Jason Bonham Opens Up About Performing and Celebrating Led Zeppelin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’

Jason Bonham is performing shows across Australia and New Zealand this month to mark the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti double album. 

"Fifteen years into paying homage to Dad, I wanted a challenge," said Jason to Australia's "Today Extra" TV show. "Well, my favorite album was Physical Graffiti, so I went back and did some research and realized that some of the songs were actually recorded for Led Zeppelin IV, some of them were recorded for Houses Of The Holy."

The son of late drummer John Bonham said he would not have gone into music if his father had lived. He learned to play at age five but shifted gears at nine. Motocross became his passion.

"If it wasn't for my father's passing, I think I would've been riding dirt bikes," Jason told the morning program. "So, really, it was my dad's passing that made me suddenly go, 'I wanna do this. I wanna follow in his footsteps.'"

John Bonham died in 1980 at age 32. His son has performed with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and Jimmy Page at three reunion events since 1988. The biggest was the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at London's O2 Arena.

Jason formed his tribute act in 2009. He called it Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience at first, but the band's camp asked to use "Experience" for a project involving live recordings, so he changed it to Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening.

The shows will feature Physical Graffiti in full, plus other hits like "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway To Heaven". Deep cuts include "In The Light" and "Boogie With Stu".

The band includes vocalist James Dylan, bassist Dorian Heartsong, lead guitarist Akio "Mr. Jimmy" Sakurai, and rhythm guitarist Alex Howland. All members must know every song in the catalog.

The tour moves to Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall on Friday, then Newcastle's Civic Theatre on Sunday. Sydney's Opera House hosts a show on Tuesday. Adelaide's Thebarton Theatre follows on Thursday, with Melbourne's Palais Theatre wrapping things up on Saturday.

All tour dates, including US dates for later this year, are listed on the band's website.