John Richard Baldwin (born 3 January 1946), better known by his stage name John Paul Jones, is an English musician and record producer who was the bassist in the rock band Led Zeppelin. Prior to forming the band with Jimmy Page in 1968, he was a session musician and arranger. After the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, Zeppelin disbanded and Jones developed a solo career. He has collaborated with musicians across a variety of genres, including Josh Homme and Dave Grohl with the supergroupThem Crooked Vultures.
Jones is widely considered to be a highly influential and important bassist, keyboardist and arranger in the history of rock music. Many notable rock bassists have been influenced by Jones, includingJohn Deacon of Queen, Tom Hamilton ofAerosmith, Geddy Lee of Rush, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gene Simmons of Kiss, and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana. Chris Dreja, the rhythm guitarist and bassist of The Yardbirds, has described him as “the best bass player in Europe”. Music publications and magazines have ranked Jones among the best rock bassists of all time. He was named the best bassist on Creem Magazine’s 1977 Reader Poll. In 2000, Guitar magazine ranked him third in the “Bassist of the Millennium” readers’ poll.
just...BASS! 