Moore's original guitar choice ES-295, will make its début.

All this happens on the same day as the re-release of the 1964 Scotty Moore compilation The Guitar That Changed The World on the BMG/Razor & Tie label. Moore will play along with former bandmate D.J. Fontana (Presley's original drummer) and his band at the event.

This Page appearance comes on the heels of some other recent activity, having appeared at a charity event with the Black Crowes on June 27, and also at a Kosovo crisis benefit on June 16.

John Paul Jones

Meanwhile, news of John Paul Jones' touring later this year starts to take shape. His album, Zooma, is scheduled for release on September 13. On October 7, he is slated to appear at the Crossing Borders Festival in Holland (also appearing at the festival will be spoken word poetry music group Voices Without Restraint). Jones will make appearances in the US later in October and elsewhere in Europe throughout November. In 2000, he is expected to embark on a world tour in support of Zooma, the solo album Jones has promised for over half a decade.

This highly anticipated collection of nine songs will be his first solo album since 1985's Scream For Help soundtrack. Of the nine songs on Zooma, four are available on a promotional tape. From the reviews so far, the music on Zooma is great and reflects work Jones has done in the past. The album cover, shown at right, features the symbol that he selected in 1970 to represent himself, and it is expected that his live repertoire will include some Led Zeppelin songs.

Robert Plant

Robert Plant appears on a tribute album to the late Skip Spence, founding member of Moby Grape and Jefferson Airplane. More Oar was released July 6, nearly three months after Spence died of a longterm illness. Plant's cut of "Little Hands," recorded in January with Phil Andrews and Charlie Jones, is the slow but soulful song that opens the album. Other performers such as Beck, Alejandro Escovedo, Mudhoney and Tom Waits grace the album covering songs that appeared on Spence's 1969 solo album, Oar. Plant was a big fan of Moby Grape as part of the booming psychedelic music scene of San Francisco bands in the late '60s. Apparently, Spence heard an advance copy of the album in the hours before his death in April.


This is the third album on which Robert has appeared recently to benefit influential musicians whose lives would shortly end due to illness; the others were Jimmy Rogers (Blues Blues Blues) and Rainer Ptacek (Inner Flame).