Rev Jones Interview

by Rick Landers.

We first met Rev Jones at Winter NAMM 2006 in Anaheim, California. Modern Guitars photographer, Brent Peters, and I were running through our scheduled booth visits when we noticed a couple of guys walking through the Dean Guitars area, one with a shaved and tattooed head topped with a Medusa-like coil of dreadlocks.

This guy was far too colorful of a character to ignore, so we went up to him and asked if we could get a shot for Modern Guitars. He proved very courteous, smiled and said, "Sure," then took a step back and posed. I had no idea who he was, but we ran the shot during our NAMM coverage.

Later, I discovered he is one of the most formidable metal bassists on the planet.

We were able to track him down before he went on his Summer 2006 European tour with the Michael Schenker Group (MSG) and he agreed to an interview as soon as he could grab some spare time.

Rev has an unbelievable stage presence. He dances, contorts, kicks, and launches into a zany caricature of punk menace while performing magical feats of musicianship on his bass and other stringed axes. And, unlike most musicians, Rev Jones isn't glued to one group - he manages to contribute to three at the same time: The Michael Schenker Group; Kottak; and Black Symphony.

Jones' troop of Fender P-basses and other more exotic 8, 10, 12 and 14 touch string basses suggest that he's not only a serious, but a very disciplined and tenacious musician. His instrument and equipment endorsements include: Brubaker Basses, Warr Guitars, Dean Pace Basses, Eden Amps, Vinci strings and Kahler Bridges.

Modern Guitars hooked up with Rev just after he finished an exhilerating tour of Europe with the Michael Schenker Group, where audiences reached 100,000 - all fixed on an array of metal wizards with more than a few focused totally on Jones' bass work and riveting showmanship. Rev recently told us that he'll be in Japan and the Far East on tour starting this month (November, 2006) with the Michael Schenker Group.

Let’s begin with where you are at the moment. What’s going on with Rev Jones right now?

Rev Jones: Many things, as usual. With the Michael Schenker Group, we just finished a two month European tour and played several of the big open air festivals like Sweden Rock, Grasspop, and Wacken. With Black Symphony, after a long absence from the scene and five years of auditioning singers, we have finally found a new vocalist and have finished a double album that we are shopping to labels right now. And we are planning some live shows throughout the year.

With Kottak [formerly Krunk], we also just played at Wacken Open Air on the WET stage. Actually, we played under a tent so it really wouldn’t be open air would it? [Laughs] Just a little Kottak humor.

We have a new [debut] album coming out on Escapi Music called Therupy. The release date is September 29.

With Forte, we are doing several reunion shows with the original 1989 line up, and we are going to be recording an album in September with the same line up. With Jeff Martin, I played bass and co-wrote several songs on his new debut solo CD, The Fool, which is out now on Mascot records. It also features Paul Gilbert, Michael Schenker, and Russ Parrish on guitar.

I also recorded an album with a band called China Blue featuring me on bass and touch-style Warr guitar, Eric Ragno [Vox Tempus] on keys, and Tony Mills [Shy, TNT] on vocals. The music is AOR with a little bit of prog mixed in. We have just finished the recording, so now it's in the mix stage. Look for it sometime in 2007.

I also played one song on the new Jack Frost Out in the Cold album that's available now.

You just finished up a tour in Europe with MSG. Want to tell us some of the highlights, like playing in front of 60,000 people?

RJ: The whole tour was great as were all the festivals, 25,000 people at Sweden Rock, 30,000 people at Grasspop, but the highlight for me was playing to around 100,000 people at Wacken Open Air in Germany. It was amazing! During my bass solo there were at least 60,000 people clapping their hands together keeping time for me as I played “Eleanor Rigby”! I’ll never forget that as long as I live!

What’s the toughest part for you being on the road?

RJ: Everything! I think the toughest part is not being able to escape from it. Everyday a different town, different weather, but always the same, day in day out schedule, and you live in a bus with 10 or 12 people, so there'ss no alone time. When you have a normal job you work and then you come home to the privacy of your own house, and if you work everyday for a few weeks you can always take a day off to just be alone with no one else around. And if you feel ill or really over worked, sometimes you can call in sick. But on the road you can’t call in sick or take a day off because even when you have a day off you're still on the bus with 10 other people.

It’s kind of like living with 10 other people in a three room mobile home with bunk beds. But I would never change what I do because I love it, and when the going gets tough, the tough get tired!

How’d you and Michael Schenker meet and what brought you together?

RJ: In 2001, Schenker started putting a new MSG line up together and began working on the Be Aware of Scorpions album. He chose Jeff Martin who had been playing drums with him on the last UFO tour, and he asked Jeff who he would like to have play on the album and Jeff told him about me.

Jeff had played with me in Black Symphony on the first album and tour and we always played great together. W'e're great friends. So I got the call and I sent them some promo stuff and they sent me a plane ticket to come play on the album. So, I was actually in MSG before I even met Michael Schenker. That’s kind of funny. I never actually thought about it, but that’s how it was.

I did the recording and a short tour for the album and then went right back to just doing Black Symphony. Well, then I saw Schenker at a music convention and he told me he wanted me to play on the new album and gave me the phone number of the record company and producer so I could work out all the details. So, I called them and told them how much money I would need to record and they told me, “We’ll call you back,” and they never called back.

Well, when it was time for the tour I got the call to do it and it just so happened that we were auditioning singers for Black Symphony so that meant I would be free to do the tour and that also meant that my drummer, Pete Holmes, would be free as well, so we both signed on. The tour ended up lasting 14 months. So, when he started putting the new tour together he had his manager contact us and once again we signed on.

It’s a cool gig, I love the songs and it’s great playing with a legend, especially when he tells Pete and I that we are the best rhythm section he has ever played with, looking back at all the greats he has played with [e.g., Simon Phillips and Mo Foster ]. That makes you feel like you're made of gold!

In a few words, how would you describe the guys in MSG.

RJ: The line up from this last tour was great! We were very much a family, very much a team, very much a band, and I think that showed on stage. You could tell everyone was happy and having a good time. The only bad thing about MSG is when we are off tour and Schenker has a new girlfriend or an old one staying with him because he has a tendency to let these idiot women influence his decision making. That usually causes big problems, like canceling or postponing tours and that always affects the band members because you plan on making that money and a lot of times you have passed on other tours.

Because of Schenker having so many problems in the past, every time one of these crazy things happens he doesn’t know who he can trust anymore and that’s when the buffoonery really starts. Since Schenker does not have enough money to keep his band on retainer, when these things happen he usually loses band members

You’re known as much for your stage presence as for your superb bass work. Has your entertainer side always been so evident?

RJ: Yes! I’ve always pretty much been somewhat the same on stage. I grew up seeing all these great bands that put on a show and that’s what I thought you were supposed to do on stage, and I still feel that way. I mean, one of my favorite onstage bass players was Pete Way from UFO. He was so crazy it was great!

Plus, you had cats like Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, Kiss, ZZ Top, and Van Halen putting on these great shows. How could I not want to be like them? In my opinion if you're not going to put on a sho, then don’t charge people and call it a show. If you're going to just stand there and play then I’ll stay at home and listen to a CD and look at your picture because it don’t move either, but at least I can save money and push stop when I get bored.

Did you start out in a garage band or basement, like many of us?

RJ: Oh, yeah, we actually practiced in my bedroom. We stood my bed up against the wall and practiced every day. My father would turn the volume up on the TV and just block us out. Fortunately, I have really cool parents.

Why the bass guitar?

RJ: Well, when I first started I played guitar for three months and I met this guitarist named Ron Phillips and we started a band. This guy was an unreal player and I thought I’d never be that good, so I moved to bass - the smartest thing I've done in my life. I’ll tell you, the first time I actually played bass I loved it! It was so much cooler than guitar, especially playing '80s, heavy metal like Maiden, Priest, Accept, and Metallica. The bass really moves more then the guitar does on that stuff.

Tell us about your music progression from first learning to gaining a level of expertise.

RJ: You know, I’m like one of the fastest people at learning things, so it seems like I went from beginner to pro right away. I mean I listen to my early recordings and I can’t believe how great of a player I was then. I owe that to sitting in my room and learning songs and it also comes from playing in a band. You can sit and practice by yourself, but you never get real good until you play with a band, “Practice makes better, but playing makes perfect.”

Seems like you have a Jaco Pastorius thing going even when you’re pushing into the punk-rock arena. You into jazz bass too?

RJ: Of course, if you are a real bass player you love Jaco. He opened every door, even the ones that people thought were opened, he opened them more. I was actually turned on to jazz in high school by the stage band teacher. I tried out for the band and you had to be able to read music and I couldn’t really read so I wrote the chord changes above the staff and I just played notes from those chords. I’ve always remembered that day because we had to play this jazz tune “All of Me”. It was my audition, they already had a bass player, the band was one of the best in the state, and I was just faking it. So, when the song ended the teacher said, “You can’t read can you?"

I said, “No,” and he said, “But you can improvise and that is jazz,. You’re the new bass player.” I was blown away. Well, the teacher also hooked me up with a jazz band that played clubs. All improv. I was the guy in the band under 45-years-old. Those cats were real musicians. I only played a few shows with them, but that’s all it took. I was hooked!

Obviously, your “dancing” is aimed at both enjoying yourself and entertaining the fans. Let’s go a little deeper than that…isn’t this just a way to get some exercise out of the way while you’re on the job?

RJ: No, it's just a way to make sure that my back and knee never get a chance to stop hurting. Ouch! Actually, the way I act on stage, is kind of like dancing. Whipping my hair around like a helicopter, jumping around all over the stage, spinning in a circle, and even that stupid thing I do with my legs. They are just ways of expressing and enjoying myself during my performance, kind of like Elvis with his shaking.

When I’m on stage, these things just happen automatically, they are not choreographed or even practiced. It's just my natural stupidity coming out. It’s weird, especially sometimes when I play with a new band at the first show, and especially playing a different style of music than what I've been playing. I’m always wondering how I will act on stage. Well, the outcome is always the same - no matter what kind of music and no matter what band I’m playing with I always act like Rev Jones!

Your body art – is it a cover-up or are your trying to tell us something about yourself?

RJ: Well, they all have some kind of meaning behind them, but the main reason they are there is because I like the way they look on me. I have always tried to put them in cool places like my head or my hands.

Actually, my first tat was the one on my head, and when I got it back in 1990, I had never seen anyone else that had one on their head. See most people go with full sleeve tats. Not me. I’m going with the “short sleeve turtleneck, hood with gloves”!

How do you manage to be responsible to three hard working groups at the same time: Michael Schenker Group; Black Symphony; and Kottak?

RJ: Really good planning. It's sometimes kind of hard because you have to pass up things with one band because the other is doing something, but we’ve been trying to work the bands together somewhat on the tour schedules. So far it’s been all right. Playing with several bands, like anything else has its pros and cons.

Pros: you play more shows, do more recording, gain more recognition, you get to be more creative and try different things, and you get to play with many different types of players and play many different styles of music, which is what makes a normal bassist become a great bassist.

Cons, you pass on many great shows because of conflicting dates, you are always in a scheduling nightmare, you always have to explain your situation to fans because they are confused about which band you are in and you're always stressed out.

I don’t recommend playing in multiple bands full time, but if you are going to do it you have to have one main band and look at the others as side bands. Otherwise, your priorities are going to be all wrong and you will end up disappointing and wasting the time of all the musicians you play with, and the outcome is always the same, you get a bad reputation as a flake, and no one will want to jam with you. There are four things in life that you can’t escape from; ugliness, stupidity, a nickname, and, a bad reputation in the music biz.

Even if you change your whole life around and get your priorities right, you are still always remembered for your bad reputation, that won’t go away.

What bass players or other musicians do you listen to when you’re in a laid back mood?

RJ: Bass players I listen to: Trey Gunn (Warr guitar); Jaco; Tony Levin; and, James Jamerson. Other musicians include Sly Stone, Peter Gabriel, Jim Croce, and "The King", Stevie Wonder.

Why’d Krunk change their name to Kottak?

RJ: I don’t know! Only kidding. The word Krunk has lately become this big hip hop word, and we didn’t want any kind of confusion, so we changed the name. The reason the name Kottak was chosen is because our singer Jimmy Ratchet sometimes thinks he is James Kottak from the Scorpions. He's kind of weird, so there you have it.

What can fans expect when they play Therupy?

RJ: Good punk rock. Greenday meets Cheap Trick. Great songs. Lots of fun!

You also did a short tour with Fuel. What was that like?

RJ: Yes, I did like six weeks with them on their last tour. I was filling in on bass while their bassist was at home with his wife who was having a baby. It was a cool gig, great guys, good songs, and the most beautiful girls in one crowd that I have ever seen. The two details of the tour that usually freak people out are, first, the fact that I used his basses and his amps and I even used his in-ear mix without changing anything. The hardest part was using his basses. I’m used to very light basses covered with Britney Spears stickers, and his basses are big giant heavy Warwick basses. I hate those basses! The head stock weighs more then the body. The second detail that people can’t believe is the fact that I learned all the songs in one day in the back of the bus traveling from Maine to Atlanta and played the next day.

Because I was using his basses and I was not sure how they were all tuned, I didn’t want to learn the songs in the wrong tuning because it’s sometimes harder to forget a part than it is to remember one. So I waited until he could show me each part. Now the hardest thing about this was the fact that I was not familiar with their songs, so I had a live recording of the set that I listened to over and over for a couple of days. I pretty much burned the set into memory. Then at the end of the first week, they changed the song order on me, but I don’t know the song titles so I had to learn them real fast. But it was a very fun tour and even though I had these weird things to deal with I never had a problem. If you'd seen any of the shows you would have never guessed that I just learned the songs.

Besides the bass, you play a few other stringed instruments. Tell us about them – and what’s with the mandolin – you into bluegrass?

RJ: Yes, I play bass, Warr guitar, stick, guitar, and mandolin. I do like bluegrass, but I’m not that great on mandolin yet, although if you saw me play mandolin I could probably make you think I am great because what I do play on mandolin I play very well. I actually listen to pretty much all styles of music. Growing up in Oklahoma I was surrounded by country music, Texas blues, and rock, so this explains why I can listen to Rammstein, then Shakira, then Big & Rich, then King Crimson, all on the way to a Tom Jones concert!

What amp configuration are you using on the tour? What do you use in the studio?

RJ: I use the same amp in the studio as I do live, the greatest bass amps made, EDEN. I use an EDEN WT800 head, EDEN 6x10 cab, and EDEN 4x10 cab. Other then that I use a Dunlop rack mount wah wah, a talk box, and a BOSS delay. I use no compressors or extra EQ’s or other processing to make my sound. The problem I have with most new music is that everything sounds so fake, so processed, so unnatural and all, because the technology is there for them in the studio.

I’m from the other school of music where you plug the bass into the amp and play the songs, and sometimes if something is played a little bit sloppy, it makes the part sound better. I never use a compressor because there are a lot of dynamics in my playing and if you compressed that it would lose the feel. I also never use any EQ other then the bass amp. It has to sound good there or it will never sound good. I think many players over use EQ to make their playing sound perfect, but in my opinion it makes it sound weak. They either have way too much top end and no bottom end or too much bottom and no top. I think you should always try to get a big, full, natural sound, so no matter what type of bassline is being played it always sounds the same. And no matter what kind of speakers, car, home or any other, the song is being played through you can always hear what’s being played.

MSG is headed for the Far East. Have you been there before and what are you looking forward to the most?

RJ: No, I have never toured in Asia. I’ve always wanted to. I get lots of emails from fans in Asia that have only heard a small amount of my playing on CD or maybe have only seen the MSG DVD. So, I can’t wait to show them the real Rev Jones!

Are you formally schooled in music and music theory or are you from the school of hard knocks and intuitiveness?

RJ:Well, because of my musical knowledge, you would think that I was a music school graduate. But I learned most all of it just playing as much as I could and learning everything I could from everyone. Most of what I learned was from sitting in my room and figuring out every song ever written. That is what is missing these days with young players. They all learn from books with TAB or from teachers, but all the best players I’ve ever known were guys like me that knew every song or could figure out how to play every song just from memory, from hearing it.

That comes from learning songs on your own. Also, since I play music for a living, I have tried to gain as much musical knowledge as my brain can hold. I think you should always try to learn as much as you can about your profession, no matter what job you have. Knowledge and understanding are the keys.

Tell us about your line up of bass guitars and other gear.

RJ: Sure. Brubaker basses, Rev Jones mode, one in Corvette yellow (E, A, D, G, C), a white one with frets (B, E, A, D, G), and a white one that's fretless (A, D, G, C, F); the Dean Pace Bass (upright bass), one in red (E, A, D, G) and one in blue (B, E, A, D, G); Dean ML basses - a Custom ½ yellow ½ red (E, A, D, G), a Custom ½ black ½ Brittany (E, A, D, G); a Dean 8-string with altered body in black (Ee, Aa, Dd, Gg); a Warr guitar 12-string Custom that's ½ frets and ½ fretless – fretted side tuned in 5ths, fretless side tuned in 4ths; an Austin Douglas 8-string tapping bass (D, G, C, F, A#, D#, G#); a 1984 ironwood Chapman Stick with the bass side tuned in 5ths and the melody side in 4ths; a Mobius Megatar 12-string with the bass side tuned in 5ths and the melody side in 4ths; and, I have like 10 Fender P-basses!

The Brubaker basses and Dean ML basses have Kahler fixed bridges and 2 of the Fenders have Kahler tremolos.

You’ve gone from being a pretty clean cut looking kid to a “my body is my canvas” kind of guy. How’d your parents and friends react to the evolution?

RJ: I actually started evolving into this look when I was around 19. I was still kind of a kid. I just didn’t have as many tats. I have photos of me playing from 14 years ago and I look almost exactly the same. My friends have never reacted weird to anything I’ve ever done, and my parents and family have always treated me the same no matter what I looked like. And, just for the record, when I was younger, I might have looked like an innocent little clean cut boy, but I was a mean little hell raiser back then. It’s funny, my look got meaner and my personality got nicer!

I still get the same comment from my mother every time she sees a new tattoo on me. She always says, “I thought you were done getting tattoos, people are gonna look at you and think that your some kind of weird crazy person!” I just laugh and say, “It’s not the tattoos that make them think that!”

Your inventiveness on the bass – are you improvising a lot on stage?

RJ: I always improvise to some degree. There's always a main structure, but there is also a number of places to show off and do a bass lick and a few places to get creative and play whatever I feel at that moment. So, I utilize these places every chance I get. Another thing is, I always try not to play the same exact licks every time, and even on songs with moving bass that create a certain melody to the song, I usually have several ways of playing those parts and I mix them up every time I play them. It keeps things more interesting. Plus, a lot of the time that you see me playing over the neck in a song, it is a last minute decision. I get a thought in my head, like, "Try to play that over the neck", and I try it. Sometimes that's hard to do without practice, but I like to be daring!

Do you invest any time in the recording process or do you leave that to the engineers?

RJ: It depends on the project. If it is a session where I am hired to play bass, then that’s what I do. When I do bass tracks I usually just play through each song three or four times, playing different variations of bass lines on each take, then I leave it up to the engineers and producers to comp the bass tracks, to pick the bass lines that fit the best on each part and make one track with the best parts.

Of course, when I’m doing a recording with a band where I’m writing or co-writing the songs I might get a little more involved. But for the most part I try not to spend too much time recording. I’m usually finished pretty fast. I think spending too much time analyzing your parts, re-recording, and changing the bass line is the worst thing you can do. These days it cost so little to record that people spend too much time over recording. I miss the good old days when you had four days to finish everything, including the mix,. That is when the players had to be good.

Any other music or artistic endeavors you’d like to pursue or are pursuing?

RJ: Yes. I would love to do an instructional DVD or book. I would want to do it more like a music course where I break down all my different playing methods into four sections that would be treated like separate classes. Each section would have several chapters filled with lessons and exercises and demonstrations - solo, with drummer, with band, and alll leading up to the final chapter of each section, kind of like a final exam.

I’ve actually been working on it in my head for a while. I have a structure and an idea of how I want it done and I have many exercises and lessons ready. I would love to pursue this, but I would have to have someone working with me kind of pushing me to do it and taking care of other issues, and I have not found that person yet. I guess I need an executive producer.

Do any songs evolve from bass runs with others filling the song up with chords and melodies or are you always trailing behind that side of songwriting and filling in with your bass to add some foundation to the piece?

RJ: No, most of my ideas are started with a bass part or a tapping Warr guitar part, but there are still some that I write that are mainly guitar songs. I always hear in my head other instruments playing counter parts or a vocal melody to my bass part ideas. Even when I’m writing with others, I usually play something on the bass that they like and they start writing something over it and we end up creating something great, or they play something and I play a bass-over-top that sounds cool to them. They may change what they were playing and once again something great is created.

But, if the song is done already, I only try to write the best bass part for the song. Whether it is an easy little bass line or something really hard to play, all that matters to me is that the song sounds great.

Off stage what’s Rev Jones really like - serious, somber, funny, wild, courteous, quiet, irritable, receptive to new things, ambitious?

RJ: I don’t know, I’m kind of just Rev Jones. I am very laid back but also very hyper, I’m very nice and polite, yet I’m a smart ass. And I’m usually pretty funny!

Musicians are notorious for getting ripped off by their managers. How are you managing your career from a business perspective?

RJ: Oh, I’ve been ripped off by many in my career, I’m just trying to not let that happen again. But it always does one way or another. Like you’ve heard a million times, “It is a very hard business.”

A lot of musicians seem to live for today and don’t give much thought to old age, health care, and an ability to enjoy their golden years without having to gig every weekend to pay the rent. Are you focused on any long-term life goals?

RJ: Yes, I’m kind of both, I’m thinking of the future, but I’m also thinking of the now. All of my goals are long term. This is my life and it’s too late to turn back now - and I wouldn’t want to.

Related Links
Rev Jones
Rev Jones' Videos
Black Symphony
Kottak

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