
Legendary bassist/vocalists REV JONES has teamed up with Metal Shock Finland to premiere exclusively his new music video ‘Lollygagging‘, taken from his new solo album, “In The Key of Z“, released worldwide on Dark Star Records on October 1st, 2021.
Watch the outstanding video ‘Lollygagging’, here:
For more than three decades REV JONES has been one of the most unique and sought-after bassist/vocalists in hard rock. For his two-handed tapping style and over-the-neck fingering technique BassPlayer.com says “has infused some of the biggest names in hard rock with his incredible energy and musicality”. His new solo album “In The Key of Z” was released worldwide on Dark Star Records on October 1st, 2021. “In The Key of Z” delivers an always- surprising salvo of the crushing riffs, smart songwriting, twisted sense of humor and face-melting, ass-kicking sonic boom that is Rev Jones.
Furthermore Metal Shock Finland‘s Tarja Virmakari had a pleasure to interview Rev Jones, talking about his new video, solo album, his two-handed tapping style and over-the-neck fingering technique and many more.
- Hello Rev Jones, and welcome to Metal Shock Finland. Today we’ve a pleasure to premiere worldwide your new cool video ‘Lollygagging’, taken from your new solo effort “In The Key of Z”. Please tell us more about the song itself and the idea behind the video.
RJ: hello thanks for having me & my video here. One of my favorite movie scenes of all times is from “Blazing Saddles” where Burton Gilliam is yelling at the workers for “Lollygagging around like it’s 120 degrees”. So when I started working on my new album I decided I wanted to write a song called “Lollygagging”. I actually wrote the music first, I knew I wanted it to be a Boogie kind of groove with a busy riff but a lazy feel. I also thought it would be funnier if the drums, bass, guitar, & vocals were all the opposite of Lollygagging, meaning lots of notes. So I started working on the music which came almost immediately as did the lyrics. The song was complete in about 45 minutes. It was harder to stop laughing than it was to write it. I knew right away I had to do a video for it. After the album was complete I was out on tour and me & Shawn Berman (video director) started shooting footage. Like always we had no real story board plotted out, we just knew it had to represent all forms of laziness and it had to be humorous. I personally think Shawn did an awesome job creating exactly that. It came out perfect.
- We could talk for days about your fabulous long career, but let’s focus on your highlights, what are your greatest memories and collaborations, so far?
RJ: I’ve had the pleasure of playing with so many great iconic musicians in my career that there are way too many memories/stories to mention. Here’s a couple of highlights.
I was always a big UFO & MSG fan and on the first Schenker tour I played on Pete Way was also on the tour, so he would join us onstage for the encore which was “Doctor Doctor”, so here I was onstage doing my Pete Way imitation next to Pete Way & Michael Schenker 2 of my heroes playing a song I grew up on. That’s one I’ll never forget.
Another great memory was in 2009 when I played the 40 year anniversary of Woodstock with Mountain. In the middle of our set Leslie West got married onstage. So there I was standing there onstage at Woodstock next to Corky Lange & Levon Helms watching Leslie West get married, and Levon kept whispering in my ear “I love your bass playing, you should come to our barn and jam with us sometime”. Then Leslie kissed his bride, Corky hit the cowbell, and Rev Jones flew into the air with his head spinning like a helicopter as we played Mississippi Queen.. WOW!
- You’re famous for your two-handed tapping style and over-the-neck fingering technique, was it something that developed naturally or is it the result of studying and discovering different techniques?
RJ: A little of both. I’ve always been really into learning no matter what the subject might be, Wrestling, Martial Arts, Boxing, Baseball, Music, Music Production, everything I’ve ever been into I really deeply focused on learning & perfecting. So you add that side of it, along with my choice of musical influences, and I had no choice but to develop into what I have become. I liked all these great players that used 2 handed tapping styles like Tony Levin, Billy Sheehan, Emmitt Chapman, VanHalen, Randy Rhoads, so I automatically used those techniques in my playing right away. I was also really influenced by peoples onstage performances, people like Pete Way, Pete Townsend, Beatles, KISS, Alice Cooper, David Lee Roth, Peter Gabriel, Ritchie Blackmore, Chuck Berry, & Angus Young, they all had great stage presence that added so much to the music and made it exciting to watch. So that influenced the way I have always acted on stage, I always just assumed that you were supposed to show off & me entertaining onstage instead of standing there in one place bored. So that’s how my style developed and evolved into what I am now.
- Your new solo album “In The Key of Z” came out a month ago, via Dark Star Records, including 12 face-melting songs with crushing riffs. What can you tell us about the songwriting process, topics and the inspiration behind the album?
RJ: well seeing that it was written & recorded during quarantine, there are a few lyrical inspired themes, but in more of a funny direction. The topics of the songs I write are never too overly serious, I think more of story telling than topics. One thing I always include in my songs is underlying humor, even if its a serious song I like to include some kind of humor. I think that comes from a mixture of my love of movies and Jim Croce songs. Every Jim Croce song has an underlying humor or a funny punchline to it, like “Bad Leroy Brown”, baddest man in the whole damn town, he gets his ass whipped at the end of the song, that’s awesome. Not saying that my songs are like Jim Croce, but that humor is definitely in all my songs.
Now musically when I write I have boundaries, if I like the way it sounds it becomes a song. Whether its Rock, Metal, Country, Pop, Jazz, or even Polka, if it sounds good & makes sense then its a Rev Jones song. I can write riffs all day long and piece stuff together, but if it doesn’t make sense musically to me, I don’t use it. When I think of albums that I loved growing up, the ones I always remember the most had no boundaries like Queen “Night At The Opera” or Judas Priest “Sad Wings Of Destiny” or Led Zep “4”, heavy songs, acoustic songs, piano songs, Good Songs that’s all that matters.
As for the inspiration behind the album, the thought of sharing my music with people and possibly inspiring some of them to create music, That’s my inspiration
- How would you describe your musical sound and how it has changed in these past years?
RJ: Well I always think of my sound/style as just Rev Jones. I think there are elements of every style of music in there, it’s not really condemned to one category it just sounds like me.
- We all know how Covid has changed our daily lives over the past 2 years, but is there anything we may have learned of this weird world situation?
RJ: Live life to its fullest, you never know what tomorrow brings or takes away.
- What about your future plans, what will happen next in the Rev Jones -camp?
RJ: Well I’m currently out on tour with George Thorogood as his guitar tech, we are out for the rest of 2021 and about half of 2022. I’m currently trying to book some Rev Jones dates for the rest of 2022 with myself on bass/vocals, Jeff Martin on drums, and Jack Frost on guitar, nothing is set in stone yet but its in the works. I’ve also been asked to play bass on a possible 2022 tour with ex Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin, that all depends on what happens with COVID.
- Now the word is yours, what is your message to our readers and your fans?
RJ: Please keep the music world alive. Go to concerts, buy albums, spread the word about music you love. The only thing that keeps music going is the fans, so its our job to keep it going. That being said please check out my new album “In The Key Of Z” and please like & follow me on my social media pages. Thanks to everyone out there. In the words of Jim Croce “If you dig it, do it. If you really dig it, do it twice”.

REV JONES’ new solo album, “In The Key of Z”, was released worldwide on Dark Star Records on October 1st, 2021. Order it at https://smarturl.it/Revjones.
Rev Jones – ”In The Key Of Z”
Produced by Rev Jones
Mixed by Shawn Berman
Recorded at RevJonesBass Studio, Prairie Sun Recording Studio
“Reptiles” “Dead With You” “Good Women That I’ve Stood By” music by Rev Jones , lyrics by Wade Williams & Rev Jones
All other songs: music & lyrics by Rev Jones
Front Cover Artwork by Bryan Stites
All other Artwork by Rev Jones.
Rev Jones = Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Double Bass, Keyboards, Mandolin, Ukulele, Tamborine.
Jeff Martin = Drums, Percussions.
Lennon Jones = Speaking Voice, Laughing.
Guest Artists
Michael T Ross (Lita Ford, Missing Persons, Hardline) = Keyboards track 2
Scott McClellan (Tony Martin) = Guitar Solo track 1
Jack Frost (Savatage, Seven Witches) = Guitar Solo track 2
Robby Lochner (Fight, Jack Russell’s Great White) = Guitar Solo track 3
Ira Black (Metal Church, Lizzy Borden) = Guitar Solo track 4
Tom Potter (Gundriver) = Guitar Solo track 5
Rowan Robertson (Diorites, Bang Tango) = Guitar Solo track 6
Uros Raskovski (Steelheart) = Guitar Solo track 7
Russ Parrish (Steel Panther, Fight) = Guitar Solo track 8
Bill Leverty (Firehouse) = Guitar Solo track 9
Jim Suhler (George Thorogood, Monkey Beat) = 1st Guitar Solo track 10
Paige Harwell (Reckless) = 2nd Guitar Solo & Fills track 10
Kristen Capolino (solo artist) = Guitar Solo track 11
Track Listing
Life In The Key Of Z – 4:24
Turning To Stone – 4:54
Truth Is A Conspiracy Theory – 5:18
1985 (Back In Black Again) – 4:25
Lollygagging – 4:06
Bad Gab (Covid19) – 4:50
U R Y I Breathe – 5:19
Reptiles – 5:11
Dead With You – 4:59
Silly Hillbilly Love Song – 5:10
Life Sure Is Funny – 4:12
Good Women That I’ve Stood By – 5:01
More information at
https://www.revjones.com
https://www.facebook.com/RevJonesBass
