By: Rick Landers
Rev Jones – Image courtesy of Libby Wendt.
Mountain’s high energy bassist, Rev Jones, is a single man mob scene on stage when he’s pushing out bass lines to power songs like “Mississippi Queen”, alongside legends Leslie West and Corky Laing. Rev’s the young pup on stage who honors his bandmates by giving his best during each, and every performance.
His now shaved head, once adorned with long dreadlocks that he’d spin around, hasn’t detracted from his sinister looking, yet playful, antics on stage, all the while crushing it on bass.
He’s graced the stage with other hot groups including: The Michael Schenker Group, George Thorogood, Kottak, Black Symphony, Jack Frost, Paul Gilbert, Jeff Martin, Steelheart, Fuel and his own Rev Jones crew.
And it’s never been all for show, Jones has immersed himself studying all the great bass players, and as a student of the bass guitar, he’s formidable whether he’s crunching heavy metal or running the fretboard with some delicacy on the sensitive classic, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
“Rev Jones has infused some of the biggest names in hard rock with his
incredible energy and musicality.” BassPlayer.com
When he’s taking a break from performing around the globe, he’s found some constructive quiet time hanging with rocker George Thorogood, as George’s guitar technician, working the logistics side of the music industry, while occasionally blending in to a performance while off-stage, adding more heft to the already powerful drives of Thorogood.
And, Jones has worked his way into the studio, recording, engineering and producing gut punch songs of his own making. His album release, Bak Wash, gifts us with some cool hard driving riffs,, full force gale bass licks and some surprisingly great vocals.
The man’s got chops and Bak Wash doesn’t take a backseat to anyone in hard rock today. Every track offers something unique, yet explosive from the title track, to “One Track Mind (3 Blind Eyes)” and even the eerily familiar “Candy” that houses an uncanny Zeppelin feel as it unfolds. Bass players – go straight to the end of the line to “Rev Jones Touching Bass” get inspired and schooled!
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Rick Landers: You make it a bit hard to place you with respect to style or I guess if one was to categorize you as a bassist, my first thought is metal, then rock. Then you come up with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with its nuance and tenderness, before launching into some split-second riffing. So, how do you describe your style or your approach to playing bass?
Rev Jones: I guess I would describe my style as the “Rev Jones Bass Style”. I would never categorize my bass playing to any single musical style. I try to incorporate every bit of my bass knowledge into my playing, no matter what type of music I’m playing. In my opinion, thats how you keep from sounding one dimensional. You should treat all music, as music, thats the only way to really keep your creativity alive.
Rick: I saw you perform on bass with Mountain a few years back and on stage you gave it your all, showboating in a good way, where all eyes were on you…you helicoptered your long hair and it reminded me of Pete Townshend’s windmill moves. Why did you change to a more streamlined look, cutting your hair nearly down to the bone?
Rev Jones: First off thank you, I’m glad you dig what I do. As for the crazy hair, I actually shaved it off two times. The first time was like 1995, I’d had those long dread locks on top of my head spinning in a circle for about five years and got tired of dealing with them, so I shaved.
Then about 1998 I started growing them back again, and had them until 2011, I think, when I shaved them off again for the same reasons. Those things, dangerous locks of hair did a number on me every single show. It was like getting whipped by these ropes, I would have bruises all over from them, my eyes always got hit, and I have a permanent groove/indention on the top of my left hand where my locks would hit while I played over the top of the neck, plus I got tired of sleeping on ropes.
Now the way people looked at it as a gimmick or whatever, went both ways. Some people thought it was really awesome, the others hated it. Now the ones that hated it were also somehow distracted by the helicopter, enough to make them blind to my bass playing, and until I shaved most of them didn’t realize that I could really play.
Rick: How did Leslie (West) and I assume Corky Laing react when you first did that?
Rev Jones: They both loved it! Leslie really loved what I added to Mountain, I looked crazy and acted crazy on stage, while playing bass like Felix Cavelier or Jack (Bruce). To this day Leslie still tries to get me to show off more during our shows.
Rick: When I think of great bassists, I think of Jaco (jazz); Danny Thompson (Jazz-folk); Carol Kaye (All Rounder); John Entwhistle and Jack Bruce (Rock) and you (Metal-Rock). Who have you drawn inspiration from over the years and who (and what) do you still learn from when you listen to them?
Rev Jones: Well, definitely all the cats you just named, plus many many more, too many to name all of them. But, here’s a few. Tony Levin, Chris Squire, Jack Bruce, Greg Lake, Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, James Jamerson, Jerry Peek, Felix Pappalardi, Trey Gunn, Billy Sheehan, and Jaco. I still learn something from all these guys every time I sit and listen to them, or if I play along.
Thats the beauty of music, no matter how much you know, there is always something new to discover, you can never stop learning. Something I have always done and still do to this day, is study bass players complete. What I do is pick a player, then I’ll spend a week listening to their basslines, learning all their basslines, and basically studying their approach to playing bass. After a while you start understanding their bass playing, their choice of notes, their feel, and the reason they play what they play. To me, thats the greatest way to learn to properly play bass.
Rev Jones: Well, I tossed around the idea of doing a solo album a several times in my career, but it either turned into another project or I was way to busy touring to make it happen. Now I have been doing shows when I’m not on tour as Rev Jones Band since around 2006, playing songs from bands I’ve toured with (MSG, Steelheart, Mountain, Leslie West, Fuel) along with some cool cover songs.
A couple years ago, I decided to add some of my songs I never released, and some new ones, to the Rev Jones show. So, I recorded some demos of the songs so my band members could learn them, I just played all the instruments except the guitar solos, I wanted Jim Dofka to do those. When I sent him a demo with three songs to play solos on, I told him that I was just gonna give the songs away free on my website.
Well, he heard something in the songs that I was overlooking and he called me and talked me out of that, he convinced me to do a full album and release it.
Once I decided to release this album it was pretty easy to decide who to call to play drums, Jeff Martin. We had played together in Black Symphony, Michael Schenker Group, Blasted To Static, and I had also played on his solo album, The Fool, and he played a few shows with myself and Leslie West.
I’ve always dug his drumming, he is like a mixture of Ian Paice, Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, and Ginger Baker. I’m glad he was available to play on it. As for Dofka, I had known Jim for years (early ’90s) through emails and we had talked on the phone a few times, when he contacted me to play on a heavy version of “Little Drummer Boy” with him and Steve “Mad Drummer” Moore, and Jeff Martin on vocals. It was cool.
Steve did a funny for it, as well. He also had me play on a version of “Gates Of Babylon”, that we released in 2012. Jim is an amazing guitarist and a super nice guy, I’m glad to have him on the album. As fore the songs, I wrote three in 1994. It was for a project that didn’t happen. I never used the songs because they didn’t fit with the bands I was in after, but they fit on my solo album.
I actually didn’t really change them that much. The song “Candy” was originally written when I was in Black Symphony, it was recorded on a demo but never released, so I decided to include it. The other five songs were written some time within the year I recorded the album. And the bass solo was recorded about a month before the album was sent off to have cd’s made.
Originally the 10 songs was gonna be a Whitesnake cover “Slow n’ Easy”, it came out great, but the distribution deal I have wouldn’t allow me to include a cover song, so I replaced it with the bass solo. I’m planning on releasing “Slow n’ Easy” with two other cover songs I have recorded as a three song single later this year.
Hell, I have almost enough songs written to record a full album, either that I didn’t use or that I came up with since I recorded the last one. I think I’ll start working on it later this year, as well.
On the production side of it, we all recorded our parts at our home studios. I produced it and Jim Dofka mixed and mastered it. Originally, I was gonna mix it but I was scared I would nitpick at things and over analyze my vocals, since its my 1st album singing, and I’d end up changing things to the point I would destroy the album. So when Dofka mentioned doing the mix I immediately said, “Yes!”.
He mixed it in his spare time, because he was doing other projects and I was out on tour. He would give me a rough mix that we would both listen to for a week or so, then we would discuss changes. We almost always had the same ideas, then a couple mixes and it was done. I think he did a great job.
Rev Jones – Photo by Brian K. Denton.
Rick: Do you often discover new ideas crop up for a song between the time you think it’s done before it’s worked in the studio (or on-line) and once it’s stamped “DONE”?
Rev Jones: Usually my first ideas stick pretty well, I do get a few last minute ideas, but not many. I’m real good about “when a song is done” I’m not changing it. I’ve seen too many people keep making changes over and over until they have ruined to songs. I won’t let that happen.
Rick: When learning the bass, what were some of the technical breakthroughs you went through to get to the style(s) you have now?
Rev Jones: Well, amazingly almost right from the beginning I was using most of the same techniques; two hand tapping, playing upside down over the neck etcetera, I just hadn’t perfected them yet. Now, when I try to think back to any breakthrough moments, none really come to mind, except for two events. The first time I figured out how to play a contrapuntal bass line and the first time I realized that I understood music theory/harmony.
Rick: I’ve found that solid musicians have at least some grasp of the music theory behind their music, but intuition and emotions come in as key ingredients, and there’s a naturalness or flow to their playing. Is this governed by the “practice, practice, practice” mantra, or is it built-in and you’re born with it or you’re not?
Rev Jones: I’ve always felt that you should learn everything that you can about your profession, no matter what it is. That includes having a grasp on music theory and music reality. I always explain the difference between music theory and music reality using this funny analogy: “A boy asks his father to explain the difference between theory and reality. His father tells him to go ask his sister if she would sleep with anyone for a million dollars, so the boy asked his sister and she answered, “Yes.” Then his father tells him to go ask his mother if she would sleep with anyone for a million dollars, so the boy asked his mother and she also answered, “Yes.”. The boy told the results to his father, and his father said to him, “Okay, in theory we’re sitting on two millions dollars, but in reality we are living with a couple of whores”.
Rev Jones: Yes, I do play some upright bass. I have two electric Dean upright basses, one of them is actually a standard bass scale which is cool for certain things, and the other is a regular double bass scale. I know what you mean about players not sliding, I’m not sure why that is. I definitely incorporate sliding to and from notes in my playing, I also use sliding harmonics. To me if your not sliding notes, whats the point of playing without frets?
Rick: What’s your preference – fretted or fretless bass and why?
Rev Jones: I love both very much, but I’m a fretted guy first. I love to play some fretless lines every now and then, but its hard to play fretless without sounding like Jaco Pastorius or Tony Franklin, thats why I usually use my upright bass when I want to play a fretless bass line, the feel of the upright makes you play a little different.
Rick: Have you accumulated or do you collect bass guitars? And what do you think is the perfect set up, that may be outrageously expensive (Dumble) or cheap (Teisco) to get the job done?
Rev Jones: I’ve owned many basses in my life, and I currently have a collection of Dean basses that I use, but I’ve never been a collector. I have a rule that I go by when it comes to basses that I own, if it doesn’t get used it gets sold.
I currently own 10 or 12 Dean basses, and I use all of them onstage or in the studio. They are all completely different from each other; body styles, wood, shape, fretboard, finish, etcetera. But they are all setup by me for me, so they all feel perfect to me. I have done my own bass setups for a while now and I think that everyone should learn how to do their own setups.
The first thing I do when I get a new bass is to take all the active electronics out, I change the pickup to a single P-Bass pickup either a Bartolini 8S or a EMG HZ, and I wire it straight to a volume pot then to the 1/4″ jack (No Tone Knob), then I change the bridge to a Kahler Fixed Bridge, then I adjust the neck and the strings and the intonation, then I carve my name into the body and add a few of my “Rev Stick figure” stickers to complete the look.
These changes that I make to the basses are not expensive, the parts I take off I sell, so sometimes I make more money selling the parts than I spent for the new parts. Now, if the bass comes with Soapbar style pickups, then I remove them, then I measure and mark where the P-Bass pickups should be, and I route out the cavity for the new P-Bass pickup, and then I cut some wood blocks to fit into the old pickup cavity, then I glue em & screw em.
Some people think its stupid to change out pickup styles, but when I’m on stage and I change from bass to bass they all sound pretty similar, that makes it worth doing.
Rick: Most artists I’ve met have several projects underway and a lot more on the back burner, waiting an opportunity to get them underway. What’s on your platter now, and what ideas or projects you want to work sometime in the future?
Rev Jones: Well, I’m planning on recording another solo album before the end of the year. I’m also working with a couple of young bands doing some co- writing. I have a couple of past projects that I may be working with again, one of them is Blasted To Static.
I’m also planning to work on an acoustic album sometime in the near future. I am also planning to shoot a new instructional DVD and to start putting together a Bass Lesson Series, hopefully I can start working on these before the year is up.
As for the rest of my time, I have Rev Jones Band shows booked throughout the year, I also have a couple of Leslie West shows later this year, and I’m also gonna be touring some more this year with George Thorogood, as his guitar tech.
I’ve been working as guitar tech for George for 2 1/2 years now. It’s a great gig. I love working on guitars, it’s a great organization to work for, he is a cool person to chat with, it’s great to watch him perform every night, plus I play guitar off stage on two songs during the show. You can’t beat that as a second job!
