He's not going to cry. At least he's taken measures to make sure he can get through most of the show without choking up.
Jason Bonham, along with Annerin Productions, has created a live stage show with state-of-the-art sound and light, music videos, home movies and photos on giant screens.
The show is a tribute to Jason's father, the late John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin.
Jason is honouring the 30th anniversary of John Bonham's death -- Sept. 25, 1990 -- with 30 shows presented during the Led Zeppelin Experience tour.
Prince George will see the second show in the series, Saturday at CN Centre.
The band has been ranked VH1's No. 1 of 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, No. 1 on Classic Rock's 50 Best Live Acts of All Time, and BBC Two series I'm a Rock 'n ' Roll Band as best Rock 'n' Roll band of all time.
Jason is a world-class drummer in his own right, having played more than 200 shows a year for the last four years for Foreigner. He also played with Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones at Led Zeppelin's 'final' show at London's 02 arena in '07.
Jason's tribute to his dad spans John's Led Zeppelin career. Jason will be performing with video of his father so in essence they will be playing songs together.
"Some of the stuff will be pre-recorded to accompany the visual on the screen behind me," Jason said. "It's hard enough (to keep emotions in check) on some of the film footage we have - I was just watching some the other day and I haven't seen it in 30 years and in one of the scenes it's eight days before he died so it's hard, but it's also cool to see even though in the back of your mind you're thinking 'my God - eight days later he was gone.'"
The show will have its sad moments but it's going to be a celebration of the music John contributed to the world during his life, Jason added.
"He's touched so many people," he said. "It's a great honour and privilege just to do this tour."
The show will be a trip through time, Jason said. Each segment of the concert will be an hour and ten minutes long.
"The show is a trip through time and how Led Zeppelin affected my life and I will share my first memories of the band, so with interaction of some old movies on the big screens and time lines will be setting the mood with kaleidoscope visions when the songs are playing," said Jason. "It's pretty huge and pretty colossal - everybody I've explained it to says 'you're kidding me!' and you're just going to have to come and see it. Don't be one of the people who missed it because this is a one-time thing."
Jason said he'll be pretty approachable when he's in town.
"I'll be the guy walking around the whole venue and I'll be the guy with the baseball cap and glasses on - that'll be me," Jason said.
Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets.
Visit www.jblze.com to hear the touring band's version of Kashmir.
