WORKING CLASS

HERO
Joe Bonamassa Tells How Loud
Amps, Heavy Strings, and Hard
Work Created His Best Record Ever
BY M AT T B L AC K E T T
JK
AT A GUITAR MAGAZINE, YOU GET A LOT OF PARENTS PUSHING
a lot of would-be guitar star kids in your face—children not
even in their teens who can play a Satriani tune or a Stevie Ray
Vaughan solo “note-for-note” (they always say that). Despite
the fact that some of these kids actually can play, it’s very rare
for any of them to rise above the level of a trained monkey. They
know the notes, but they get very little of what’s behind the
notes: the sound, the personality, the soul. And most of them
never do, because if they did, we would know about them.

One promising young kid who somehow

JK gets thoughtful. “As far as me being a prodigy,”
managed to run the gauntlet of the music biz he says, “I listen back now to myself when I
while getting his chops, tone, and tunes together was a kid, and I think I was on the line between
is on our cover this month. Joe Bonamassa was being a prodigy and just being good for my age.
one of those youngsters who could blaze There were times when I was really good and
through an SRV tune when he was 11. He pos- I excelled and there were times when I was
sessed technique and knowledge that so belied pretty bad.”
his youth that it was only natural that if peo- If he was ever pretty bad, B.B. King didn’t
ple didn’t curse him with the dreaded label of see it. King talked about Bonamassa being the
“The Next Stevie Ray,” they would at least kind of one-in-a-million talent that would be
burden him with the “child prodigy” tag that “legendary before he’s 25.” Another guy who
dragged down so many of his contemporaries. managed to catch some of Bonamassa’s good
When the discussion turns to the idea that days was Danny Gatton, who saw such a unique
he was some sort of wünderkind, Bonamassa artist that he took a 12-year old kid under his

PHOTOGRAPH BY RICK GOULD

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 COVER STORY Joe Bonamassa

wing and out on the road, providing lessons He wants to get a good sound, take a good It is very difficult to capture that energy
and advice. The guidance Bonamassa got solo, and hopefully make people happy along in a studio. The studio tends to be a very
from these two kingpins, along with jam the way. sterile environment by design. Every track
sessions with a who’s-who of blues gods, His formula is paying off. He has worked is separated. You get perfect separation of
spurred him on to practice his ass off, study with celebrated producers Tom Dowd the toms, the kick and the snare, perfect sep-
his music history, get his sound together, (Coltrane, Cream, Clapton, Allmans, etc) aration between the guitar and the bass, and
and make a go of it. and Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, obviously the vocal. And that’s not really
Bonamassa is more right than he knows Led Zeppelin). His last two albums have what blues music sounds like. There are peo-
when he says he’s good for his age. That was debuted at number one on the Billboard blues ple out there who believe that what I play is
true when he was 11 and it’s even truer now. chart. He has won GP’s Readers’ Poll award not blues, but think about blues-based music,
Even though he’s just in his 30s, he’s been for Best Blues Guitarist two years running, like Jeff Beck’s Truth, Tons of Sobs by Free, Led
gigging for 20 years and he has the depth famously tying none other than Buddy Guy Zeppelin I, The Hard Road by John Mayall’s
and power in his playing of someone with a one of those years. His tours have gotten Bluesbreakers with Peter Green, the “Beano”
lot more miles on him. He’s an old soul, and stronger every year, although he still prefers album. These are my favorite albums of all
that comes through in his bends, vibrato, the B.B. King-approved theater circuit to time in the blues-rock genre and they all
singing voice, and note choices, which—with stadiums. It makes perfect sense that Bona- have this one common trait: Everything melts
each passing year—get more restrained and massa’s new record would be called The Ballad together. The drums melt into the bass, the
refined. of John Henry [J&R Adventures], because Bona- bass and drums melt into the guitar, the vocal
Bonamassa is also good for his age in the massa is a modern-day working-class hero. is panned to one side with the reverb return
sense that he’s good for his era. He embod- Conducting this interview from the very on the other. To Kevin Shirley’s credit, he
ies a refreshing work ethic and outlook on bedroom in upstate New York where he allows for all that. Kevin deserves most of
life that says no matter how fortunate you are, learned how to play guitar at the age of four, the credit on these albums. He’s the guy who
how many breaks you’re given, or how much Bonamassa obviously has not forgotten spearheads the vision, takes me out of my
god-given talent you possess, it doesn’t mean where he came from. He’s good for his age. comfort zone, and forces me to play differ-
you don’t have to work at it. He knows there He’s good for this age. ent stuff. He also engineers the whole thing
is no free lunch (despite the fact that B.B. so that it has the sound of a live band in a
King once gave him half of his sandwich). Lots of guys can play good blues in a bar, but very room, but is separated enough that it doesn’t
He’s a dude who is willing to work for a liv- few can make a studio blues record that has 1/10th sound lo-fi. So, that’s my secret: I hire a guy
ing. He’s not chasing fame or glitz or glam. of that energy or vibe. How do you pull it off? named Kevin Shirley.

1958 Gibson 1950 Gibson ES-5 1961 Guild X-375 Early-’60s Airline 1953 Hoyer
ES-140T Regent

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Joe Bonamassa COVER STORY

G U I TA R P L AY E R A P R I L 2 0 0 9 83
 COVER STORY Joe Bonamassa

JK
BONAMASSA’S LIVE RIG
AX Gibson Inspired by Joe Bona- RACK (top to bottom) Monster AMPS (left side) Van Weelden PEDALBOARD (top row, left to
massa Les Paul. Power conditioner, Solid State Twinkle Land, Carol Ann JB-100, right)—Voodoo Lab Pedal Power
Logic XLogic Alpha Channel (for (right side) Category 5 JB Custom, (2), Whirlwind Selector, Fulltone
acoustic), Peterson VS-R Strobo Marshall Silver Jubilee. Cabs— tremolo; (bottom row, left to right)
Rack tuner, Electro-Voice wireless Mojo Musical Supply 4x12s Boss DD-3 delay, Ibanez TS808
unit, drawer with Keeley-modded perched atop Auralex Tube Screamer, Gaspedals Carb,
Boss DD-3 delay, Boss RV-5 Great Grammas. Custom Dunlop Fuzz Face (origi-
reverb, T.C. Electronic chorus, Diaz nally made for Eric Johnson), Lehle
Vibramaster. 1@3 A/B/C box, Vox wah.

Moog Theremin
with Boss delay
and Ernie Ball
volume pedal.

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 Joe Bonamassa COVER STORY

The Ballad of John Henry has a real depth to I just hit a big dropped-D D chord with a wah Your slide solo in “The Ballad of John Henry”
it, not just in the playing but in the singing too. pedal and a Fulltone tremolo. The main takes the song to an all-new place. How did that
What do you attribute that to? rhythm tone is an Ernie Ball John Petrucci come together? Are you in standard tuning?
I went through some personal problems baritone. It’s a strange choice for my style of It’s standard, but down two full-steps to
this year at home, and this record is more playing, but these are fantastic guitars. I think C. Tom Dowd used to tell me that I would
autobiographical than my past work, which people tune them down to B with lighter cheat because I play slide in open tunings.
I think is a good thing. I’ve always been shy strings, but we tune them to C and put heavy Over the years I’ve forced myself to play more
about exposing too much of my own life on strings on them and they sound fantastic. It’s in standard. When we cut that lead, I was
albums. This time, I just threw that out the almost like a Danelectro tone. just going to play a regular solo, but then I
window and wrote about true events. I used When the Dobro comes in at 0:45, there’s a happened to see a slide sitting on a music
to get really indignant as a kid when people spooky little part that sounds like harmonics. stand. I grabbed it and went for it, and I think
would say that I was too young to play the That’s rhythm guitar underneath the it has a cooler texture than if I had just done
blues. I’d say, “No I’m not! My heart’s been Dobro. Kevin grabs bits and pieces from dif- my normal blazing over the top of it. That’s
broken too!” But now, at 31, after having ferent takes and he does a lot of this stuff the cool thing about how we record. We do
gone through some more years of living, I without telling me. He puts these little tex- most of it live, and you’re reacting the way
know that there’s a sound that comes from tures in the songs. He might take something you would in a gig situation. It feels more
experience, from being in the world a little from the end of the song and put it in the like you’re playing in a venue than a studio,
bit. Hopefully I’ll sound even deeper when verse. It’s not necessarily something I played which is good.
I’m 51. We’ll see. right in that spot. We talk about this a lot. Your lead tone on “Jockey Full of Bourbon”
How did you create the tone that opens the We make records for people who buy songs sounds like it has a lot of room on it. Is that the
record on the title track? off of iTunes, but we also make records for same rig?
That was my live rig: a Marshall Silver the audiophiles, who buy them on vinyl and No. I had a bunch of my old amps in my
Jubilee, a Category 5 Super Lead-type of amp, spin them on really expensive systems with folks’ basement—probably 15 or so: my
a Two-Rock, and a Carol Ann JB-100, which $2,000 headphones. We make sure we put blond Bassman, a blond Tremolux, old
is basically a big clean amp. We set up a cou- in these little interesting things underneath Vibroluxes, etc. We shipped them out to Cal-
ple of room mics, four mics on the amps, and what you’ll hear on computer speakers. ifornia and I started setting them up. The

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G U I TA R P L AY E R A P R I L 2 0 0 9 85
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86 A P R I L 2 0 0 9 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H OTO : M A RT Y M O F FAT T
only two that still functioned after 15 years ers were willing to give. I was in a Les Paul
in the basement were the Bassman and the frame of mind. I’ve really gotten to where I
Tremolux. I hooked them up and they can finesse the Les Paul. If I want a nice clean
sounded great with a Les Paul. I turned the sound, I can get that by working the volume
amps up to 9 and miked them with Sennheiser and tone controls. Then, if I need a solo tone,
421 room mics and a couple of Shure SM57s I can turn up and it’s there.
and Beyer condensers on the cabs. All of a How do you set the controls on your Les Pauls?
sudden this massive tone came out of the con- The switch is in the middle and it’s 75
trol room monitors. I ran those with a tube percent lead pickup and 25 percent rhythm
Echoplex and an Arion chorus pedal. pickup. It doesn’t do that two-pickup thing,
The tone doesn’t sound very chorused. the Steve Cropper sound. This gives you
This company called Xotic Effects sent me more lead pickup, but it mellows out the
this thing called an X-Blender, which is an sound just a bit so it has a different tone.
effects loop for amps that don’t have loops. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the harmonics
It’s got controls for bass, mid, treble, and over- in “Funkier than a Mosquito’s Tweeter” were a nod
all volume. So I ran the tube Echoplex and to Mr. Edward Van Halen.
the chorus through this external loop and That was a nod to Van Halen. I always
blended them in subtly. You don’t really hear liked his playing, but I was more into the
the chorus, but it added this low end because English guys. It took me until later to really
you can EQ the loop, which EQs the over- appreciate how good he was. As I got more
all sound. So the bottom end, delay, and into rock, I listened to him some more and
chorus were kind of melting into the saw that he always came back to the blues
overall sound, giving it this bigness and in a weird way. His voicing was very bluesy.
dimension without an over-chorused sound. That song was also a nod to Jeff Beck. I
How did you get the boxier tone that’s on “Story hooked up what I call my Jeff Beck rig—not
of a Quarryman”? that he owned it—but this is Jeff Beck circa
That’s the same rig. Once we got the two 1972. A 50-watt Marshall head, which was
Fender amps working, I used them exclu- actually a Park 75, and an old basket-weave
sively for the rest of the sessions, which cabinet. I plugged into a Colorsound Toneben-
included the songs “Story of a Quarryman,” der (which I bought in a shop in Manchester
“Jockey Full of Bourbon,” “Happier Times,” England), a wah pedal, and a Les Paul. It’s
and “Last Kiss.” Getting those amps work- more like his Rough and Ready-era rig.
ing, though, wasn’t easy. There were times Do you have a favorite tone on your new record?
where you would have to walk into the amp The solo tone on “Happier Times.” It’s
room, hit them on the top to get them to the most expressive and the warmest, and
stop crackling, and then cut the track. I had it’s the closest to the sound that I always
to leave them on standby overnight, to just envision in my head. Everybody has a sound
run some current through them. Basically, in their head. Achieving it is always a work
the first half of the record was cut with my in progress, at least for me. When I hear that
live rig. Then we discovered this great tone song, it has the right kind of complex mids
with the Fenders and the room mics and we that I like, but it’s bright—not too dark like
used it for the second half. a jazz tone. It also has a big bottom end. That
Was that a Les Paul? tone makes the solo very expressive and
It was. I have a couple hundred guitars, heartfelt. I think some of that is in the hands,
but I’m so proud of these Gibson Inspired and some is in the way I approached the solo.
by Joe Bonamassa Les Pauls that I primarily It’s also the way the amps happened to be
used them on the whole record. I don’t plan on that particular day. That was my live rig.
on breeding, and these goldtops are like my Has your live rig changed since you made the
children. I played some other guitars. I used record?
an ES-335, I played an ES-175 on a couple It has changed subtly. I’m using one Mar-
of things, to double certain parts for a dif- shall Silver Jubilee. There’s also a Category
ferent texture so it’s not just the midrange-y, 5 Joe Bonamassa model. Those guys down
wall of Les Paul sound. I also played a Gib- in Texas at Category 5 wanted to build me
son Lucille, but no Strats or Teles on this an amp, and so I said, “Okay—build me a
record. They were there, but they just sat 1968 Marshall Super Lead with a Dumble
there. There was no reason other than the mid boost.” About six months later this amp
fact that the goldtop sounded so good, and shows up and it’s exactly what I envisioned.
the sound we were going for on the record It’s got that Billy Gibbons Super Lead tone,
was somewhat bigger than what the Fend- but with a mid boost to bring it forward. It
G U I TA R P L AY E R A P R I L 2 0 0 9 87
 COVER STORY Joe Bonamassa

Fender blender—In
addition to his live rig
(at left), Bonamassa
used a passel of vin-
tage Fender amps in
the studio.

sounds fantastic. I have a Carol Ann JB-100. from the stage. You don’t get the rumble types will break up sooner than the Fender
It has four 6L6s, it’s a 100-watt amp, and I from the stage, which is sometimes hollow, types. I like the tone you get by combining
use it for a lead tone. It’s a really nice sometimes not. It varies every day. The Great them, because you get all the articulation
midrange amp. There’s not a lot of top or a Grammas make it much more consistent by from the Fender type and then you get all
lot of bottom, but it’s really complex in the taking the stage out of the equation. I also the saturation you need for solos from the
mids and blends well with the Silver Jubilee. use these shields in front of my cabs—angled Marshall. You get the best of both worlds.
I sometimes switch the Carol Ann out with Plexiglas baffles that are shaped like an “M.” What are some examples of a good multi-amp
a Two-Rock Custom Signature Reverb. Finally, The Plexiglas has to have angles in it. If you rig, and what mistakes do players commonly make?
I just got my second Van Weelden Twinkle just use straight Plexiglas across the front, Eric Johnson is certainly an example of a
Land. I use that for my semi-distorted clean it’s going to sound very harsh and it’s not guy who got it right. He had three separate
thing, blending it with the Marshall. going to do much good at all. So I set my rigs: He had a clean rig, he had a semi-dis-
And there are two amps on at once? amps the same every night because they’re torted rig where he used the Dumble Steel
There are two heads on at any one time, always in their own little environment. The String Singer, and he had his Marshall rig,
and the Silver Jubilee is always on. The Carol tone and the volume don’t vary from room and he would switch between the three. The
Ann and the Marshall is one tone. The Mar- to room. people who get it wrong are the ones who
shall and the Category 5 is another tone, etc. Are certain amp combinations louder than think that because they have an A/B box they
The oversized 4x12 cabs I use are split ver- others? have a multi-amp rig. It’s not that simple.
tically so it’s two 12s for each head. Each The volume differences are not that great. You’ve gotta get your phasing correct. You
pair of 12s is baffled and sealed separately. There are perceived volume differences have to make sure the ground is proper. If
It’s like having 4 2x12 cabs without having because some amps have more midrange you plugged in my four heads with normal
to lug all those 2x12s. than others. Some amps have more gain than three-pronged cable, it would buzz like crazy.
Do you set the controls the same way every night? others, and some have more or less top end. You have to go through the rig with ground
I set them the exact same way every night The more midrange-y amps come out for- lifters and painstakingly figure out what to
and there are two reasons. I use these things ward more. Here’s the deal: The Van Weelden lift and what not to lift to get it as quiet as
called Auralex Great Grammas, which are stu- and the Carol Ann are 6L6, Fender-based possible. Speaker choice is also critical,
dio-designed foam pads that the amps sit on. circuits. The Marshall and the Category 5 because the key is to use the amps for differ-
You put your 4x12s on them to decouple them are Marshall-based circuits. The Marshall ent frequencies. I use EV EVM-12Ls because
88 A P R I L 2 0 0 9 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H OTO : R I C K G O U L D
 Joe Bonamassa COVER STORY

they’re true—no extra coloration, no extra Who needs six channels and 50 knobs? I big, but when you mic it up, it sounds really
overdrive. Whatever the amp gives you, the walk up to an amp like that and think, “I small. I never got that concept back then. I
EV spits out. If I’m running a lot of mids on don’t even know how to turn this thing didn’t get it until I started really listening to
the amp, the EV is going to give me those on, let alone set it so it will work.” There what each amp was doing. I’ve learned a lot
mids. The other pitfall is people just use two are some exceptions. You plug into an old since that album, and that’s what I hear when
of the same amp in stereo, and that to me is Marshall Super Lead, put a reverb on it, and I listen to it. I cringe a little bit with the vocals,
not a multi-amp setup. That’s just twice the it’s just magic. too. I wasn’t that great of a singer. I wish I
power. Another problem is a lack of power. Go back to your first album. What do you hear could make that album now. I think I could
People are constantly showing up with amps in your playing and what do you hear in your tone do a lot better and I could achieve more of
that are 18 watts, 20 watts, maybe 50 watts, when you spin that record now? the stuff I would want to hear.
and they say, “My 50 watts will beat that I know people really dig that album. It’s For your fans, that record is a crucial document
Jubilee’s 100 watts.” Well, I’ll take that Pepsi one of my biggest thrills in life and one of of where you were as a musician, warts and all.
challenge any day. Maybe you’re going to get my biggest regrets at the same time. The I used to wonder why people might like
close in perceived volume, but in clean head- biggest thrill was that I got to work with Tom it over some things that I think are better,
room—no way. You have no clean headroom. Dowd, who was like a father to me and really but I’ve learned that there’s a certain charm
The amp’s collapsing before you even begin. set the tone for the rest of my career. My in the struggle. When I hear my early work,
It takes a lot of power to drive the mids the biggest regret was that I didn’t have the skills I hear the struggle to get the notes out, to
way they need to be driven. Keeping the low at the time that were worthy of working with sing the parts, and the struggle of writing the
end tight takes a lot of power. That’s why I a guy like him. When I listen to it, I can tell tunes. I think that’s why some people are
use 100-watt amps, and that’s why I use amps that I didn’t have my rig together. I hear a drawn to it: It’s real. I’ve always toyed with
with different frequency bands. kid who was still trying to find himself and redoing the vocals on that whole album, but
Do you ever like playing through just one amp? his sound, just plugging anything into any- I haven’t because people do like it. I read an
I’m not a firm believer in one amp being thing with no idea of how it worked. I was interview with Clapton where he said he
able to do it all. Every manufacturer has what using two Marshalls and it was more volume hates the way he sounded with John Mayall.
they think is the ultimate amp—I think I and less sound. You can put amps in a room I think, “How can you hate that? You were
saw that they’re up to six channels now. and get really loud and you think it sounds on fire!” But that wasn’t what he envisioned

JJ Cale Roll On
Includes the single “Roll On” featuring Eric Clapton

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G U I TA R P L AY E R A P R I L 2 0 0 9 89
 COVER STORY Joe Bonamassa

for himself. That’s just where he was in 1966. same gauges: Ernie Balls, .011-.052. think the added mass drives the input of the
The grass is always greener for all guitarists. How does using heavier strings on your amp a little more and you get a little more
When the great players no longer have to strug- electrics affect your tone and your technique? overdrive. That matters more when you’re
gle, it’s usually bad for their music. From a tonal standpoint, you get this very going for natural power amp gain. If you plug
It really is an interesting concept. For an nice connection between the wound strings into a Boogie Dual Rectifier, there’s plenty
artist, there’s the struggle to make it, and and the unwound strings. The transition of gain for everyone and you can use what-
there’s a fire and a hunger that fuels that. between the wound and plain strings can ever strings you want.
Then, if you make it, the challenge is to keep sometimes get a little strange because you’re On a technical level, I look at it like this:
the fire and the hunger that in reality don’t going from this nice warm and inviting tone I’m not a shredder guy. I’m not fast enough
exist anymore. The whole reason those play- with low end to having no low end and a to be a shredder guy, but I have shredder ten-
ers did make it is because of that fire. It’s a very bright, fretty kind of sound. The .011s dencies that I think get in my way. I have a
very strange phenomenon. If things get too give me a smooth transition between the tendency to put in a million notes and show
easy, it definitely translates into recordings wound strings and the plain strings, so it off to the world, and that’s not usually my
and live shows. doesn’t sound like you’re playing a different best solo. So, the .011s keep me from going
Speaking of struggling, do you still string your guitar. It’s very even. I also think that when there all the time. I can ramp up to it but
electrics with .011s? you’re bending the high strings, it gives you I’m not living there, overplaying all the time.
I do. My electrics and acoustics have the a creamier sound that’s not as strident. I Tell the story of when you were at a gig as a

90 A P R I L 2 0 0 9 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H OTO : R I C K G O U L D
 Joe Bonamassa FEATURES

kid and some band’s guitarist didn’t show up. cent, Merle Travis, James Burton, Doc Wat-
It was a blues festival in upstate New York son, and all of a sudden I’m playing jazz,
that got rained out and moved indoors. One country, and bluegrass. It’s hard to quantify
of the bands’ guitarists didn’t show, so they Danny’s influence on my playing.
did this open call on the mic, the classic, “Does Lots of promising guitarists who came up
anybody play guitar?” My dad asked me if I around the same time as you have seen higher
wanted to go have some fun. I was an adven- highs and lower lows. What’s your take on that?
turous 11-year old, so I went up there and I have this theory called the Sir Edmund
played. The crowd liked it, partly because it Hillary Effect. I would rather be three quar-
was a little kid playing, but I did pretty good. ters of the way up the mountain and stay
The promoter of the show came up and intro- there for 35 years than shoot for the top of
duced me to James Cotton. I sat in with James the mountain and fail. A lot of people in this
Cotton that day and things started to snow- genre who make that last leap to see the
ball from there. That year I got to sit in with mountaintop of pop stardom—where they
Duke Robillard, Albert Collins, Clarence no longer want to play 2000 seaters and
“Gatemouth” Brown. A year later, I’m on stage want to sell out arenas and get radio—
with B.B. King and Buddy Guy and John Lee ultimately end up back at base camp. I’ve
Hooker. What a year! I had pretty much run seen it with friends back in the ’90s. They
the gamut of blues heavyweights, sharing were in these cult hippie bands and they
stages with them. I was completely blown had a couple of big hits and now they’re
away. And that rained-out blues festival was playing smaller venues than I am. How did
sort of the beginning of it all. that happen? They sold millions of albums.
All that led to you meeting Danny Gatton. But once you get into the hit business, they
What’s a good story about him? want another hit. It’s a cruel, fickle busi-
He ultimately became my quasi-mentor ness. I’m not in the hit business or even the
and guitar teacher for the last four years of blues business. I’m in the entertainment
his life. For a while there I was like the Mini- business. I’ve gotten a reputation for put-
Me version of Danny. I had a Tele, I was pudgy, ting on a good show, so people don’t come
I slicked back my hair. The coolest story is to hear one particular song. That freedom
this: I’m sitting in his Winnebago, which is is awesome. I’m happy to be at three quar-
parked outside the Cat Club in New York ters. I want to do this for the rest of my life.
City. He said, “C’mon kid. I’m gonna give I want to keep making quality records. I
you a guitar lesson.” I loved his butterscotch never had a radio hit and I probably never
’53 Telecaster. It was perfectly worn and just will and I’m fine with that. If radio wants
a perfect guitar. I always wanted to play that, to play one of my songs, fine, but there will
but this time he said, “I’m not going to let be no pretense about it.
you play the Tele. I have another guitar you Have you heard any youngsters that you
can play.” He goes into the back and brings wanted to take under your wing, to pay it forward
out Scotty Moore’s ES-295—the guitar Scotty for what Danny Gatton and B.B. King did for you?
recorded “Heartbreak Hotel” and all that stuff I’ve done that with a couple of people.
on. He said, “Today we play jazz. You’re not There’s a kid in England named Scott
allowed to play blues.” I was nervous because McKean. He’s really good. He plays a Stra-
I didn’t know anything about jazz. So he starts tocaster but I don’t hold that against him
teaching me these chords and how to walk [laughs]. He plays it in a way that’s sort of a
a bass line, etc. He looked at me and said, cross between Doyle Bramhall and Rory Gal-
“You know kid, you don’t know anything lagher. Really cool. I like his style, so I let
about jazz. You don’t know anything about him open a couple of shows. There’s a Ger-
rockabilly, you don’t know anything about man guy named Hendrik Fleischleiter and
real rock and roll like Buddy Holly, Gene Vin- he’s also really good. My favorite, though,
cent and the Blue Caps, and Chuck Berry.” isn’t a guitar player at all. He’s a harmonica
So here I am, a 13-year old kid sitting in player named L.D. Miller from Indiana. L.D.
Danny Gatton’s Winnebago and suddenly will be 15 this year, and I feel I can say this
my life went from mono to stereo. A week with certainty: He’s one of the top two or
later, he called and said, “Write these records three harmonica players in the world at any
down.” I wrote them down and bought them. age. He plays like John Popper, Little Wal-
It was stuff that influenced me for the rest ter, and James Cotton all in one. He’s got
of my life: Charlie Christian, a guy named the fire and the soul. He’s a true prodigy.
Howard Reed who played with Gene Vin- I’ve kind of helped him, like Danny helped

G U I TA R P L AY E R A P R I L 2 0 0 9 91
 COVER STORY Joe Bonamassa
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Bonamassa tears it up at the

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me. When we go on tour and pick the open- and everything. We ended the song and the
ing acts, I try to get young kids. I think that’s audience just kind of gasped, and then there
the greatest thing because if there’s not a was this eruption of applause and I got chills.
new generation of kids playing this music, I really felt like everyone in the audience
there won’t be a new generation of fans. And was feeling the emotion that I was feeling,
that will ultimately hurt guitar music and and vice versa. It was the most perfect
roots music in general. moment on a concert stage I’ve ever had.
Of all the gigs you’ve played, is there a moment We have a tape of it, and I won’t watch it
you can point to where you thought, “That might because I think it’s going to look different
be the best solo I’ve ever played”? and not be as cool as I remember it. I really
A lot of times, when I’m up there think- only care if the fans think I played well,
ing that this is the coolest feeling in the though. It’s nice to satisfy yourself, but
world, I listen back to the tapes and it’s not money’s tight for people and they’re pay-
as good as I remembered. But there was a ing good money for tickets. If they think
time on this last tour. It was in Manchester they got their money’s worth, I’ve done my
England, a sold-out show at the Academy job and we can move on to the next one.
One. We were doing “The Great Flood” off When it happens to coincide with when I
the new album. I remember hitting the think I played well, then it’s perfect—win
solo—my band came up with this great win. There are probably four or five gigs out
arrangement under the solo—and I’m out of ten where that happens, and that’s not a
there on this big stage with perfect lights bad batting average. g
92 A P R I L 2 0 0 9 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H OTO : S C OT T N E W TO N / W I R E I M AG E . C O M