LED ZEPPELIN Drummer Jason Bonham On Reunion - "I'm Still The New Guy, And I Wouldn't Know"
December 18, 2007, 16 years ago
The following story is courtesy of Gary Graff from Billboard.com:
Still buzzing from LED ZEPPELIN's reunion show on December 10 in London, drummer Jason Bonham says he's the wrong guy to ask about any future plans for the group.
"I'm still the new guy, and I wouldn't know," Bonham - whose late father, John Bonham, was Zep's original drummer - tells Billboard.com. "There's been no talks except to Jimmy (Page) and Robert (Plant) and John Paul (Jones), just to say thanks for the best Christmas present I could ask for. It really meant a lot to me.""Is it gonna be again? Don't be greedy," he continues. "Just take it for what you've done and be proud to be part of that. If they do it again, of course I would love to. But that's up to them. Only time will tell. If you'd have asked me a year ago, 'Are they gonna do a date next year?,' I'd have gone, 'No way!' So I was proved wrong once before."
Bonham says that even a week after the show, the experience "still ... kinda feels surreal, like it never really happened in some way." But he does feel that the show, part of a tribute to the late Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, provided some vindication after what he felt was a sub-par performance with Zep at the Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary concert in 1988 in New York.
"I had to work at it, really prove that I could do it and not just say, 'Hey, I'm John Bonham's son. I should be doing it,'" he explains. "I put a lot of work into it ... listening to all the different live versions I had. You've got to earn this, 'cause there's a million drummers out there that would love to cut your throat right now and take over.""I'm amazed. I pulled it off," he enthuses. "So it's very special for me, just ... everything. If you'd have wanted a moment for everyone to get it right at one point, that was it."
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