Bonham: Let’s tour without Bonamassa

Suggestion: Bonham (pic Christie Goodwin)

Black Country Communion drummer Jason Bonham thinks the band should tour without Joe Bonamassa – but have the guitarist choose his own stand-in.

The build-up to the release of Afterglow, the supergroup’s third album, was derailed by disagreements after frontman Glenn Hughes revealed his frustration that they couldn’t tour in support of the record.

Bonamassa didn’t have time in his schedule, and maintains the rest of the band – including keyboardist Derek Sherinian and producer Kevin Shirley – always knew that.

He and Hughes have since started talking again. But Bonham remains disappointed they can’t hit the road – and believes he’s come up with a solution.

He tells Classic Rock Revisited: “I have not suggested this to the others, but my thing would be that we should, for the fans, go out and play. Me, Glenn and Derek.

“We could get Joe to recommend a guitar player to go out with us – that way he’s still involved.

“If Joe can’t do it, we should go out with someone else. Joe is a really nice guy and I think if we asked him then he’d say, ‘Of course.’”

Bonham is currently touring his Led Zeppelin Experience show, and says he’s considering releasing a record of his own after having contributed two tracks to Afterglow.

“There’s talk of a Jason Bonham album,” he confirms. “I’ve always wanted to do an album with half the people I’ve worked with. People like Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, Jeff Beck and Slash.

“I’ve been working on some original songs with the band that does the Led Zeppelin experience. We’re going to start writing as an original band and see what comes out of it. It’ll be kind of Zeppelinesque because of the way the guys play – but there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Meanwhile, the author of a book about Jimmy Page says the reason fans haven’t heard any new music from him in recent years is that Led Zeppelin keeps getting in the way.

Journalist Brad Tolinksi tells Finding Zoso: “I’ve seen the process a couple of different times. Every time he really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him.

“That’s happened a couple of times – but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year.”

Page is currently working on remastering Led Zep’s entire back-catalogue.