Jason Bonham Didn't Want To Grow Up To Be A Rock Drummer

Although it's been nearly two months since Led Zeppelin's Kennedy Center honoring; multitudes of emails have been received over who was trapped behind the set during Ann and Nancy Wilson's cover of Stairway To Heaven. Music fans unfamiliar with Classic Rock and its deeply woven roots barely spotted the center line of the colors spinning around the core of his eyes. It was Jason Bonham! Son of John who helped level the mountains of Beatle's shaped hysteria late 60's into the prime of Carpenter and John Denver ridden Heaven. Hold on now... Jason isn't the typical my daddy was a Rock Star so I'll be one too. His big dream was the farthest thing from large concert stages and out of shape groupies. It was to become a motorsport star. He tells Noisecreep: “Growing up, my heroes were American motocross riders. I didn’t want to be a drummer – I wanted to me a motocross rider.” Those plans never came to fruition, and Bonham settled into a career behind the drumkit, playing with his own bands along with Led Zep and Black Country Communion. Now sober for 14 years, he admits it was a challenge to prove himself against his father’s reputation. “At some point I got sick of people calling me Bonzo junior,” he explains. “But now I’m older and wiser, I’m just honoured to be mentioned in the same breath.” After Zep’s 2007 reunion show – released last year as Celebration Day – the drummer started work on his touring show Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience. It was planned to be a one-off set of gigs but has continued into 2013 to positive reviews. But he says he’d never have taken part if Robert Plant hadn’t given his consent. “When I started I had a big discussion with Robert. He said, ‘Do it because you want to, not because you have to.’ As long as you do it well and do it with a smile on your face, you have my blessing.” During the shows he performs the band’s classic tracks, interspersed with family home video from his childhood years. One of his aims is to hint at the person John Bonham really was: “Everyone knows these stories about a wild and crazy guy,” he says. “But at home he was just like any other father. He might have been in Led Zeppelin – but to me he was just Dad.”