All About Led Zeppelin Drummer John Bonham’s Son, Jason Bonham

John Bonham’s son, Jason Bonham, rocks out just as hard as he once did.

Born in England in 1966, Jason followed in his late father’s footsteps as a drummer. After learning to play at about age 5, Jason would be awoken by the Led Zeppelin member in the middle of the night to perform for his friends. “He was just very proud,” Jason recalled of his dad in UFO: Showtime.

Jason was also into dirt bikes, taking up motocross at 10 and racing on the amateur level in England. After John’s sudden death in 1980 at age 32, Jason began taking drumming more seriously. He first quit motocross at age 16 to focus on drumming to honor his memory.

Since then, Jason has worked on various musical ventures, including releasing solo albums, recording with the Grammy-nominated rock band Foreigner and joining supergroups like Sammy Hagar and the Circle. He also performed with Led Zeppelin in reunion shows and founded his tribute band, Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening (previously Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience).

Over the years, Jason has opened up about embracing his late dad’s legacy.

“Nearly every drummer in the world has my dad in their top three drummers of all time. Why run from that? I’m very, very proud,” he told Lifestyle magazine in 2018. “When somebody says, ‘Man, you played that just like the old man,’ that’s the greatest compliment that anyone can ever give me. He was the master.”

Here’s everything to know about John Bonham’s son, Jason Bonham.

He was born in England

John and his wife, Pat Phillips, welcomed son Jason on July 15, 1966.

Jason and his sister, Zoe, were raised in the village of Cutnall Green in Worcestershire, England, which Jason has said wasn’t “an affluent area.”

“I lived on a farm. We were just everyday people; Dad just happened to be in Zeppelin,” he told MotorTrend in 2019.

On his website, Jason recounted that as a child, he would play drums for his family and their friends, including Jimmy Page and band Bad Company members. Jason also shared in UFO: Showtime that they vacationed in the South of France with the Beatles.

Still, he didn’t consider his upbringing unusual because it was all he knew. Plus, according to Jason, John was “a total Gemini.” He would rock out on the road as his wild persona, “Bonzo,” but at home, he was “always dad.”

“He was this loving father figure. Someone said to me, ‘Don’t you have any bad memories of your dad?’ And I was like, ‘No,’ ” Jason said on UFO: Showtime. “I think that’s kind of nice.”

He was a teenager when his dad died

John died at age 32 on Sept. 25, 1980. He was found dead in bed at the home of Led Zeppelin’s guitarist, Page, in Windsor, England. His death was caused by aspiration of vomit following excessive alcohol consumption.

Jason was only 14 when his father died. Shortly after John’s death, Led Zeppelin released a statement saying they would not continue as a band without their drummer, and they did not, aside from a couple of reunion shows that Jason was a part of.

As a teen, Jason dedicated himself to continuing his late dad’s musical legacy but also struggled with comparisons to him. Speaking to the Argus Leader in December 2016, Jason explained that he “clouded” the pressure with alcohol and “being just a wild teenager.”

“You definitely have to realize that as much as the door will open for you with a name like that, you’re also critiqued way more than you can ever imagine. You’re in comparison with one of the greatest in the world,” he explained.

Jason continued, “I lost him at such an age that he was on such a high pedestal. My entire career has been, a lot of the time, playing with old rockers, because I’m looking for that person to reassure me and to say, ‘You did good.’ ”

He is a drummer

Since childhood, Jason has played the drums, sitting behind a small kit at age 5. Though he doesn’t remember learning how to play, Jason has fond memories of the jukebox his dad programmed and the pair jamming out to tunes together, like “Dr. John” when he was only 6.

“I feel very confident in myself that nobody else plays the drums as close to my Dad as me, basically because I was taught by him,” Jason told Oldbucke​​ye.com in 1996.

He joined his first band, Air Race, at 17. The group released one album under Atlantic Records and opened for Queen, Meat Loaf, AC/DC and Ted Nugent.

Jason later formed the band Bonham and released two albums, 1989’s The Disregard of Timekeeping and 1992’s Mad Hatter. He went on to record solo projects, Led Zeppelin tributes and an album with his aunt, Deborah Bonham.

In addition, Jason has performed with the rock band UFO, recorded with Paul Rodgers and Joe Bonamassa, toured with Peter Frampton and Heart, among other musical accomplishments.

Through it all, he has paid tribute to his father on and offstage. His Instagram bio reads, “Son of the late great John Henry Bonzo Bonham.

He’s also written birthday tributes to his dad on social media, like a Facebook post on what would have been John’s 75th birthday on May 31, 2023, that included the hashtags “#goat” and “#greatest.”

He once considered becoming a pro motocross racer

Jason almost became a professional motocross racer rather than a musician.

John bought Jason his first bike, an Auto Italijet, when he was 9, and the younger Bonham told Racer X that he was into motocross racing by age 10. He began a sponsorship and team (the latter at his father’s suggestion) with Kawasaki in 1978 and later moved to Mugen Honda.

“It really was his death that kind of turned it around again for me,” Jason said of John in UFO: Showtime, noting that his father always supported his racing dreams.

Jason revealed to Racer X that his best racing year was the one after his dad died, “which was a shame,” and despite having an offer to go pro, he left motocross at age 16.

Instead, Jason put his energy toward drumming, but after four years, he realized how much he missed racing and took it up again when he had time off from performing and touring.

After getting sober in the early 2000s, he recommitted to dirt biking and competed in amateur races every few years.

He has been with his wife for over 30 years

Jason and his wife, Jan Charteris, wed in Kidderminster, England, in April 1990.

“I was 15 when we first met [and it] took 2 years of persuasion before she would go on a date,” he wrote on Facebook in 2024. “Thank you my love for putting up with me. love you always.”

During the reception, Jason held a jam session with Led Zeppelin members Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.

Conversations about John are generally reserved for concerts rather than home.

“I really don’t talk about him to my wife. We’re English, we don’t do that,” Jason told Lifestyle. “But on stage, I am my emotions while talking to the audience.”

He is a father of two

Jason and his wife, Jan, are proud parents to two adult children, Jaz and Jager.

Jaz was born on June 23, 1993. She and her husband, Nic, married in December 2022 and have one daughter together. Jason has reflected on his fatherhood experience, including how John’s death affected his parenting style.

“1993 changed my life forever. I became a father and after [losing] mine so young I didn’t know [how] to be one other than to love her with everything I am, help her in every way I can and support her on her new adventure with her Husband Nic,” he wrote on Instagram.

Jager was born on Oct. 7, 1996. After graduating from college in the U.S. and building his résumé as a bodybuilder, he focused on music like his father and grandfather. Under the name Jager Henry, he has performed in venues like the famed Viper Room in Los Angeles and released the EP Heart of Thorns in June 2024.

When they were younger, Jaz and Jager didn’t travel with their father often, as Jason and his wife “strongly believe in the education system.”

“We don’t like to pull the kids out of school just to travel with dad on the road,” Jason told Racer X in May 2006. “It’s not fun going from the hotel to the tour bus to a new town overnight and basically living out of a suitcase.”

He has played with Led Zeppelin

When Led Zeppelin first reunited in 1988 for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert, Jason played the drums for the televised set. He joined them that year on tour and for the album Outrider.

Jason collaborated with the famed rock band again for a show at the O2 Arena in London in 2007, which was later released as a live album in 2012 called Celebration Day.

“It was a highly emotional thing because all I wanted to do was make those guys smile because to me, a smile from them was as if I was getting it from my dad,” Jason said in a 2021 episode of Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar.

To help keep his father’s memory alive, Jason founded the tribute band Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience in 2010. While they were initially slated to play just 28 shows, he has continued touring with the group to this day. (The band changed their name to Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening in 2018.)

“I never imagined doing this. The show that I created to play the music was always about telling stories,” he explained in a July 2023 interview. “It’s just about a feeling and how much the music meant to me, and just because I never got a chance to tell him while he was alive that I thought he was cool.”

He takes after his dad around the house

When Jason isn’t touring, he’s at home in Delray Beach, Fla. (The family also has a home in their native England). He and Jan bought their Floridian estate, which his wife called a fixer-upper, in 2008.

“My dad was a bit of a builder,” Jason told Lifestyle. “When he wasn’t playing and touring, he was working on houses. So, I kind of follow him in lots of ways.”