At the height of their reign as rock gods, Led Zeppelin was on the verge of a major shake-up. John Paul Jones, the band’s quiet but brilliant bassist and keyboardist, seriously considered leaving the group just before they began recording Physical Graffiti, the double album many consider their magnum opus.
The relentless pace of their 1973 U.S. stadium tour left the band physically and mentally drained. “We were playing [sets] for three hours solid, and physically that was a real… I mean, when I came back from the last tour I didn’t know where I was,” Jimmy Page later recalled in an interview with Crawdaddy.
For Jones, the exhaustion wasn’t just about the grueling performances. A seasoned studio musician before joining Zeppelin, he longed for a more stable life with his family. In late 1973, he confided in manager Peter Grant that he was contemplating leaving the band altogether.
“I didn’t want to harm the group, but I didn’t want my family to fall apart either,” Jones explained to Mojo years later. The pressure of constant touring, coupled with increasing security threats in the U.S., weighed heavily on him.
Jimmy Page was stunned by the news, and Grant immediately stepped in, urging Jones to take time off instead of making a rash decision. Jones ultimately skipped the band’s initial recording sessions in November 1973, during which Zeppelin told the press he was ill. “Everything got messed up. It took three months to sort the situation out,” Page admitted to Rolling Stone in 1975.
Fortunately, the break was exactly what Jones needed. By early 1974, he rejoined the band for the core Physical Graffiti sessions, bringing a revitalized energy to the project. His creative fingerprints were all over the album, particularly on the funk-driven “Trampled Under Foot” and the hauntingly beautiful “In the Light.”
Jones remained with Zeppelin until their breakup in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. While Page and Robert Plant took the spotlight, Jones’ versatility was the secret weapon that helped shape Zeppelin’s sound. His post-Zeppelin career has been just as diverse, working with acts from R.E.M. to Them Crooked Vultures.
Imagine if Jones had actually quit before Physical Graffiti—the album that cemented Zeppelin’s legend might have sounded completely different. Rock history could have taken a very different turn.
