Joe Bonamassa opened for B.B. King at 12, and hasn't stopped playing since

Boston Globe

18-02-2025

He also recently released a new blues-rock single, 'Fortune Teller Blues,' with Sammy Hagar, and has a new album coming out later this year. He did find time recently to sit still long enough to discuss his music, his foundation, his guitar and amp collection, and his legacy.
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How has your writing, playing and live performance evolved over the years?
I listen to stuff I did 20 years ago and I don't even recognize myself. It's a lot less refined. I learned the fundamentals and mechanics of how to sing when I was in my twenties. My writing is better now melodically, and I sing better and with a lot more control. So live we're playing more of the stuff I've put out in the last five years, because they're just better songs.
The best songs that I've ever written come straight out of my personal experiences and things that actually happened, even though for years I was, and I still am, a very private person. I don't want to air dirty laundry, but that's what works; the names and dates have been changed to protect the innocent and/or
the guilty.
You devote a chunk of time and money to your Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation. How did that come about?
Originally, I was going in to schools to perform and talk about the blues when I was in my twenties — I'd do seminars and play some stuff. But I was taken back by the fact that every music instructor would say, 'Thanks for doing this, but we don't have any budget for music in this school.' And I would see the condition of the instruments, and I would see how the arts had gotten marginalized over the years and were so underfunded. If you have a kid interested in guitar and there's a guitar in school, let there be six strings on it. Let's start there.
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It's about the blues, but not just about the blues. To me, it doesn't matter if he wants to play like Howlin' Wolf or like
The first 10 years of Keeping the Blues Live was just music grants and all this. And then Covid hit, and I was here sitting in this house overlooking Laurel Canyon and I started getting texts from friends and peers who, financially, were not as well off as I am, saying they didn't know how they were going to pay their bills. So that's when the light went on and I said, 'Let's get active' and we raised over a million dollars to help struggling musicians. I put the first fifty grand in myself. The foundation is one of the things I'm most proud of in my life.
In terms of keeping the blues alive as a genre, are you a purist or more inclusive?
If you go back 50 or 60 years, you'll always find articles declaring the blues dead. They keep writing the obituary and then somebody comes along and gives the blues a B12 shot — Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robert Cray, Johnny Lang, Gary Clark Jr. And usually they're doing something different to bring the blues to a wider audience.
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I can find the blues in everything. I love what the Black Keys and Jack White have done with it. That's the blues, even if the kids don't realize that they're listening to blues music.
I've always preached that the blues is a giant umbrella — if you just narrow the definition to being what was happening in the '20s and '30s or in the '50s and early '60s, then everything is going to sound the same and then it will eventually go away. The genre needs to push the boundaries, the way Gary Clark or Marcus King does. The Grammys always has this problem — is it blues or is it Americana? My definition is a lot more liberal than most.
You're also known for your vast collection of more than 1,000 guitars and amps. How did you get started, and do you ever try to stop buying more?
When I was a show biz kid, my father, who was also a guitar player, had to quit his job and come on tour with me. When I was back home and in school, he started a music store selling vintage guitars. So I'm 13 years old and I would go to the guitar shows with him and I'd have money that I made playing music so I'd buy a guitar or amp and say to myself, 'If I only had an unlimited budget, imagine the kind of damage I could do.'
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Now you see a 48-year-old who's had an unlimited budget for the last 20 years, and this is what happens — I'm one of the biggest guitar collectors in the world. Every day, I say, 'Stop.' But it's an addiction.
Is it gluttonous? Yes. But if you have to ask why you need so many, then you don't understand what it's like to be a collector. Plus, I support celebrating the American music legacy. Except for the Marshall amps, everything I have is a testament to the ingenuity of this country.
My house here in Los Angeles is the main museum. I evacuated the big stuff when the fires happened, and then my manager was here on Grammy Sunday and he looked at my collection and said, 'Man, that's so impressive that you put all this back in such a short period of time.'
I said, 'This is just what I left behind.'
You've had 28 number one records, but have not yet
. Does any of that matter in terms of your legacy?
You never know where you stand until you're dead in the cold, cold ground. You're never going to be aware of it. At the Grammys, there are those who just want to grasp that trophy and it would be the flag on their Mount Everest. For me, it's different. When I wake up the next day, I just want to know, is the tour selling? Yes. Are we doing good in the community? Yes. Do I have work for as long as I want it? Yes. That's it. That's all that matters.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
JOE BONAMASSA
Feb. 28, 7 p.m. doors, show at 8 p.m., $52-$152, MGM Music Hall, 2 Lansdowne St.,