Joe Bonamassa Interview: Influences, Touring and Gear

By: Brian D. Holland

Guitarist Joe Bonamassa is quickly becoming one of the hottest young bluesrock performers on the scene today. Along with an electrifying style and hard driving sound, he has an amazing knack for mixing the old with the new and paying homage to past blues and rock idols.

Joe has a concentrated understanding of genre roots, primarily because he was exposed to the music at a very young age. He was handed his first guitar at age four. Since age 21, when his first solo record was released, it has been life in the fast lane for Smokin’ Joe Bonamassa, and it appears he won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

Some of Joe’s album titles are the song titles of other performers, such as 2000’s A New Day Yesterday, 2003’s Blues Deluxe, and 2004’s Had To Cry Today. These titles, by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Rod Stewart (Jeff Beck Group), and Steve Winwood (Blind Faith), respectively, are covered on the albums as well. It’s no requirement by any means, as his compositions are worthy enough on their own. However, Joe loves to parade the music of his idols and influences, live and on record.

It’s not unusual to hear an introduction reminiscent of the sweet wailing notes within Jeff Beck’s volume manipulated “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers,” or even the signature riffs to the conclusion of Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do.” These little bits and pieces add flavor, spice, and a flash of deja vu to his live shows, and put smiles upon faces of fans who suddenly recall the compelling riff from yesteryear.

Rocked up or downright bluesy, Joe’s style reveals no limitations. Whether he’s playing one of his two Les Pauls, the Gibson ES-335, the gold sparkle Stratocaster, his signature Gigliotti GT, his Chandler LectraSlide, or even his acoustic, his tone is full and vibrant, live or on record.

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Brian Holland: How’s everything going, Joe?

Joe Bonamassa: Everything’s going real good. It’s good to be in Memphis for the blues awards. I’m here to judge, and I’m on the board of directors of The Blues Foundation. We’ll next go to D.C. to do an XM radio spot, and then we’ll be in England.

Brian: Some say you’re the hottest blues rocker on the scene today.

Joe Bonamassa: Well, I’m very flattered by it, but there are a lot of good players out there right now. Walter Trout for one. We’re just trying to do a different spin on the blues; we’re taking it in a different direction, but still making it blues, you know.

Brian: You’ve been nominated by the readers of BluesWax Magazine as Blues Artist of the Year.

Joe Bonamassa: I won last year and I’m nominated again this year. It’s a tremendous honor; there are so many great ones out there. And the fact that they even nominate or pick me is very much an honor.

Brian: What got you into the guitar?

Joe Bonamassa: My dad put a guitar in my hands when I was like four. He was a guitar dealer, so there were always guitars around the house. It just kind of happened like that.

Brian: What got you into the blues?

Joe Bonamassa: My dad had a great record collection. I’d just sit there on weekends, pull stuff out, and listen to it. Most of it was blues, and stuff like Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Bluesbreaker stuff, Paul Kossoff, and Jeff Beck.

Brian: Supposedly, you opened for B.B. King when you were 11-years-old.

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. It was great. He gave me my big break.

Brian: You’ve toured extensively with B.B. King since. Has that helped in developing your own playing style?

Joe Bonamassa: That, and it has helped me to develop into the artist that I am. Just the way in which he carries himself, and how humble yet powerful he comes off, how generous he is with all the fans, along with his playing and singing. I’ve learned so much from that guy.

Brian: You’ve also played with John Lee Hooker and a few other blues greats.

Joe Bonamassa: Yes. I played with John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, James Cotton, and people like that. Playing with John Lee Hooker was a thrill.

Brian: What about basic learning and theory? Did you take lessons?

Joe Bonamassa: I took a few lessons when I was real young from this guy named Mike Yell, who was a classical instructor at Juilliard. He’d come to upstate New York and teach in the summertime. I took a few lessons from him, but I was self-taught mostly, an ear player.

Brian: Bloodline, made up of you, Miles Davis’ son Erin, Robby Krieger’s son Waylon, and Berry Oakley Jr., how’d you hook up with them?

Joe Bonamassa: I met them by chance in California in 1991, when I was doing a Fender tribute concert. I was like thirteen. They were about four or five years older than me. I did Bloodline for six years, and then I released my first solo record when I was 21.

Brian: You weren’t actually part of the bloodline, or that musician’s kid bond. Did that ever make you feel apart from them?

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah, but I looked at it as being my band. My manager put it together, and it was my record deal. So I really didn’t feel out of place. It was fun, and they were good guys and were my friends.

Brian: Your mother was your booking agent at one time?

Joe Bonamassa: My mother booked my shows originally, before William Morris took over about ten years later. We originally kept it all in the family.

Brian: Your father was a road manager and guitar dealer when you were young? Was that advantageous?

Joe Bonamassa: It was good for my guitar collection. [Laughing]

Click to Check Out the Joe Bonamassa Signature Les Paul at Musician's Friend

Brian: Yeah, I bet. I had read somewhere that you were playing Voodoo Child when you were 6-years-old.

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. That was the only song my parents said I was good at. [Laughing] I had learned it note for note off of the record. They thought the record was playing when they passed the room, but then realized that there were no drums or bass.

Brian: A New Day Yesterday is an excellent collection of songs. Besides your own, you get into Warren Haynes’ “If Heartaches Were Nickels,” Jethro Tull’s “A New Day Yesterday,” Rory Gallagher’s “Cradle Rock,” and Free’s “Walk In My Shadows.” How’d you go about picking those songs?

Joe Bonamassa: Those were my favorite songs growing up. They really were. A New Day Yesterday was a standup record from Tull. I just loved that song, and I thought I could do a really good job with it. “Walk In My Shadows” was one of my favorite Free songs. I just kind of took it from there.

Brian: Have there been any changes in the band lineup since the DVD?

Joe Bonamassa: Yes. My drummer is Bogie [Bowles] now, who just got off the road last year with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Mark Epstein is the bass player. ,p>

Brian: Is there anything new on the horizon?

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. We just finished a record a couple of weeks ago. Jason Bonham played drums and Carmine Rojas played bass. It sounds a lot like a refined A New Day Yesterday.

Brian: Why a refined A New Day Yesterday?

Joe Bonamassa: The production is a little bigger and a little more sophisticated. It’s being mastered right now.

Brian: You have the ability to sing well and play an instrument in an extraordinary manner. Does one take away from the other, or is there a happy medium?

Joe Bonamassa: I absolutely think that one helps the other. Doing all of the singing takes pressure off of having to play all the time; when you play something it means more. Playing also takes pressure off of singing all the time, so it means more when you sing something. That’s the way it works.

Brian: Have you ever taken vocal lessons?

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. I still do.

Brian: Your studio recordings are loaded with impressive solos and jams. Are they always thought out and prearranged, or are they sometimes improvised and spontaneous?

Joe Bonamassa: I think they’re mostly improvised jams. The arrangements are thought out, but there’s always a block of time where I just see what happens.

Brian: I noticed you have a message board on your website. Have you found that to be beneficial?

Joe Bonamassa: Oh, yeah. We get a couple of hundred hits a day.

Brian: Do you ever participate in it?

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. I get on there. I just did a book for Cherry Lane, a songbook for them. They asked me to pick twelve of my favorite songs off of six albums. I told them that I have my favorites, but then I put it to a vote on the message board. It filled up a couple of pages.

Brian: It seems difficult for a blues-rock guitarist to be contemporary in today’s music scene. However, you appear to be succeeding at it pretty well. Is there a secret to the popularity factor?

Joe Bonamassa: You’ve got to be different, honestly. Don’t play the same old shit. You have to cross over into different kinds of music, which even total blues purists kind of tell you that. If it all starts with the blues…I mean, Clapton is blues, and he plays in front of thousands.

Brian: You, Warren Haynes, and a few others possess the ability to cut loose and wail, breaking genre boundaries in a raw and powerful, yet refined manner. I think it’s a trait many blues-rockers shy away from these days. They tend to be too tame.

Joe Bonamassa: Too tame or too Stevie Ray Vaughan cloned. A lot of guys take the minimalist approach, and ultimately, people have heard it before.

Brian: In my opinion, it’s like a breath of fresh air to hear blues-rock done in a powerful and rocked up manner, yet tasteful and with good tone.

Joe Bonamassa: You have to kind of bust the seams out of the blues, and make it so it’s not the same old thing over and over again, so people are excited and not bored.

Brian: Do you utilize a certain formula for setting up stage equipment in venues of different sizes, such as volume levels and amp preference?

Joe Bonamassa: No. Everything stays the same no matter what venue we’re in. I use a plexi-glass shield over the guitar amps. We’ll do a 200 seat venue or a 2000 seat theater and it works fine for both. Not one person has ever been driven out either. There’s no blast going forward.

Brian: You’ve toured Europe extensively. In comparison to the U.S., how well are you accepted over there?

Joe Bonamassa: It’s really good. We’ve toured there for two years and we’ve already equaled the following we have here in the States. We went over there and people knew us right away. It was a big deal.

Brian: You tour quite a lot. You obviously enjoy playing live.

Joe Bonamassa: Yes, I do. It’s what helped to build my following.

Brian: I hear a lot of inspiration in your music. I sometimes hear Rory Gallagher, Danny Gatton, Eric Johnson, Hendrix and Stevie Ray…

Joe Bonamassa: … Martin Barre, a little bit of Jeff Beck, too.

Brian: Yeah! In “Don’t Burn Down That Bridge” I hear a little Leslie West, and some Led Zeppelin in “The River.”

Joe Bonamassa: Yeah. I steal from everybody. [Laughing]

Brian: And it all sounds great, too.

Joe Bonamassa: Thanks, Brian.

Brian: What music are you listening to at the moment?

Joe Bonamassa: I’m listening to a lot of Miles Davis, like Bitches Brew, some cool Michael McDonald stuff, and some Rod Stewart.

Brian: Do you get into any of the new artists currently on the scene?

Joe Bonamassa: I like that System Of A Down band. I think they’re so good, very progressive, in a Yes or Genesis kind of vibe, only heavy metal. Other than that it’s slim.

Brian: Out of your own catalog, what’s your favorite song to play live?

Joe Bonamassa: I think ‘Blues Deluxe’ probably.

Brian: Did you enjoy working with Ozzy Osbourne on For What It’s Worth, for inclusion in his box set?

Joe Bonamassa: I never really met him, but it was a fun track to be on. It gives me some metal credibility, to be able to say I was on an Ozzy Osbourne record.

Brian: Do you have any advice for young players today?

Joe Bonamassa: Be yourself and try not to get overwhelmed by your influences. Obviously, everybody’s influenced by somebody, but I think what happens is that many get overwhelmed by their influences to the extent of becoming clones. It’s cool to hear a little Jeff Beck influence, or whomever, but it isn’t cool to become an exact clone.

Brian: Is there a certain process you use when recording your studio albums?

Joe Bonamassa: No. I just use my live rig and a couple of other amps. I use a Dumble in the studio. Kevin Shirley produced my last album; he’s an awesome producer. We really went for that big, round Marshall kind of tone, from an old plexi Marshall and a Budda. We used Pro-Tools. But I did three records in analog and I can’t hear the difference.

Brian: Tell me about your gear.

Joe Bonamassa: I’m pretty simple now. I pretty much use a Les Paul as my main guitar. I use an aged ’59 Historic Tom Murphy Les Paul with real PAFs, which is cool. I’ve got two of those. I use some old Strats and my signature Gigliotti GT and Chandler LectraSlide.

Amps are mainly Budda and Marshall. This is in the studio. On the road I use a more complex setup because I need to do songs from 5 or 6 different albums. I add a clean amp and a second Marshall, stereo effects, you know. I use a Silver Jubilee Marshall, a 100 watt Super Lead, two Budda Superdrives, and a Dumble.

I use a Boss DD-3 for delay (with dials set at twelve o’clock); it’s my favorite. I use a Carl Martin Hot Drive’n Boost, a Vox Wah, and a Korg G4 Leslie Pedal. I own 156 guitars. I have about 15 Strats, probably 10 or 11 Teles, and 10 Les Pauls. I have one McCarty model Paul Reed Smith. I use Dean Markley, 11 to 52, nickel wound strings. I love them; they’re the best ever.