John Paul Jones on his management, record label (interview part 22 of 22)

This is the final part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: What different managers have you had since 1980?

JPJ: I just had two. I had nobody for a while. I had Peter [Grant] for a while, but I didn’t see much of him, and he turned out to be in sort of a strange period at that time. So I got managed in the mid ’80s with Brian Eno’s management, which was Opal Entertainment. Then around the beginning of the ’90s, they kind of wound down, so I got Opium. …Great eccentrics and wonderful people in the English music scene.

SPS: What drew you to Discipline Global Mobile? That’s tough to say [to pronounce].

JPJ: It is, it is. I just really like the ethic. I kind of wondered whether I should go to a major [label] and just didn’t… was disheartened with the whole music scene, which was one of the reasons I really didn’t want to … "Where’s the singer? Where’s the singer?" And we were looking for an outlet really, and [manager] Richard [Chadwick] just said to me, "I just found this label, Discipline. It’s a strange one but strange ideas." And I read all about it, and I thought, "It’s a great one!" The artists have their own work? It’s indefensible that they don’t own their work? I liked it. And they had really good distribution to small key distributors who like the music, and all. And I thought, "This is the place for me!" OK, so you don’t get the big contract. There’s no price to pay working with … But you gotta do the work and you don’t get, you know, there’s no big advances. You have to do a lot of stuff yourself, but you do what you like. Make all the records you like. So I just like that style of approach for it. This is for me.

SPS: What influence has Robert Fripp had on you musically?

JPJ: Probably only his commitment, I suppose.

Two other portions of the interview not included in these 22 transcript segments include:

• John Paul Jones on the pointlessness of a Led Zeppelin reunion
• John Paul Jones on his lack of input as to where he tours