John Paul Jones' Zeppelin relief

John Paul Jones is "happy" that Led Zeppelin didn't reform.

It had been planned for the veteran group to reunite - possibly without singer Robert Plant - last year, but the idea was later scrapped and the bassist went on to join super-group Them Crooked Vultures with Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, a move John Paul admits wouldn't otherwise have been possible.

He said: "Jimmy Page and I rehearsed a bit with Jason Bonham and we couldn't really agree on singers and that fell by the wayside. Then this came along and to be honest, I'm really happy."

The musician admits he was already a big fan of ex-Nirvana drummer Dave's abilities before they decided to work together.

He added to BBC 6 Music: "I immediately recognised that this was a drummer that was a: really good, and b: groovy, and c: listened, all those nice things that bass players like in drummers."