Planet Bass | If You Want To Talk Bass Then You've Reached The Right Place

Rev Jones is an over-the-top bassist (quite literally on occasion as you can see in the photo) both in playing and stage presence. He's spent the last 20 years playing with many artists such as Black Symphony, Michael Schenker and Paul Gilbert.

Rev Jones' website is at www.revjones.com

Well I was always a big music fan growing up, I was the long haired kid that went to every concert, it didn't matter if it was JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH, or REO SPEEDWAGON, I went to every show. I kind of grew up with music in the family, my dad is great singer and good rhythm guitarist, I think everyone on my dads side of the family sings and plays guitar a little bit, I think my grandfather played 3 or 4 instruments. I remember them trying to teach me to play guitar all through out my childhood, but I was into sports so I never really learned. Then something happened, I don't remember why, but on my 15th birthday I wanted a guitar, so I got my first guitar. Because of everyone trying to show me guitar chords all through my life, I kind of remembered a couple of them, so that helped. Then I joined my first band and met a guitarist named RON PHILLIPS, he was awesome, he was the best around, he was playing every VAN HALEN and YNGWIE lead note for note. Since I had only been playing for a couple months , I knew that playing with him I would only be a rhythm guitarist, so I made a decision that has been responsible for my whole career, I changed over to the BASS. That was the best choice I ever made and I never regretted it. I think I played my first shows like 2 or 3 months after becoming a bassist, and I've been doing ever since. So the answer to the question "what inspired me to play bass?", I would say meeting this great guitarist and realizing that I would make a better bassist.....

I was really influenced by bands like KING CRIMSON, SLY STONE, JIM CROCE, STEVIE WONDER, BEATLES, CAT STEVENS, and ZZ TOP, but as for bassist - TONY LEVIN, JACO PASTORIUS, JAMES JAMERSON, CHRIS SQUIRE, GLENN HUGHES, and of course PAUL McCARTNEY.... What did I learn from them? everything about playing bass, (rhythm, melody, groove, movement), I learned how to get everything out of my bass playing, to be creative and tasteful no matter if I'm playing 100 notes or 1 note 100 times, no matter if it's slow or fast, no matter if it's busy or basic, I learned to make the bass a very important part of the music..... But the biggest thing I learned, especially from LEVIN and JACO, is how to keep exploring all possibilities of playing, because that is how you really discover your own style, and it also keeps music exciting......

I did take 2 or 3 lessons from this guy Jim Miller, he taught me my scale patterns in the key of G major and then he taught me how to figure all the other keys out all on my own, so just from that 1 lesson I figured out and understood music theory in no time at all. Basically he taught me how to learn.... Other then that I was pretty much self taught, I learned some things hear and there from people and books, but most of my learning came from setting with albums and learning every song and playing them over and over until I had them down, which is why I can still pretty much remember every song I ever played and most of the songs that I just listened to.... Another thing that helped in my learning, was the fact that I was in a band playing shows like 3 months after I started playing, so I was fortunate enough to start playing with actual drummers and guitarist early on, which in my opinion is the best way to learn. You can play 20 hours a day by yourself for 10 years, and you'll never be as solid as someone who has played with a band 4 days a week for 2 years....

I don't remember exactly who said it.... "no matter how advanced of a player you become, never stop learning"... It's true with everything in life, when you stop learning you stop evolving........

I would give the same advice, "never stop learning". Try and learn as much music as you can, all kinds of music, and not just the bass parts, learn the guitar chords, the vocal melody, the piano parts, the drum parts, and even the solo (no matter what instrument it was played on). Also learning how to play other instruments makes you understand your main instrument so much better. So learn how to play guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo, stick, sitar, or some kind of brass. And most importantly as a bass player one of your main jobs is to lock in the pocket with the drummer, so learning all about drumming and studying drummers is something that I recommend to all bassist, no matter what level you play at....

Never limit yourself to one way of playing...... I use both, actually I use all. It depends of what your playing, "if you are playing real driving heavy part or something with a lot of fast scales", then I think a pick is more solid, but "if your playing something funky or something that needs to sound percussive", then I think fingers are the best way. There are some things that I play with a pick that most people couldn't play with their fingers, and vice versa. I think all bassist should know how to play with their fingers, how to play with a pick, and how to pop & slap, even if you only use one of these technics, you should know all three of them......

I use 4 and 5 string basses, fretted and fretless...... I also play a couple of different type touch basses with 8, 10, and 12 strings....,

I guess the only way to really define my style, is it's MY style..... I don't really think I play like anyone in particular, but I think there is a little bit of all my bass idols in my playing..... The 3 things that do stand out in my playing that people always comment about would be:

1. my two hand tapping style.... I've been using both hands to play (tapping) notes on the bass for most of my career. I started developing that style after learning "elephant talk" by KING CRIMSON, it blew me away, I had to figure out how to play like that. So I learned that TONY LEVIN played a chapman stick on that song, so I decided I needed a chapman stick, and then I found out I couldn't afford one, so I had to use the old standard bass instead. There were a couple of people use tapping technics on the bass back then, but it wasn't the same. Like for instance BILLY SHEEHAN has been doing his thing for ever, and I do like his style, but it is more like Van Halen. You know it actually took me 15 years to finally afford a real touch bass(stick)....

2. my over the neck playing.... anything I can play under the neck(the normal way) I can pretty much play over the neck(on top, upside down), so when I'm playing live I randomly switch back and forth between over and under, especially when it is a difficult bass line or if I'm soloing, basically showing off.

3. my wild stage presence.... I have one the most wild crazy energetic stage presence that you will ever see. Combine rapid body spinning (like a top), with old punk rock jumping and leaping (from the drum riser), add a head covered in tattoos with dreadlocks spinning 100 miles per hour(like a helicopter), plus some crazy/funny/mean/stupid facial expressions, then add the wild 2 hand tapping and over the neck bass playing.... and that's me.... People say that I remind them of PETE WAY, ANGUS YOUNG, and FLEA all mixed together and turned on full speed.....

I have recorded and toured with LEGIONED MARCHER (86-88), GAMMACIDE (1990), FORT'E (89-95), BLACK SYMPHONY (96-present), and MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP (2000-present). I also toured with FUEL in 2004. Aside from all of those bands, I have also recorded with several other people, one worth mentioning is PAUL GILBERT, I did some preproduction recording with him for the "Alligator Farm" album...... Even though all of the bands I've played with are completely different styles, I never really changed or adapted my playing. I just play what I feel. I think that's why it always works, no matter who I'm playing with.......

That's a tough one to answer... They all are inspirational in different ways... I mean I have been fortunate enough to play with some of the great rock guitarist of all time. Like MICHAEL SCHENKER, ULI ROTH, WARREN DeMARTINI, DIMEBAG DARRELL, and PAUL GILBERT. But I think the guys that I enjoy playing with the most, would be RICK PLESTER and PETE HOLMES from BLACK SYMPHONY. When we play together it's just like magic

Not really... Well how about this. We do try to have quiet time in the dressing room starting 1 hour before showtime, during this time is when we start getting ready, (getting dressed, stretching, ect...). Quiet time ends 15 minutes before showtime....

I Usually drink 2 Diet Cokes and 3 waters, but every now and then I'll drink a couple of AMSTEL lights or a couple of glasses of wine.....

I don't use drugs so the that answer is no... I do recall a couple of times in my younger years when I was drunk on stage, but it hasn't happened in over 10 years. I have too much control over my actions to let something like happen....

We (BLACK SYMPHONY) were playing at the DYNAMO OPEN AIR festival, there were between 50,000 and 100,000 people at the event. We hit the stage full force, everything is going great, then right at the beginning of the 2nd song I jumped up in the air and when I landed my elbow slammed against my bass so hard that I dislocated my funny bone, it wasn't funny. So for the next minute and a half (in pain) I had to play with 1 hand as I tried to figure out what I could do, then finally we get to a musical break with no bass, so I was able to pop it back into place. Now for the rest of the show I have no feeling in my right arm, just some very painful tingling. It was the weirdest thing, I couldn't feel my arm but my brain was telling it what to do, amazingly I played perfect but it just didn't feel right, it was like I was using someone else's arm, I couldn't even feel the pick in my fingers. Well I made it through the show, and I don't think that anyone besides the singer even knew anything had happened, one reason was that I never stopped acting like myself, I kept jumping around and doing all the crazy stuff that I normally did on stage. It took about a month before my arm was back to normal. The best part is that it was all captured on video....

Playing on E.S.P.N. to over 70 million viewers in 82 countries.... We played on a show called PRO BEACH HOCKEY, it was a roller hockey league with all pro players. We played 1 song in between each game and they did a full feature on the band. When the games aired on t.v., they used our music as the theme music, and every commercial break they would show us playing, and each of our performances ran 86 times, plus they ran the 10 minute feature on us several times....

I was incarcerated on Independence day.... I played a gig with a cover band at a federal prison on the 4th of July like 10 years ago. I think the reason that is was fun was the situation. I mean here we are in a prison, playing heavy rock songs, and we're surrounded by prisoners and heavily armed prison guards, it was kind of a scary scene. But the gig went fine, everyone loved the band, and the highlight song of the show was JUDAS PRIEST "Breakin The Law", everyone wen't crazy on that one....

PEARCE - 'BC1' , (preamp) -- "The best preamp ever made, 2 independent channels with 2 different types of overdrive, 2 effects loops, very clean xlr output, and a foot switch. It always has a monster tone."

DUNLAP - 'DCR-1SR' , (rackmount wah wah) -- "This is the king of wah's, totally adjustable parameters."

I am flexible. Most of the Europe tours we do, we have to fly every couple of days, so I have a different bass rig in each country, sometimes each town. The promoters usually get an ampeg rig for me, some sound good some sound real bad, and because I don't have my rack I have to use a tuner pedal, delay pedal, and a tubescreamer pedal. I can actually play the same on any amp and any bass.....

Well of coarse I play bass guitar, I also play a couple of different types of touch bass. I use a 8 string AustinDouglasGuitar (made by WARR), a custom built 12 string (½ fretted ½ fretless) WARR GUITAR, a 12 string MEGATAR, and a 10 string STICK. I play the 8 string and both 12 strings just as much as I play the 4 and 5 string basses, to me they are all just 1 type of instrument, BASS, they just have different tunings and different number of strings.... I play guitar very very well, to me it is a very easy instrument, little bitty string and little bitty frets... I play piano pretty good, good enough that I can fool people into thinking I'm actually a keyboardist.... I also play mandolin, I'm still trying to master that one......

Both. It depends on the project and it depends on the out come. For instance with BLACK SYMPHONY, if I write a song idea and we start working on it and the guitarist RICK PLESTER has a idea for a different part, I always listen, and if it sounds better then it stays, that also goes for songs he writes. Sometimes he even writes some of my bass lines and I write some of his guitar lines, what matters is what sounds the best, not who wrote it. I think co-writing with someone brings out more creative ideas, and creative music is beautiful music.... As for what I write on, it's always different. I usually write everything in my head, and then transpose it to each instrument, and then sometimes when I'm setting around playing I come up with a bass riff or guitar riff that I really like, so I create a song. The only time I really write songs on bass, is when I jam with my drummer PETE HOLMES, we jam for a half hour each day at sound check, improv only, we don't even have an idea when we start, so it's all created on the spot. We usually come up with some weird time signature riff right off the bat and we build from there, always changing the riff and sometimes the feel, but never stopping the jam, and we always try to bring back to the original riff through out the jam. When I listen back to the recordings of those jams, it sounds at times like we are playing a song we've played a thousand times. I am actually peacing together stuff from jam cd's we made on the last MSG u.s. tour, for an album that will feature PETE and I, it should be pretty interesting.....

I do gigs now and then playing cover songs from all different kinds of music, and I always improvise, unless it is a signature bass line, then I usually play it like the original. I don't set down and learn songs note for note that much anymore, I just listen to them a few times and I usually have it, then when we start playing these songs onstage everything just falls into place....

Yes I do. Every band I have been in has had lost of vocals, so I have always had to sing backups. When I'm not out on the road I like to go to clubs that have bands and I always get up sing a few songs, sometimes I sing all night with bands, all 3 or 4 sets, like 30 or 40 songs, it is the best way to become a better singer and a great way to keep your voice in shape..... I think being able to sing (at least a little bit) is very important....

If you could nominate one song that you’ve recorded to sum up your playing style and feel which one would it be?

I can't pick any one song, I think every recording I've done sums up my playing style for that particular time. When I listen to the FORT'E albums that I done in the early 90's, I'm still blown away at the playing, especially the bass solo's. The bass on the MSG "be aware of scorpions" album is very laid back, but very solid, with a few cool licks here and there, nothing exciting, but it fits the songs perfect. But I'd say of all my recordings some of my best playing would be on the BLACK SYMPHONY albums "tears of blood" and "trust", and for sure the best playing I've ever recorded is on the new album that we just finished, it will be out sometime 2005... I have some mp3's online from the albums I mentioned at these two locations

I've been out on tour pretty solid for the past year. With MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP the tour started in the u.s.a. Nov-Dec 2003, then europe Feb-Mar 2004, then I went on tour playing bass with FUEL for the whole month of April 2004. After finishing up with FUEL, I took a couple of weeks off to relax, then I did some recording, and before I knew it I was back tour with MSG, starting with some one off shows on the west coast and in Texas, in June 2004. Then the 2nd leg of the MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP u.s.a. tour with special guest ULI ROTH began, the tour took place Aug-Sep 2004, followed by the 2nd leg of the europe tour Oct-Nov 2004. The tour ended November 27th, 1 year and 2 days after the first show...... We also released a live DVD, MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP "world wide live 2004"......