John Paul Jones, the musician, was born with the name John Baldwin on January 3rd, 1946 in London, England. He was one of the founding members Led Zeppelin, IMHO the greatest rock band of all time. Jones became the most under-rated rock musician of his generation, and perhaps ever.
Jones joined his father's band at age fourteen, although he had been touring with his family since age 2. By the mid '60s he had firmly established himself in the London studios directing, arranging, and producing, as well as session work on both keyboard and bass for famous acts including both the Rolling Stones and the Supremes.
In 1968, Jimmy Page, who had met Jones when Page was in the Yardbirds and Jones was doing work as a session player, invited Jones to join him and two lads from the north country (Robert Plant and John Bonham) to form the New Yardbirds, which would become Led Zeppelin.
The rest is history.
Check out the powerful bassline in Dazed and Confused. Or the boogie hard rock basslines in What Is and What Should Never Be (my favorite), Good Times Bad Times, and Hey Hey What Can I Do. Or the fun rock piano in Hot Dog and Fool in the Rain. Or the organ in All My Love (classic organ solo and great bass work too) and Your Time is Gonna Come. Or everything else Zeppelin put out. Then I dare you not to get our your knees and worship him. Or at least understand his kickassitude.
After Zeppelin broke up in 1980 with the death of Bonham, Jones' career lived on in the studio and otherwise. He did more production and arrangement work and even scored some films, like The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb.
Sadly enough, Jones's most noteworthy public appearance since Led Zeppelin was playing bass with Lenny Kravitz on Are You Gonna Go My Way at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards show. Much to fans' chagrin, he was not involved in the Robert Plant/Jimmy Page Zeppelin reunion tour, Unledded.
In 1999, Jones finally recorded a solo album, Zooma.
Just as one last example of his greatness, here's a semi comprehensive list of bands he worked with before and after Led Zeppelin:
Pre-Zeppelin:
Post-Zeppelin session work:
Information taken from:
http://www.allmusic.com/
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1509/jpjsite.html