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Drummer admits he doesn't know what will come of 'new material.'
By Chris Harris
Jason Bonham
Photo: Larry Marano/ Getty Images
On Friday morning, mere hours before he was due to take the stage with classic rockers Foreigner at Detroit's GM Renaissance Center, drummer Jason Bonham — the son of late Led Zeppelin kitman John Bonham — told Jim Johnson and Lynne Woodison of local rock station 94.7 WCSX that he'd be an ex-member of Foreigner as of September 1. But that's not the only thing he said.
Much to the delight of Led Zeppelin fans everywhere, Bonham revealed that he's been meeting up with Led Zep guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones in recent months and that they've been "trying to do some new material and writing."
It was the first time since Led Zeppelin announced they would re-form for a single performance (which happened late last year at London's O2 Arena, in honor of the late Ahmet Ertegün, who signed the band to Atlantic Records in 1969) that anyone connected to the band has confirmed publicly that new music could be on the horizon for the iconic rockers. While the bandmembers have stopped short of definitively ruling out such a reunion, singer Robert Plant insisted in the wake of last year's show that he intended to focus on promoting and touring behind his critically lauded album with bluegrass artist Alison Krauss, Raising Sand.
Not that Bonham knows what — if anything — will happen with the new material he's been working on with Page (who collaborated with pop singer Leona Lewis on an uneven version of Zep's "Whole Lotta Love" at the Olympic closing ceremonies in Beijing on Sunday night) and Jones. He said he just shows up and takes his seat behind the kit.
"I've been over [to England] a couple of times," Bonham said. "I've been working with Jimmy and John Paul and trying to do ... some new material and some writing. I don't know what it will be, but it will be something. At the moment, all I know is I have the great pleasure to go and jam with the two guys and start work on some material. When I get there, I never ask any questions. If I get a phone call to go and play, I enjoy every moment of it. Whatever it ends up as, to ever get a chance to jam with two people like that, it is a phenomenal thing for me. It's my life. It's what I've dreamed about doing."
He said it's still too early to tell what will become of these "jam" sessions, but admitted that the "possibility of doing something is in the cards. I really felt it was in the cards from the moment we walked offstage at the O2." Bonham also explained that, before there could be a Led Zep LP, "lots of politics [would need to] get ironed out," but added that recording with Zep is "something I've always wanted to do."
Bonham noticeably didn't mention frontman Plant's name during the discussion. A spokesperson for Page's management had no comment on the matter, and a spokesperson for Jones' management could not be reached by press time.
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'I'm mixing every type of genre that I love,' singer says of follow-up to I Am ... Sasha Fierce.
By Jocelyn Vena
Recently Beyoncé revealed that she wants to make her "own genre of music" for her next album. So when MTV News caught up with the singer at the New York screening of her concert special, "I Am ... World Tour," we asked her to clarify what exactly it is that she's creating in the studio.
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm inventing a new genre," she said. "I'm mixing every type of genre that I love and I'm inspired by every type of genre."
Beyoncé went on to say that people should throw any preconceived notions about the follow-up to 2008's I Am ... Sasha Fierce out the window. "I'm not in a box," she said. "It's not R&B. It's not typically pop. It's not rock. It's just everything I love all mixed together in my own little gumbo of music."
The singer says that quite a motley crew of musicians have inspired the album. "Definitely Fela Kuti, the Stylistics. How random, right?" she laughed. "So many people ... Lauryn Hill, Stevie Wonder, of course, Michael Jackson's Off the Wall ... all of those things I'm kind of mixing together."
For the album, Beyoncé has been hitting the studio with many of her usual collaborators including Ne-Yo, Sean Garrett and Jim Jonsin. And her mom, Tina Knowles, has given the tracks she's heard so far her seal of approval, saying, "Of course [I heard it]. It's amazing. It's so amazing!"
Are you looking forward to new music from Beyoncé? Let us know in the comments!
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