Does John Paul Jones have a low profile Twitter account that he uses to search for mentions of himself and like posts about a reality TV dating show?
The Twitter account @JohnPaulJones has existed since January 2013 but has never posted any tweets nor added a profile picture or a bio. It does have Jones’ official website listed on the account, but it’s not linked to from Jones’ official website.
So it this Jones’ Twitter account? Or is it an imposter pretending to be him? We decided to investigate and assembled all the evidence for the account being Jones and the clues against it being him.
FOR: It only follows niche music accounts
The accounts followed by @JohnPaulJones fit with Jones’ interests. Currently, it follows three accounts: Two sites about digital music and a German electronic musician. That fits with Jones’ well-documented interest in pioneering music technology.
Interestingly, the @JohnPaulJones account used to only follow two accounts: One of the digital music sites and also LedZepNews. Awkwardly, LedZepNews’ Twitter was hacked back in 2020 and briefly converted into “Caravan News”. The hackers managed to block the @JohnPaulJones account, forcing them to unfollow us. Whoops!
FOR: It’s followed by Jason Bonham and one of Jones’ former bandmates
The @JohnPaulJones account is only followed by 575 people but that list includes some names that lend credibility to the theory that it’s actually Jones. Jason Bonham, John Bonham’s son who performed as part of the band in Led Zeppelin’s 2007 reunion show, follows the account with his verified official profile.
Another follower is Deathprod, the musical pseudonym of Helge Sten who performed with Jones and released an album with him as part of their Minibus Pimps project.
The account is also followed by Norwegian musician Susanna, who recorded with both Jones and Sten back in 2014.
AGAINST: It was excited about an Australian dating show
The @JohnPaulJones account may not have sent any tweets but it has liked several posts over the years. The most recent tweet liked by @JohnPaulJones is a little surprising if we believe it’s actually Jones.
The account liked a February 17 tweet sent by All 4, a TV streaming service in the UK, promoting the return of “Married at First Sight Australia”. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s an Australian reality TV dating show where strangers marry each other upon first meeting.
This doesn’t really seem like something Jones would enjoy, but maybe he has a secret love of reality TV (or maybe he liked the post by mistake).
Update: Hours after this article was published, the @JohnPaulJones account unliked the All4 post.
Another tweet liked by the account reads “Wonder what John Paul Jones is up to right now”. That seems to be the result of whoever runs the @JohnPaulJones account searching for “John Paul Jones” on Twitter. Does Jones, the ultra-talented musician, sit at home searching for himself on the internet? Again, that seems unlikely.
FOR: It’s interested in orchestras and Jones’ solo career
Other tweets liked by @JohnPaulJones seem like the sort of thing that Jones would be interested in. It liked a March 7, 2019 tweet from the Philharmonia Orchestra sharing a link to a New York Times interview with Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen.
We know Jones is a big fan of orchestras and modern classic music, just look at his ongoing opera project Ghost Sonata, and there’s also a connection between Jones and Salonen.
Salonen has worked repeatedly with Anssi Karttunen, a member of Jones’ band Tres Coyotes. Indeed, his name is mentioned three times on their website.
Other tweets liked by the @JohnPaulJones account are directly related to Jones work. The account liked a little-noticed 2016 tweet from promoter Gill Graham who is working with Jones on his opera. In the tweet, Graham poses next to Jones who seemed to be handing over his completed opera score.
Another tweet liked by @JohnPaulJones is one sent by us in January sharing a link to our article revealing that Jones has been working on a new film soundtrack.
AGAINST: It’s not linked on Jones’ official website
If the @JohnPaulJones account was legitimate, you’d expect it to be beside links to his other social media accounts on his official website. But it’s not there. Instead, only his verified Facebook and Instagram pages are listed.
However, that doesn’t rule out the Twitter account being legitimate. Let’s look at the YouTube channel “JPJOfficialYT”. It only has a single video and 374 subscribers but it definitely belongs to Jones. The video it uploaded of his Manson Signature E-Bass is used on the Manson website. And that YouTube account isn’t linked on Jones’ website either.
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