An exception is John Paul Jones, the former Led Zeppelin bassist, who releases his first solo album today. Entitled ''Zooma,'' it's a pedal-to-the-metal instrumental disc that sounds like a bassist's answer to the heaviness of rock-jazz guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.

''What I really like doing is playing loud and fast and noisily,'' Jones says from his home in London. ''That's the way this record had to be.''

Jones, who brings his first solo tour to the Paradise on Oct. 14, plays flashy, bass-boogie runs on the title track (in which he sounds like Les Claypool of Primus), adds a rumbling bass line to the aptly named ''Grind,'' and rocks with a customized 10-string bass and bass lap steel on ''Goose.'' Elsewhere, he adds organ (which he also played with Zeppelin), electric mandola, and some otherworldly effects from his Kyma system - a computer sound design system that resynthesizes sound and may induce acid flashbacks for those who remember such things.

''It was always going to be an instrumental record,'' Jones says. ''I knew if I got a singer, it wouldn't be my music. And I'm not interested in the rock song format that much anymore. I like when other people do it, but I'm not interested myself."

Still, it's evident that Jones has kept abreast of contemporary music. He has Paul Leary, guitarist with the Butthole Surfers, playing on one song. And when you ask him about '90s bands, he appreciates the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tool, and Morphine, whose bassist, Mark Sandman, was a rock minimalist with a primal feel. ''It was terribly sad to lose him,'' Jones says of Sandman's death this summer.

The new album follows many years of Jones serving as producer for such bands as the Butthole Surfers, Diamanda Galas, Mission UK, Heart, and Elephant Ride.

''With producing, though, the amount of effort that I'd put in just didn't seem worth it,'' says Jones. ''By the time the album would come out, the A&R [artist and repertoire] guy would be fired and the record would fall by the wayside.''

Jones then went into touring again and backed Galas on the road in 1994. 'I was standing on a small stage and thought, `This is why I became a musician. Maybe I could do this again - make my own album and tour behind it."

His new band is a trio including drummer Terl Bryant (who has been with Bauhaus and Aztec Camera) and Chapman stick player Nick Beggs. ''He can do the bass parts when I'm doing the steel guitar parts,'' Jones says. ''And I'm bringing the Kyma system, because that works in real time and I can use it on stage.''

Jones has had an active post-Zep career, but remains disappointed that Zep band mates Jimmy Page and Robert Plant didn't tell him they were going on the road as Page and Plant. ''It was more a lack of courtesy than anything else,'' says Jones. ''I guess Plant didn't want it to be like Led Zeppelin, though they're doing a lot of Zeppelin songs. But, really, once there was no more John Bonham, there was no more Led Zeppelin.''

Bonham was the Zeppelin drummer whose 1980 death broke up the band. And Jones misses him to this day. ''I was in the best band in the world - and it was hard to even think of a drummer after Bonzo,'' he says, using Bonham's nickname. ''In fact, I wrote the drum parts on my album and a lot of the ideas came from how we used to interact. He was a very musical drummer. He could hit hard, but temper it with a lot of detail.''

For proof, Jones cites the ''BBC Sessions,'' a Zeppelin album of 1969 radio broadcasts released last year. ''Normally, the only time I heard Bonzo was live on stage or on bad bootlegs. So it was really nice to hear him recorded well,'' says Jones. ''We were a really cocky band just oozing attitude back then.''

Jones is still oozing some of that attitude 30 years later.

'I don't have to work at all, as you can imagine,'' he says of the financial success from Zeppelin. ''But, as a musician, I feel the need to get out there again.'' And, yes, he's planning to do a couple of Zeppelin songs on the road ''as long as I can do instrumental versions of them.''