It’s been nearly forty years since Led Zeppelin toured Australia and bassist John Paul Jones has not returned to our shores since. The now 63-year-old doesn’t exactly have mind-blowing memories of that tour (“I think I had my first pie-floater in Melbourne,” he laughs) but is certainly looking forward to the next one – this time playing bass in one of the most highly-anticipated acts in rock history, Them Crooked Vultures.

Also comprising drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age), this is the band that could well silence the – œsupergroup haters’.

“You must hate the word – œsupergroup’,” I say to John as I sit in steamy Melbourne and he sits in chilly London.

John laughs. “Yes. Maybe it’s just a legitimate term that lost currency because, as you say, it’s always got connotations of a manufactured process. But then I read somewhere something that said, Well, I’m not going to listen to Them Crooked Vultures because I don’t listen to supergroups on principal. They call themselves a supergroup. And I thought, – œWell, I didn’t call us a supergroup. You called us a supergroup.’”

I decide to fish for anecdotes. Surely a gentleman like John must have found himself having random jams with loads of supergroup-worthy musos over the years? I want names, damn it!

“Well, no!” John exclaims, incredulously. “No! To be honest, it doesn’t often happen. I mean, in the – œ80s I couldn’t get arrested because, basically, who’s going to phone up the bass player from Led Zeppelin just – œcause the band stopped? Nobody. I really never played with anyone during the – œ80s, besides joining the odd friend on stage, which is why I did more production.”

It’s almost like that thing where the beautiful girls don’t get asked on dates because everyone thinks they’ll say no.

“Yeah, exactly!” he laughs. He then remembers he actually is too good. “But to be honest, there wasn’t any other band I wanted to join after Zeppelin because, I mean, it’s such a great band. I thought it was the best band in the world. And then, I thought, well, another best band in the world has come along and I should just make a habit of being in the best band in the world.”

Keen to avoid insulting the man with blatant ageism, I cautiously ask if Vultures is one of his more – œenergetic’ projects of late. “Yes. Probably. It’s certainly the loudest I’ve been involved with, easily. But it’s good, you know? It’s good music with good people. I can’t think of a better reason to actually get out of bed and go play guitar.”

Having listened to the record (for which he thanks me), it seems to bear that fascinating and intangible quality when something just clicks between a group of musicians.

“Yeah, I know!” enthuses John. “You know within minutes. You think, – œWell, this can go pretty much anywhere we want it to.’ We just started seeing who had a few chords or a few riffs and started putting them together. When we’d done a bit, we’d record it. Well, actually we had the machines running all the time so you just start listening to stuff and going, – œOh, that sounds great. Let’s do this, put it with that.’ A total organic process just happened, of writing and recording.

“After a couple of weeks and a couple of months you listen to it back and start to go, – œWow, we’ve actually got a whole record here. It sounds amazing.’ It’s great when you impress yourself. We always try to impress each other – which helps performance wise – but when you start to impress yourself, when you listen to the record and think, – œBloody hell! This is great!’”

I wonder what similarities or differences John can pinpoint between the early days of Led Zeppelin and his current incarnation in the Them Crooked Vultures.

“There are a lot of parallels to the Zeppelin days,” he muses. “I mean the whole audience finding out by the word of mouth thing – or word of internet these days – it was a similar feeling. There was hardly any press about Zeppelin but we would find places to play and people would just be there. Just loads of people, queuing up. We thought, – œWell, how on earth do people know about it?’” He laughs gently.

“And it’s a bit similar with this band. Okay, they [the fans] use the internet, which is how they know about it but still they have to either search for it or find out some [other] way. I mean, there’s been no big press campaign or anything like that, so it’s been great that people are actually interested to come and see what we’re doing, and generally find out where we playing and just follow the progress.

“And it’s nice to do it old school; to do a few shows and then bring an album out, rather than, you know, the big splash with a record and coming at you with a big extravaganza. It’s like, [he puts on a petulant voice] – œDo we have to do it like that?’ And actually the answer is [brightens up in realisation], – œNo! We can do whatever we like! We’re in control of everything.’ We’re doing it mainly because we want to play together and make great music together – play the music that we wanna hear – and everything can just follow on later.”

Speaking of – œfollowing on’, that was never John’s M.O. in the Zeppelin days. While the Plant/Page juggernaut took the media spotlight, John was able to sneak off, unrecognised, and really discover cities they were touring. Now that he’s a little more recognisable, does he think he’ll get away with exploring this time around?

“All the people you really wanted to meet [back then], they never wanted to come round and try and get backstage,” he admits. “They tend to stay away from the circus and hoo-ha after the show. But I used to, through a network of friends, find these various people and I’d always end up – as all the limos were turning up to a gig – turning up in a VW Microbus with a bunch of hippies.

“I used to have a lot of great times and I can do this again, with the Vultures,” he laughs. “I tend to push Dave out first [to face the hoo-ha]. I call him – œDecoy Dave.’ I yell, – œThere’s Dave Grohl!’ and they all run to him and then I sneak off round the back of the bus.”

I tell John we see so much of Dave down here that we’re almost calling him – œAussie Dave.’

John laughs. “Here he is again! He’s coming your way in January! He’s just a really nice bloke. And he’s a great drummer you know, a great drummer. And we’re really enjoying playing together as a rhythm section, you know.

“And Josh is,” John pauses, “very happy to have such a great rhythm section behind him. Which takes some of the pressure off him too. I think he’s really enjoying himself as well. We’re just having fun on the road, fun onstage and fun in the studio. It’s a laugh-fest.”

Them Crooked Vultures is out now on Sony Music. Read the FasterLouder review. The band plays the following shows in January.

Tue Jan 19 – Challenge Stadium, Perth
January 22 – Melbourne, Festival Hall
January 23 – Melbourne, Festival Hall
Mon Jan 25 – Riverstage, Brisbane
January 26 – Sydney, Hordern Pavilion
January 27 – Sydney, Hordern Pavilion