How Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones took flight with Them Crooked Vultures

John Paul Jones has no need for further feathers in his cap. The bassist, keyboardist, and general rock ’n’ roll badass anchored Led Zeppelin – arguably the most influential hard rock outfit in history – and has gone on to collaborate in too many cool projects to mention.

When he took the stage at London’s O2 Arena in 2007 with Zeppelin bandmates Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (along with Jason Bonham, son of late, great Zep drummer John Bonham), Jones sealed his reputation as a top-notch performer with deep soul, crisp tone, and killer chops.

Jones could have easily rested on his laurels, retiring to the countryside with his countless acoustic instruments and giving his ears a well-deserved rest. Instead, he formed one of the most riveting new groups in contemporary rock, Them Crooked Vultures.

A collaboration between Jones, ex-Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, and Queens of the Stone Age principal Josh Homme, Them Crooked Vultures took the ’70s-era riff rock of Jones’s youth and blended it with punk-rock energy courtesy of drummer Grohl. For his part, Homme tapped the sludgy depths of his stoner rock past.

“The first time we got together we just jammed in a normal muso sort of way,” Jones told Bass Player. “New Fang was one of those early workings.

“Another idea Josh came up with, Dave and I looked at each other and thought, ‘Are you serious? What are you thinking?!’ He played this riff that he’d recorded in a hotel room on an electric guitar that wasn’t even plugged in, but Josh was telling us, ‘No, it’s going to be good,’ so we tried it and that turned into the track Reptiles. If you heard the first demo of that song you wouldn’t believe it.”

Bass Player spoke to John Paul Jones back in March 2010 about what it’s like playing with Dave Grohl, why you have to use a pick to play multi-string basses, and why he has no plans to write an autobiography.

How did you record with Them Crooked Vultures?

“We basically went into Josh’s studio, sat in a room, and wrote and recorded at the same time. It was a very organic process where we’d groove in the studio, working on each other’s ideas. There was a lot of laughing involved as well – it’s amazing we got that much work done!”