"So the rumors go," says Jones. "I was in New York with Page for the RIAA Diamond awards, and he was muttering about 'Oh, Robert's doing a country album' or somethign. He didn't seem happy with it at all. I just went 'Oh, what a shame...'" Though they haven't officially parted ways, Page is set to perform several U.S. dates with the Black Crowes. Page is also slated to be part of the NetAid Giants Stadium concert on Oct. 9 -- and Plant is currently not on the bill.

"We're polite," says Jones. "We're formal. I see them for business meetings and stuff like that. We have to deal with a lot of Zeppelin business all the time, so it would be stupid to be like, 'If you want to talk to me, have your manager fax my lawyer,' and all that sort of stuff. That's dumb."

Speaking of Zeppelin business, might there be something more in the vaults that spawned last year's scintillating BBC collection?

"You never know with Led Zeppelin," Jones says. "Things keep appearing and popping up. Someone will find a tape somewhere in some vault or something. But one never knows for sure. But Jimmy presumably will have a bit more time to look for it now."

Jones certainly won't. To promote "ZOOMA"s release, he'll do a short U.S. tour, kicking off Oct. 12 in Northampton, MA and playing 13 cities before heading to Europe. Jones also hopes to return to play more North American cities during early 2000.

"It's going to be all of "ZOOMA", for a start," he says of the show. "I actually fancy doing a couple of tunes from the "SCREAM FOR HELP" soundtrack album I did a few years ago. And maybe a few Zeppelin songs, some of the ones I'm linked with, perhaps, more, if I can work out good instrumental arrangements of them. But I don't want to go into that too much; I want it to be a surprise."