Jason Bonham Quotes

I used to be a session musician before I was a wrestler. I played bass guitar. I was big pals with Lars Ulrich, and he asked me if I wanted to play bass with Metallica in their early days, but it didn’t work out.

After high school I was going to be an architect. In fact, I was studying to be an architect when the audition for 'The Monkees' came along.

Most of the time I was in grammar school through high school, I was in some kind of rock n' roll band. I would say that at least 80 percent of my energy was involved with whatever band I was involved in.

I was the first guy to join the band with Hendrix.

Before I got into rock n' roll, I was going to be a dentist.

I always looked up to Slash from Guns N' Roses, and I always pictured myself being a rock star and playing the guitar, just going crazy.

I originally wanted to go into sports, but my first concert was KISS at the shooting of 'KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park.' The minute I saw Gene and Paul... it was all over. I knew that's what I wanted to do.

Shortly after that, we got management problems over in England, and Judas Priest asked me to join.

I had a solo career before Van Halen. My fan base filtered through Van Halen with me and came right on out the other side with me.

I heard the Beatles and the Stones, and Mom bought me an electric guitar. I played lead for four years and then switched to bass. One day someone suggested that I should sing, so I sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and the rest is rock history.

I love Hootie & the Blowfish and what we do, but that's not my main focus anymore.

From meeting Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, teaming up, rehearsing, playing selected gigs outside of Britain, coming back into Olympic Studios to record the first album, and then going to America, which we crack open like a nut with the debut record - all that happened, literally, within months.

All of a sudden, someone threw me in front of this rock and roll band. And I decided then and there that was it. I never wanted to do anything else.

I wasn't on 'You Really Got Me,' but I did play on the Kinks' records.

I wanted to be a farmer; actually, I wanted to be a horse-breeder. And I had the stallions... but then I heard Little Richard, and that was it.

When I left Free back in 1972, I didn't play 'All Right Now' until about 1996, when I was touring with Jason Bonham, and we were supporting the tribute record we had done to Muddy Waters.

I started as a jazz musician, not a singer, then I became a rock 'n' roll artist with Aphrodite's Child.

When I was in The Scream, I thought I'd be around for 30 years playing with The Scream guys. Who knew I was gonna get a call from Motley?

As a member of Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and now Prophets of Rage I'm pretty used to coming on stage and there's a full house.

I feel that it was my destiny to play with Led Zeppelin, and of course I had the chance and I did it to my best ability.

I formed Humble Pie when I was only 18. We were one of the first 'supergroups,' with Steve Marriott of The Small Faces on guitar and Greg Ridley of Spooky Tooth on bass. With Humble Pie, I tasted American success for the first time.

Paul knew I could sing, write and play, and so he rang me. It knocked me sideways a little because I wasn't used to being a sidekick. That was the first time I'd been with a band with someone more famous than me.

I've always just wanted to sing in a rock band.

Now I'm grown up and playing in a band.

The transition from sports into acting was something I got blindsided by. I had a full scholarship to law school. I had a different life planned. I started a business, and I was all ready to go. I suddenly got in a local movie, just to say to my kids one day, "Yeah, your old man was in a movie," and I caught the bug.