Joe Bonamassa Quotes

My goal for ‘Black Rock’ was pretty simple: I wanted to make the feel-good record of the summer.

I think what I do really well is that I can ‘chameleon‘ myself into many styles at a very fast pace, sometimes in the same verse of a song.

The fact that I tour religiously in the spring, religiously in the fall, and do 125 shows – you can set your watch to that. And you could have set your watch to that in 2000 or 1999, and you can set your watch to it in 2012.

Greece is so beautiful and inspiring.

I’m probably a more intentional acoustic player than I am an electric player because of lack of influences. I just play acoustic to see what happens.

Some people don’t like me at all. But… whatever. It comes with the territory.

I don’t really do scales… I mean, I play parts of them, but then I bail and start playing parts of other things. The term ‘scale’ feels very scripted to me because I’m an improv player.

When you’ve done so many records in 20 years like I have, you’re going to have ebbs and flows and go through peaks and valleys.

Basically, 2011 was the hardest year on the road for me because I did a spring tour and a fall tour plus nine weeks in the summer, and I was pretty worse for wear by the time I got home in December. I know I was only 34, but that was a tough lap.

I like to be in the room with players that are better than me. That’s always a good place to be.

I think great music sells records, and I also think, do you want to be a reality star, or someone that actually has credibility? Because you can’t have both.

One of these days, when I get tired of it all, I’ll keep six guitars and the amps I’m using, and I’ll have a big old auction for charity.

I have a 1969 Grammer Johnny Cash acoustic guitar, and it’s so inspirational.

There are good ’59 Les Pauls, and there are not-so-good ones. There are ones that are just OK, that don’t sustain as well.

That’s the thing about the blues: It’s one thing to hit a note on a guitar. To make it matter is something else altogether.

I’ve really gotten over pedals. I can’t keep up with this craze of boutique pedals that make you sound like everything but your guitar. I can’t get my head around it.

When you play a gig in Poland or Australia, or you play a gig in Toledo, they all clap at the same parts of the show. They’re clapping for the solos in the exact same way.

British blues was my favorite music, and it still is.

I never had this ego where I must write everything. I’m not Bob Dylan.

As far as actual playing, Clapton – by far – is my biggest influence, and you can tuck Jeff Beck underneath that.

Who’s to say a blues man can’t play rock and roll?

I dislike all those cookie-cutter Nashville songs. You know the ones: about tight jeans and pick-up trucks.

Doing the acoustic at Carnegie is basically advised because electric music tends to get, let’s just say, acoustically unsound.

I don’t have any legato skills; I could never figure out how to roll the notes off.

When I write for an album, I’ll always have about 30 different types of instrument around me. I set them up in a small room with my computer running GarageBand, which is always set to record.

I’m a kooky collector and own a couple of hundred guitars.

It’s nice just to be able to go out and, basically, be able to play other types of music and not have any pressure to almost explain it and justify why you did. I just do it because I like to have some fun.

That’s right, I take vocal lessons – done it for years. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Nothing I’m doing musically is revolutionary in any way, shape, or form.

I really loved being able to perform my songs and sing them myself.

Most blues guitar players don’t concentrate on singing and melodies. And forget about the bridge – the bridge doesn’t exist. They go straight for the solo.

I am the poster boy for brick-by-brick foundation building. Play a club. Put on a good show for 35 people. Come back. Build your market. Have people talk about you.

I’ve never been known as a riff kind of artist.

Jimi Hendrix is a classic example of a player in which everything he did, it was all in his hands.

When you’re 12 and, you know, slightly overweight and – for lack of a better word – white, and you’re playing blues, you get a lot of press.

A great solo is one that’s so frail that it actually teeters on the edge of falling apart, but doesn’t.

To sell out London‘s Hammersmith Apollo is amazing. Selling it out for two nights? Even better.

You know who I’d like to open for? This will be a surprise, but I’ll tell you who: Iron Maiden.

Being a niche kind of artist, you’re not going to make a lot of friends in the traditional music biz.

The blues, the way it’s interpreted, is always a product of your environment, and so it’s almost like food. You know, it’s like you use the ingredients, and you use your life experiences that you have.

I’m a self-loathing slide player. Some people like the way I play slide – I hate it.

There’s great cars, and then there’s Aston Martins. Same thing for the 1959 Les Paul – it’s an authentic piece of art that can never truly be replicated, and its mysteries are special.

If it wasn’t for guys like Gary Moore, I wouldn’t exist. He not only proved that the blues could rock but it could draw a crowd as well. All of which made a huge impression on me.

The first thing you realise very quickly when you decide to do an acoustic version of an electric song is your solo either becomes either very truncated, very different, or non-existent, because even if you play a clean solo, it’s different with the Kryptonite… with the acoustic.

A guitar is so tactile, and when you’re playing bends – and bending notes is a big part of my style – there are so many notes within the note you’re bending from and the note you’re bending up to.

That’s where the Black Keys and Jack White have succeeded and I’ve failed: They’ve actually convinced college kids that they’re listening to hip music – but it’s just blues twisted a new way – while I’m playing for the college kid‘s parents.

My first memory of guitar was seeing my father play one.

All I’m trying to do is simply play guitar and elicit this creativity from the instrument.