Jason Bonham on celebrating Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti': 'I do it for passion and the love of the music' | 97.7 The River
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Jason Bonham on celebrating Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti': 'I do it for passion and the love of the music'

Photo Credit: Frank Melfi

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s classic album Physical Graffiti with a new tour.

Jason, son of Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, launched his JBLZE tours in 2010 and tells ABC Audio there’s a good reason why he keeps doing them.

“It would have stopped many years ago if we didn’t feel that people liked it, for one, and if I didn’t enjoy it,” Jason says. “It just says something about the music … that’s the main thing.”

For this tour, Jason and the band will play Physical Graffiti in its entirety, along with other classic Zeppelin tracks. Since this is the first time they’ve performed a complete album, Jason says it helps keep things fresh.

He adds that Physical Graffiti is his “favorite album” from Zeppelin, and one of the main reasons is because “it’s got ‘Kashmir’ on it.” He suggests the song is where the band “went to another level.”

“Now no band can put any kind of Eastern promise in any riff or anything without people going, ‘Oh it sounds like Zeppelin,'” he adds.

And although Jason has had plenty of other projects he’s worked on, there’s a simple reason why he keeps coming back to play Led Zeppelin.

“I do it for passion and the love of the music and the people that come to see it,” he says. “You know, once they stop coming, then we’ll stop playing it, I guess.” 

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening Celebrating 50 Years of Physical Graffiti kicks off Saturday in Wallingford, Connecticut, and wraps May 21 in Los Angeles. A complete list of dates can be found at jasonbonham.net.

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