Joe bonamassa

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast
Why Guess Today because guitarists extraordinary? Joe Bonamas, Joe, thank
you for having me, Bob. This is like a real honor.
You know, I've been a fan of your work for
twenty years, you know, and the fact that like I'm

(00:29):
on your radar is it's it's it's a real it's
a real treat. You know. I even set you an
email saying, hey, thanks for the kind words about my song.
You know, you don't get that every day, not around
here at least, I don't get positive feedback like that
every day. So, Joe, you're doing a live stream in
a couple of days. Tell me how that came to be. Well,
you know, we all we've just been sitting around for

(00:52):
five months and we're bored, and you know, and now
is the thing. It's like, well, how do you promote
a record in the traditional avenues of promoting the record
are not available to you like we would we would
start playing songs traditionally off a new album a month
two months before a tease, three or four songs, and

(01:13):
everybody kind of oh, you know, can't wait for October.
Well we haven't toured since March, and we decided to
do this pay per view at the Rhyme and and
we're gonna debut the record, you know, start to finish
in order, which we've never done before. And it's a
way to promote the record. It's also a way to
raise some money for charity. Um, because I've been I've

(01:34):
been doing this thing, uh for the last few months
called fueling Musicians, And it's basically because I've been very
fortunate my career and I can weather the storm and
you know, hopefully come out the other side doing okay. Um.
But a lot of my friends in the music business,
especially in the blues business, are really struggling to find
ways to pay their bills until we're allowed to come back.

(01:58):
So it was a win win on both sides. We
get to promote the record, raise some money for a
good cause, and hopefully, you know, make some people happy
in a time where we need that. Tell us more
about the philanthropy, the charitable end of the show. Well,
the whole thing about it is We've had this thing
called Keeping the Blues Alive Foundations. You know, it's a

(02:21):
nonprofit for about seven or eight years, and you know,
through our cruise and you know, just just raising money
in the private sector. We were able to you know,
come up with about six hundred thousand dollars in which
we were you know, given away to schools and music programs.
Since then, we've raised over a million dollars because were

(02:42):
five thousand has coming the last few months and we've
been given it away to musicians. So when you buy
the hundred dollar package, um of you get your you know,
you get your face, cardboard face in a seat, you know,
and stuff like that. That's really to me. You know,
like like a portion of that money is going to
go directly to musicians in need, and a lot of

(03:04):
them are represented. Ten of them at least are represented,
you know in the after show, like people like Tired
Bryant and all of our friends from you know, Keeping
the Blues Alive, pass cruises and whatever. We've helped people,
and you know, again, it's like philanthropy. If you're lucky
enough to be able to do it, Now is the time.
Now is the time to step up and make a difference. Okay,

(03:25):
keeping the Blues alive. From your viewpoint, what is the
state of the blues and can blues survive? And come back.
You know, they've been writing this article since the sixties.
Is Blues dead? You know? How how do you kill
off something that never was? You know, like it's one
of those things where like, you know, is the Blues dead?
Is the blues still relevant? Is the blues this is?

(03:47):
It's like, you know what, here's the thing keeping the
blues alive. The blues is how you make it. You know,
every ten years there's a Gary Clark Jr. That comes
along and and gives it a B twelve shot in
the butt, and all of a sudden is the new
blues boom question mark? And then and then somebody you
know that it kind of fades and rides the wave

(04:08):
and then and then you know, something else comes along,
and then somebody else like you know, you know, uh,
Chris stone Ingram kingfish Ingram. Well, he'll make a definitive
record that changes his life, you know, and then they'll
be right in the same thing about him in five
or ten years that they wrote about me in oh nine,
and they wrote about Gary Clark Jr. In two thousand,

(04:29):
you know, like two thousand. To me, at the end
of the day, Um, it's not a question of is
the Blues dead. What's the status of the blues. It's
just who's gonna who's gonna give it the B twelve
shot that comes along every decade. And you know my
turn was in O nine in ten and and you

(04:49):
know Gary's was five six years ago, or you know,
three years ago, and it'll be somebody else's to take
in five years, you know. So that's that's what I. Okay,
we'll get back there, but let's stay with the live show.
So the live show is Sunday the twenty at one pm.
How did you decide on one pm? That's uh, four
pm East coast, one pm West coast. We need sell

(05:12):
packages in Guam. Apparently I'm big and Guam, you know.
So the whole thing is is we decide it's three
pm Central, so before percent, you know, four pm on
the East coast, Uh, you know, you know, one one
pm on the West coast. Plus Europe, it'll be like
just after dinner, eight o'clock, nine o'clock. You know, we
have a lot of fans in like Moscow. St. Petersburg

(05:33):
will be ten eleven o'clock. And then also it would
be like wake up to Joe Bonamassa and friends, in
Australia and you know New Zealand and Hawaii and all
that stuff, and and so we decided to kind of
try to just play the whole globe. What would be
the best time to play this gig where everybody has

(05:54):
a good chance to watching it as it goes down.
Now it will be on it will be on the UH,
it will be on the interwebs and on our our
our our stream for seven days, so you can watch
it anytime after you you know, if you buy it,
you can you don't have to watch it as it
goes down. You can watch it the next day at
your convenience. But we've just figured, you know, three pm

(06:15):
Central would be a good starting point. We're just guessing.
We're making this up as we go along about you know,
That's why I'm asking, we're informing everybody the whole live
performance world is in transition. How do you decide on
the rheman selfishly? It's a block from a house, okay,
and to what degree do they have infrastructure? To what
degree do you have to bring in your own UH equipment? Well,

(06:39):
ever since this thing started, um, you know, you walk
by the Rhyman and there's there's TV trucks, you know,
um out there almost daily, you know, so they've been
live streaming, people have been doing special events there. Um,
it's a very special place for me because it means
the world that I get to play there. Um, you know,
I have posters on my wall that' say you know,

(07:00):
you know the next three nights Joe Bonamassa live at
the Rhemans. This was inen and that we did one
last year and and it's a beautiful place. It's it's
something that I never thought I would achieve in my career. Going, man,
I could. I literally can walk to work and it's
the Rhyman Auditorium. And I know a lot of people
in this town, a lot of people that don't live here, going, man,
if I could just play the Rhyman one time, it

(07:22):
would be fine, you know. So it's a special venue
to me. Um. It's also a great venue, has great acoustics.
So even though there's no no people, but you start
putting the room mix in it and you know, I
call it the Frampton comes Alive effect. It's like that
big reverb thing. It's nice and so it's gonna make
for a good live concert. And um, you know, the

(07:44):
band will look good on stage. We were dapper folks.
Need let's just say we have a virus at this
time and you're doing this live show. What are you doing?
What precautions are you taking so that the people actually
in the band and the building and the crew are
not getting infected. So we bay basically we're all tested
a couple of days ago. Happy to report everybody is

(08:06):
COVID free. We will rehearse with that in mind, meaning
that we're starting to get into the bubble, and then
on we're tested again. On the we really go into
the bubble band and crew, and we don't really come
out until like you know, five o'clock on September twenty. Now,

(08:28):
if there's a if there's a problem, we have to
deal with it, um. But we're taking as many precautions
as not only the rhyming requires, but as we require
as just human beings, um to make sure that that
that our people are safe, because that's really tantamount to
what we're doing. There's no gig worth somebody's health. There's
no gig worth somebody's life, obviously, But what we're doing

(08:51):
is we're without it being like without really just putting
isome you know, isometric chambers around Reese Weinen's and and
and you know myself. We're basically, you know, um uh
you know, we're basically doing as much as we can
to prevent everybody, you know, from being at risk. I

(09:15):
don't even know if is I so metric the right now?
It's but I wasn't gonna bust you onf no, no, no,
But I was like, what is what did I just say?
I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, remember those exercise from the sixties.
But then I think of Carson hyperbolic? That is that?
Is that the right? Is it? With its hyperbolic chambers? Sorry,
I've been producing a record my brains mush pop. But

(09:37):
thank you for That's okay, that's okay. I was gonna
let it slide, but it was I thinking, oh god, okay.
So one interesting thing. If somebody goes to your page
and they want to go to this show or watch
this show, they're different levels of buying, which you also referenced.
How did you come up with that concept and how

(09:58):
did you come up with the specific price points for
this show? Well, we we basically looked at other models
what people were doing. Um, now there's some it's it's
like it's like it's like when you buy vinyl, vinyl
is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? No
people pay more for the for the was it the
five grand vinyl and stuff like that. So some people

(10:20):
want to watch in HD. Some people have a huge
rig at their house. They have the mac they have
the Macintosh power ramps and the and the super High Deaf,
which I'm not sure how I look in super high deaf,
just saying okay, some people don't need to be shot
in super high Deaf. I probably am one of those folks,
like you're like, whoa geez bombases it's been a rough

(10:40):
forty three, So I mean based on the tears are
based on the definition. And then obviously obviously what we're
talking about is is you know, like the hundred dollar
packages is a donation to the charity. You know, you
also get a you know, you get a record credit,
a DVD credit, so like they'll be seventy or whatever.

(11:02):
People we sell this thing too is they're gonna be
you know, credited on the DVD and you know, so
they get to look at themselves eventually in All Music
Guide and be like, hey, look at me. I was
credited on Joe bonamass Alive and you know the COVID
sessions at the Rhyman whatever we're gonna call this thing,
and and you know, it's just trying to engage the

(11:23):
fans and make them feel vested while also you know,
donating to charity as well. How long you lived in Nashville.
I had this place three years. I still have the
place in California. By the way, I I I'm very
lucky in my career. I have three theme parks that
are guitar based. I live. I have a place in California,
New York and and here. But I've been working here
out of here so long, it just made sense to

(11:45):
buy a place that you know, it's supposed to just
stay at a hotel for a month, you know, while
you're making a record or writing. Okay, people, what studio
did you recorded? We just got done. Um I just
produced a record for Eric Gales the great Erica as
a guitar right and um I um. We worked at
Sound Emporium. So I either work at Sound Emporium or

(12:08):
I work at Ocean Way, and they're great studios. We've
done records at Blackbird. You know, so you're kind of
spoiled for choice in this town. And also you're spoiled
for choice as far as a musician. You know, like
the level of musicians here in any genre any way
you want to look at it, or if it's not here,

(12:28):
it's not anywhere. I mean, they're all they're they're all
congregating in Nashville, especially now it's cheaper to live in
l a bro Uh. But what it's what's it like
being a blues player in a country town. I think
it's cool because you stand out, you know, do do
you ever get called for sessions? I get called to

(12:51):
do guest spots, like you know, they they call me
because they want the little the little the little yellow
sticker on on the CD featuring special guests so and so,
so and so and so and so. So they don't
call me to be like, you know, like like a
Brent Mason or somebody like that. Um, they call me
to to to overplay over changes. You know, they're like,

(13:14):
wait a minute, we need some blues rock overplaying Carbon Amassa,
you know. And that's it. But I don't really put
myself out there, nor do I really fancy myself as
session guitar player, because I don't feel that. I believe
what makes me good as an artist would make me
a bad session player. And if I became a session player,

(13:35):
it would dilute my what I am as an artist.
And and so for me, that's that was a conscious decision.
Years ago. You're like, oh, what makes you great as
an artist? I'm a bowling the China shop. I stand
up there, I play louder, and I make people notice me,

(13:55):
and that's what makes me good as an artist. Listen,
I'm a blues rock artist with a strange last name,
a very funny speaking voice, and people say I sound
like Kermit the Frog, especially the kind of microphone that
I use. Um, which is what kind of microphones? And

(14:16):
I don't know I use. I use a telephone in
and live. But but when I speak, I sound like
Kermit the Frog. When I try to sound like Paul
Rodgers when I sing, I fail in both both categories.
And I don't have a discernible hit song. So that
so that in the music because the deck is stacked
against me, but because I have this chip on both shoulders,

(14:37):
and when I play and when I sing and when
I do something, I try to move the needle. And
that's what makes me good as an artist. And and and
and I step up there and I just do what
I do un apologetically. That's what's that's what's gotten me
noticed over the years. And a few decent songs which
came first You're bull in a China chop style, or

(14:57):
you realizing that worked and you empty up. Um. I
knew it worked when I was eleven years old. I
walked up there, I was called up to play. Oh god,
I was called up to play with a cold shop
blues band in Hamilton's, New York at a place called Nardies.
And it was the Hamilton's Blues Festival and it rained

(15:19):
all day, so they moved it inside. Luckily. Unluckily for
the promoter, was like a hundred fifty people showed up
for the entire blues festival, included the headliner, James Cotton,
the late great James Cotton, And he watched me play
with the opening act and he invited me to up.
He invited me up to play with his band, and
he says, man, you know how to get people's attention,

(15:40):
don't you. And it always stuck with me and I said,
I just don't know anywhere else. It was like I
was a shy kid. I'm still a shy kid, but
you give me a guitar and a namp and I
know what to do, especially electric guitar, because that's really
where I've always found my confidence. And I found the
other character meeting. The character is the guy in the suit.

(16:01):
That's the confident Bona Massa. Not to speak to myself
with the third person, but that's what I'm doing. And
the shy kid is the nerd kid with the guitar collection,
with the glasses and the hat that you see on
the zoom call. And ultimately it's two different people, but
it's all the same person. It comes from an authentic place.

(16:21):
And I don't really I don't want to be the
guy who dresses for the gig when he goes to
Walgreens to pick up a toothbrush, you know. And I
don't want to be the oh shucks. I just I'm
just here to just here to participate guy either. So
I'm in the middle of the road. Okay, through your eyes,

(16:43):
who's the best rock gutars, best blues guitarists of all time?
UM paid to say it, but I will if you're
talking about a guy who's reinvented himself and then in
to me the top of the heat for five decades

(17:05):
in a row. I gotta say, Jeff Beck, I'm with you, Okay.
People don't realize. And he plays without a pick. I
want to talk to him and said, you never miss
a note, and he was humbled about that's not his reputation.
But when he plays, it's astounding. It's astounding. You say
he reinvented himself, Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?

(17:26):
So starting the sixties, he comes out he's just out
of the yardbirds, got a chip on his shoulder's gonna go.
I'm gonna show them. And then he makes Truth and
Beco Lah almost in the same year, recruits his kid
from wherever, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Mickey Waller, Nicky Hopkins,
and they go in and they're like, we're gonna make

(17:47):
a heavier Beano record, which, by the way, tomorrow I
get to interview John Mayo. How cool is that? Right?
And then he makes two those kind of records. The
band breaks up and they and they cancel on Woodstock.
Next thing you know, he's he's in the studio with
Bobby tench and he doesn't sound the same as he
did four years or three years before. Okay, next thing,

(18:10):
you know, blow by Blow wired all those records. All
of a sudden, the musos like him. Then he goes
through there and back and then meet Simon Phillips, and
then he makes Guitar Shop, then he makes who Else
and Neal. Brush with the Blues changed the game. Okay,
stop there, because the only problem with Brush with the

(18:31):
Blues is not enough people have heard it well. The
only there's two problems with Brush with the Blues. The
two problems with Brush with the Blues not to slide anybody,
because we've all been influenced, is if you listen to
Ray Gomez, who used to play with Stanley Clark and
Rita Franklin. If you listen to a song called sweet Life,
which predates Brush with the Blues about fifteen years, and

(18:53):
then Brush with the Blues he something chicken or the Egg.
I'm not saying anything. I'm just suggesting you listen to
Ray Gomes as well. But we've all been influenced. The
problem Brush with the Blues is you go, oh my god,
here's a guy who at that point in his career
could have just said whatever, I'm Jeff Beck and you're not.

(19:14):
But keeps going and going and doubling down and then
you know, um was it the last record he did
with um Loudhailer or one of those records where people
kind of looked at me like, well, what's he doing.
It's like he's experimenting and he's never he never rests
on his laurels. And that's why I think he's the
best of all time. Hendrix was the biggest game changer

(19:35):
because it just it just went it just went mad,
you know. But without buddy guy, no Hendrix, you know
what I mean. So it's like it's all it's all interrelated,
and it's not it's not something that you you can go, well, well,
you know who's the best of all time, because it's arguable,

(19:56):
there's it's there's taste, there's perspective. To me, the most
immaculate conception blues guitar player of all time Albert King.
Nobody sounded like him before and everybody copied him after.
There's just no there's no like well, big Bill Bruns,
he sounded like Albery. No, he did not. Albert bent
a certain way he phrased a certain way. He was

(20:18):
also a drummer. His name is Albert Nelson and he
played on Jimmy Reed records as a drummer. So, okay,
I know you're a big guitar collector, but you go
that deep? Are you a student of the game. Are
you someone who's wrapped up in history and knows all
the credits? No, I'm not a musicologist like my friend
Jimmy Vavino. Um, my friend Paul Stanley. These are these

(20:42):
are Stanley of Kisses A is a big musicologist. Paul Stanley.
Will you don't want to play rock and roll Jeopardy
with Paul Stanley? He will school you on everything, soul records,
blues records, rock records. You you you just you just

(21:03):
just listen and learn, okay. And you know, there's a
lot of those kind of people that that I try
to I get into things that I like and I
go down the rabbit holes. But there's so much you
know that that you can it to me. Sometimes it
becomes a distraction because you're just going, you know, is
that is that you know who's playing on this James

(21:24):
Brown record? You know, it's like like I don't know,
You're trying to identify just but you can't enjoy. At
some point, you just want to put it on and enjoy,
you know, as a as a fan. Are you friends
with all these players at this point? You know? One
of the weirdest things. One of the weirdest things is
having your heroes text you. You know, You're like, wait

(21:47):
a minute, it's Warren Haynes. You know what I mean?
You know that's that's you know, it's just whatever, and
and and you just go. I never thought any of
my life would turn out this way. I hoped that
I would be able to make a living playing guitar.
I had hoped I would be able to just have

(22:08):
fun and enjoy being around guitars. And thank god I
never had to get a real job, because I think
I would fail miserably in the in the in the
in the private sector. You know what I mean, I'm
like what, I'm selling cars, you know, or I'm I'm
I'm God forbid him. In an office, I would be
fired at it, almost said, will I'm a loose cannon.

(22:29):
I have I wear my heart on my sleeve and
I'm a character which is not conducive to normal operations,
and I would be fired and and I would just
be like running a comic book shop with guitars on
the walls. You know. Okay, we all know a lot
of musicians. And what I always say is if they

(22:50):
weren't a musician, they could not work in the real
world because they couldn't even show up in the seven
eleven on time. So the question becomes you, to what
degree are you disciplined? If I say, hey, you know
we're gonna be somewhere too, You're gonna be there too.
You're gonna be there three five of ten after I'll
be there at two. I pride myself and being on time,

(23:12):
and I hate running late, and I hate putting people out.
It's a it's a it's a it's a Roman Catholic
guilt that's instilled in you from baptism. Okay, you never
put people out. I'm an upstate New York Italian who
went who was raised Roman Catholic, and you never you
never keep people waiting. You always rather be earlier than late,

(23:35):
and you'd always over over deliver and under promise. Those
are those are tenants of my life. And when it
comes to Catholicism, you're still a believer. No, I haven't
been for a while. What what changed there? Um? It
was an incident when I was a kid where the

(23:57):
priest ran off with the neighbor's wife and took them.
I don't know if that's cliche at this point, but
it seemed like like and these people idolize this guy,
and it broke that rule. He broke that rule. He
broke that rule. He kind of like just chiseled off
some of them commandment things, and and then uh, there

(24:17):
was that, and there's just a few other things where
I just you know, as you go down rabbit holes
of science, you go down rabbit holes of of of things. Now.
Do I believe in the tenets of religion? Yes? Do
I believe in being a good person? Yes? Do I
believe in giving than receiving? Yes? Do I believe in
not stealing? Do I believe in all the things at
the tank commments teach you when you're at religious going

(24:40):
absolutely except for that pesky when it says I'm your
one God and there's no other God but I that
I don't believe because because that's that's like it's specious reasoning.
It's like saying this, this this poster has prevented Barrett
or this lap steal that you see here in the
photo has prevented Barrett X in my my condo in Nashville,

(25:02):
in the sense that that there hasn't been any bear
attacks since this thing has been sitting here. But is
it really preventing them? Okay, so you're from upstate New York.
We're exactly Utica, New York. Not to be confused with Ithaca,
of course for that. But you know, I know the difference.
People are not New York savvy. May not. People go like,
you're from Ithaca. That's Cornell Universe. Utica, it's from Cornell University,

(25:24):
And I'm like, no, it's not. That's our that's our
Ivy League brethren in the South. Okay, we're Utica. We
were military industrial complex. We were what we are. I mean, um,
blue collar proud. You still have a used of a
place there. No, No, I haven't lived there for twenty

(25:44):
two years. Okay. And then Genesee Beer there was a
Unica Beer, wasn't there. I believed Utica Club which is
now saranac Um. The Utica Club Genese I believe was
from the Batavia, Rochester it was, you know, but see,
I love the fact that I grew up in a
working man's town. And one of the things about Upstate

(26:06):
New York, especially that part of Upstate New York, is
we are recession proof, and we are we are salad
year proof, if you know what I mean. The boom
never reaches us, The bust never reaches us. It the
when the co War ended and the last of the
factories closed. Basically, economically, the area flatlined and it and

(26:31):
too huge gains in the stock market through huge recessions.
It didn't change if you take home three and fifty
dollars after taxes in Utica, New York in eighty you
were living large. In nine you were living large in
two thousand. When I left, you were living large. That's
what that's that area in a nutshell, and there's nothing

(26:53):
wrong with it, but it's just because of how isolated
it is, and it never grew past the industrial age
and the and the military industrial complex. And that's that's
It's true. But about a lot of areas in the country.
In Ohio, Michigan, you know, it's like the rust belt.
It's rust belt. How many kids in the family. My

(27:20):
sister is four years younger than me. To the day,
to the day that says something interesting about your parents
birth control, just like it was consistency. Yeah, she's she's
technically May nine. I'm May eight, but we're hours apart. Okay,
And what is she up to these days? My sister
is smarter, She got the looks, she got, the brains,

(27:41):
she got the she's just superior to me in every way. Um.
And she has two beautiful children and a wonderful husband, Michael.
And her name is Lindsay and uh and and the
two kids, Gibson and Waverley, And they live in San Francisco.
They've been living there for about ten years. And she's

(28:01):
doing great and has a master's degree in business. And
you know, she just she's superior to her brother in
every way except playing. Okay, So how many How long
was your family in the Utica area up until about
two years ago? No, the opposite. Your parents? Were they

(28:22):
born in that area? Did they moved? They were born? Okay,
and it's all over. Your parents ran a music store?
Was that their mode of providing food and shelter when
you were born? My mom worked from the State of
New York for the State of New York. Um. From
basically high school after she graduated high school. Still when

(28:43):
she retired, different jobs. She worked for Universities um Department
of Labor, but she it was it was a state
state job with great benefits and and you know, healthcare,
which provides My father did various things through his life
and he's both still alive and they live in Sonoma,
California now and I got the Son of the Year
plaque for that, by the way, anyway, that's just another story.

(29:04):
But basically, you know, when I was born in nineteen
seventy seven, and when my parents were born in nineteen
fifty four, and when their parents were born, it was
the prevailing narrative was you you're born in this community,
and you stay in this community, and it was just
the cycle of life. Now, this is not unique to

(29:25):
upstate New York. This is not unique to California or
any It was basically, and a lot of my classmates
still lived there from my class of because if you're
born in New Yorkville, New York or New York Mills,
chances are you marry your high school sweetheart or somebody
you met in college, and then you settle and have
kids in New York Mills, and then your kids go

(29:46):
to New York Mills Junior Senior High School and their kids,
and a lot of times you have the same teachers
that have been there thirty five years. It's a story
that's repeated so many times in America. And that was
the We were the first generator, and I think Generation
X to ever kind of like bust out and say
maybe I don't want to live here my whole life.

(30:08):
Maybe I want to do something, Maybe I want to travel,
maybe I want to see something or experience something different.
And we were one of the first people, first generations,
to really take a chance and and kind of buck
the system, as they say in the in the sense
that we were like I'm moving to New York, Okay,
good luck. And my my mom freaked out and I said, well,

(30:31):
because your your room is always there, and the offer
was still stands. You know, there's always a room for you.
If this thing goes bust, I'm like, okay, thanks. My
mother is the opposite. I left Tolim at seventeen. Don't
come back. She literally said, you talk on the phone,
but don't come back and live in my house. But
she turned my bedroom into an office. But at what
point did your father open a store selling guitars. This

(30:55):
is about Okay, so this was this is not how
you grew up with a guitar shop. No. I grew
up my mid to late teens. I was around a
guitar shop. My dad had two different shops. He he
opened up for about seven years, close for about six years,
and then opened up again. And it was fun being

(31:16):
in a guitar shop. Doing guitar shows. I met a
lot of characters that I still know, Like like if
you took the best Hollywood scriptwriters, like like like the
out guys, you know, like like you get Stephen King,
and you know Tim Robbins and and and and and
you know somebody else like like just like you know

(31:37):
the Coen Brothers and something like that. Okay, and you go,
Here's what I need you to do. I need you
to come up with a cast of twenty people that
are as eccentric as they are driven, as they are crazy,
as they are weird as they eccentric. They couldn't come
up with the characters that show up on a yearly
basis to the Dallas Guitar Show. Okay, Okay, this is

(32:02):
the only place in the world where sweatpants and a
Fannie pack full of hundred dollar bills is socially acceptable.
So this is the world I'm thrust into. And these
guys are shrewd. They're buying, they're selling, they want, they
they're collecting, or they're not, or they say they are.
The New York Guitar Show, you know, the first time

(32:24):
as a church and you know, um, twenty three Street,
and you're like, on, how many sins are being committed
in this room right now? You know that shall not steal,
you know, being the biggest one of them, you know,
and uh, you know, so all of that like kind
of permeated as I was starting my career. I was
signed to E and My Records at that point, and

(32:46):
then we were we had a band um that was
called Bloodline that was kind of an A O. R oriented,
you know, Southern rock band at the same time as
The Archangels and Cry of Love and Brother Kane, and
I was helping my dad. I was living at home,
and then finally I just said, you know, I need
to I just need to go and and take a

(33:08):
chance on Joe Bonham Moss. I dropped smoking, drop all
that nonsense and take a chance. And I've had lucky.
I've had the same manager for thirty years. Who's gone
with me on that on that journey. Okay, let's break
some of this down though. So when do you first
pick up a guitar? When I was four and there
was just a guitar line around, how did that happen?

(33:31):
Dad played professionally. Um, he would do weekend gigs. So
he was playing Dan Fogelberd songs, Crosby Stills in Nash songs,
Neil Young songs in a duo setting at the ground Round,
which was like a chain of steak houses that that
instead of serving bread as the appetizer or the free
appetiser was it was peanuts. So they were you know,

(33:54):
you get a hamburger and then he would play, you know,
and you know, he made some good money and and
and and I was extra money because he worked in
a factory at the time. You worked in a factory
in Utica that made suits. It's called Joseph and Feiss,
And they would they would make these suit coats. And
my mom would work for the state and she dad
would play. And we had an oldsmobile and in a

(34:16):
little house on Campbell aff and but Dad always had
a guitar, so I wanted to follow in his footsteps,
and I was like, oh, I love this guitar. And
then he would play Eric Clapton records like just One
Night from and you'd see that black strap with the
worn out neck, and then like it. Once I got hooked,

(34:36):
Stevie ray Vaughan came out a year later. Um, then
he would take me down the rabbit. If you like
Steve Rayvonne, you need to hear Robin Trauer. I feel
like Robin Trout. You like hear Hendrix And then it's
just my whole world exploded. Okay, she you picked up
his guitar. How did you learn how to play? He
would teach me things. He would teach me the fundamentals,

(34:58):
like chords and a few rudimentary pentatonic scales. And then
I had this knack to hear something and then play
it off a record. So I would hear it, I
would play it and mimic it. So by the time
I was six, I'd really gotten serious about it and
was like, you know, I'm actually pretty good at this.

(35:20):
I can actually hear something in like Voodoo Child. I
can actually pick it out the notes and then mimic
the sound, at least in my mind, you know. And
I know Jimmy Hendrix, but I knew I had a
propensity or proclivity depending on the positive negative context. You're
whipping out the big so okay, but what I'm saying
it is like you know, positive negative sums it's positive

(35:41):
something it's negative. Is I knew I had a I
had some sort of gift for it. But I also
had a good work ethic, and that was instilled by
my parents, Like they always used the preaching, if you're
not gonna work for it, then what's the point. It's
not gonna come to you. Nobody's gonna give you anything.

(36:02):
Nobody's given the Bonham Mass is anything. We're working for anything,
you know. And and that's been my story for forty years.
And I've been playing guitar thirty nine years. And it's
just like, okay, so you're six years old and you
go to school for another twelve years. Are you you
have friends or you're so deep in the guitar thing?

(36:23):
Where do you fit in the social structure of the school.
Few friends, um never never never never never on the
never a hip kid, And I kept the guitar playing
to myself because I didn't want I didn't want any
trouble I wanted. I didn't like being made fun of. Um.

(36:43):
I was made fun of a lot when I was
a kid. That's why I have such an issue with
bullying now. UM not to say that, like, don't feel
sorry for me, because I can give as good as
I get. The problem with social media is like you're
kind of doing it with one hand time behind your back. Anyway,
I digress. Um, So I don't want to be made
fun of. I don't want to be bullied. I wat

(37:04):
nonsense and want that trouble myf I just like I
would do my work, go to school, get off the bus,
go home, whatever homework we had, get through it, play
the guitar the rest of the night. That was really
the whole, the long and short of every single day.
I didn't play sports. Um. I played. My parents kind
of said, hey, the kid needs some exercise, getting a

(37:26):
little pudgy, Let's get him into some soccer. He can
run around. Um. And I never signed up for any
of the school activities. It was a one track mine
and I was completely anonymous musically until the third grade
and what happened then. That's when the third and fourth
grade at New York Mills Elementary School, they had these

(37:49):
cheap Japanese Cordoba guitars, like these class guitars. They like
twenty of them. There's a lot of them. Were just rotting,
you know what I mean, crappy strings and whatever. And
so my my one of my few friends, knew I played,
and the music teacher goes, um, hey, does anybody know

(38:10):
how to play guitar? And then of course my friend
just sells me out. Joe knows how to play. And
I was always a shy kid, never participated in the
in the anything, you know. I just would answer questions
if I was called upon, because Joe play is really good.
And she's like, does he So I just learned Rude
Mood by Stevie ray Vaughan, which is this very fast

(38:30):
shuffle do do do? Do you know? I was proud
of it. I learned it, and she's so I get
up there and I'm like, oh god, this is terrible.
I sit in the chair and I get the guitar,
I tune it up and it's like, you know, there's
laughter because you know, it's like this that awkward moments
out of a movie. You know, it's like it's like
you're tuning up. It's like that dead silence. It seems

(38:52):
like an hour, but it's like thirty seconds. And then
she goes, are you gonna play anything for us? And
I just start into it right and I keep the
kids go nuts because they never expected it coming out
of me. And I see her run out of the
room and she goes and gets to high school music
teacher because it's all the schools are connected, and the

(39:14):
principal and what did I do to my said this
is this is insane? Right, So afterwards they're like, when
did you learn how to? I go, I play all that,
and then I think they called my parents and said,
do you know he plays guitar really well? I was like, oh, yeah,
he's been playing for years. So that was the first
time I publicly went out as a guitar player. And

(39:35):
I was like, you know, that applause is a good
deflection from the from the from the stuff that they're
they're aiming at me, And I go, hm, I could
now use this as a shield as a weapon at
the same time, and I was like, mmm, not a
bad way of looking at things. Bonamassa And then I
started playing setting, you know, sitting at my dad's do
around eight or nine. And then I had my first
professional gig when I was a love it And that

(39:58):
was first professional gig was at a place called the Metro,
which was a converted bank in Utica, New York. We
charged five dollars. There was an article in the newspaper,
and my grandfather collected money at the door and we
made three thousand dollars at night. And and I go,
that's not this is this is this is? I get

(40:19):
the new I said. The deal was all the money
has to go into bank, except I wanted a Super
Nintendo and some new pickups from my guitar, at which
they my parents acquiesced and let me buy. And okay,
that's a big success. It could only be downhill from there.
What happens well, by the way, after I got done
paying the band, which was about a thousand bucks, say
about two thousand net to an eleven year, I Mr

(40:42):
Burns at that point and and I and I go,
then we started doing this, and we started drawing a crowd,
and I was known as this kid from upstate, New York.
And then there was there was like about a year
and a half later, there was a rumor there was
a there was a kid. But this is pre social
media yet, so it's all just it's all just rumor.

(41:02):
And and a few newspaper articles at this point. Then
there was a rumor there was a kid in Jacksonville,
Florida who played slide, you know, who was about a
year or two younger than me. I'm like, wow, there's
another one. And then there was another one. And then
there was a kid named Eric Gals And then and
and well you know that, you know that the kid
in Jacksonville, you know, eleven year old playing slide like

(41:25):
an adult, was Derek Trucks. And kid from Memphis who
who's playing with his brothers and got a deal with
Electric Oh my god, I got a major deal. It's
Eric Kales. And here we are now thirty years later,
laughing at this notion of like these we were the
Mickey Mouse Club of blues guitar players, you know, like

(41:47):
we were we were like this, these young kids that
are popping up regionally. But without the without the invention
of social media, nobody knew about us. Only the people
in our areas, you know. So there was there was
Joe in the North, and Derek in the South, and
and and Eric in Memphis. And there was a kid

(42:07):
from Australia, Nathan Cavalaria. I never forget his name. He's
a fellow Italian. He was a kid who was twelve
years old ripping up the guitar. So there was these
prodigies or I don't consider myself a project with these
people that were the kids are well advanced in guitar
um popping up all around the same time. This was

(42:28):
the early nineties. Okay, as we all know, they're making
new people every day and the rest of us get older.
At some point, you're no longer the young phenomenon. Where
does that leave you? You know, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who's
also I need to put in that category because he
was sixteen and he had a major label deal and
he's had hits on the radio. Johnny Lane was fourteen

(42:49):
or fifteen, but there were a few years later. There
was like there was a two and a half year gap.
And because Kenny came out in the ninety six and
same thing with John Lane. And uh so, you know,
like I was having this conversation with Kenny Waan Shephard
and we're sitting there like going, I go, first of all,

(43:11):
do you realize that both of us are older than
Stevie Ravon when he died by seven years, you know,
which is crazy that we're now older than our hero
that really wrote the roadmap between him, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson,
um Satriani Vye, those were the those were the guys

(43:32):
that wrote the book the Roadmap for me in the eighties,
Gary Moore and Early Nice. And I said, and then
do you realize that we're not the kids anymore? And
we both just had this moment like yeeks, you know,
like like because we've always looked at as the kids,
you know, it's like, oh, there's the younger generation Johnny

(43:52):
and Kenny and Joe and Derek, and we all got
four in the first number. Okay, I think I think
Derek just turned already. We all got a four and
maybe John's thirty dynamic he's close, you know what I mean.
So it's like it's it's one of those things where
it's it's a it's a generational shift. I mean, like
you can't you can prevent a lot of things in

(44:13):
your life. Lapping the sun every three d and sixty
five or three hundred sixty six days is not one
of them. Time going you get old. Okay, So you
have the band signed Bloodline signed to E M I.
How does that come together? We had a I was
on a television show called Real Life with Jane Pauli,

(44:34):
which was the predated Dateline NBC. My manager um uh
Roy Wiseman and his father, Elliott Wiseman. They had a
company called Premier Artist Services and they managed Frank Sinatra
and Dean Martin and lizmllion most of all of the
rat Pack, really Um and they went to the record companies.

(44:57):
We've taken meetings with Colombia and E M I and whoever,
and they're all saying the same thing. It's like, what
it's like, he's good, but what do we do with it?
He's an instrumental guitar player who likes to play blues.
It's not a he's not an artist, he's a he's
a well, I'm really at that point was the the
equivalent of the polar Bear riding a unicycle, juggling bowling

(45:19):
pins at the p T Barnum. You know, I came
out and did my thing, made the crowd go nuts,
and then left. I didn't have a song, couldn't sing,
I didn't really have an act, and so the idea
of putting this band together, Um, I had met Barry
Oakley Jr. And Whalen Kreeger at this Leo Fender tribute concert. Um,

(45:39):
they recommended we call this guy Aaron Davis, who happened
to be the son of Miles Davis. Next thing, you know,
we got all these sons of famous musicians and a
keyboard player that was working with my solo band at
the time, Luca Gretty. There's a really good keyboard player,
very nice man, and and we were really, um, we're
kind of put together. Other than I and my goes,

(46:01):
Charles Cobbin goes, there could be something there, you know,
you know, big New York meeting Smith and Wilenski and
never forget it, you know what I mean? It was
it was classic music biz like pre It was the
way you wanted to be, you know. It was expense
accounts and car services and Manhattan, Smith and Wilenski Lobster

(46:22):
tales are eighteen pounds or some world record ship. Anyway,
it was. It was just classic they and they signed
us to a development deal and we were writing with
people like Warren Haines um Mark Hudson from the Hudson Brothers,
but he wrote a lot of hits with aerosmith at
the time, Richie super who was an arrowsmith, but he
was working, you know, with Desmond Child and and all

(46:44):
of a sudden we get enough tunes to make a
record in Memphis with Joe Hardy at Arden Studios and
our band. We were dysfunctional kids with egos, me included,
and we didn't really see the forest from the trees,
and we didn't realize how good we had it, and
we screwed it up. We did. We screwed it up,

(47:04):
and luckily for me, I screwed it up at an
age where it wasn't fatal to my career. I learned
the lessons of the music business and how hard it
is to achieve a major label deal at the time
early on, and I never took it for granted ever again.
And that was a lesson I learned when I was
sixteen years old. And and thank god it didn't I had.

(47:28):
I had an opportunity for a rebirth and a second
act and a second chance at my career where some
of the people that were later in there, you know,
and some people just bailed on the business, and some
people made bad choices. It's not this is not news,
and this is not new to the music business. Fair
success is terrible and it and it plagues a lot

(47:49):
of people. Okay, so how do you hook up with
your manager? Called us on the phone. We were listed.
We were the only two bottom mosses in the in
the in the Utica phone book. One was my dad's
brother and one was us. They called his brother first
and then they called us. Are you are you from?
Are you lem Bonamassa? And are you um? Are you

(48:12):
Joe's dad? And they're like yeah. And by the way,
as soon as that thing aired um on national television
Jane Pauli Sunday Night, National Television pre Netflix, we had
heard from every major label. Mercury, we had heard from Colombia,
E M I Capital, um god, I think it was

(48:37):
the Crystalists called next thing. You know, we have lawyers
driving up. Okay, um, what's his name? David Sodenberg? Right,
Big music music and sorry and I'm like, we're in
a nine square foot ranch house, okay. And my mom
would put out these nice bagels and these are power

(48:57):
players coming up to the house, one of which was
Um Roy Wiseman and Um and his girlfriend now wife
of thirty years, Debbie, and we just had a meeting
and we really got on his people. And he was
ten years older than me, and his father was you know,
now he's in his eighties, but the patriarch of this
music business family. And we just got on his folks.

(49:19):
And that's how many people do you know has had
the same management thirty years? Very few? So what was
his pitch back then? Pitch was along. It was a
long play versus a quick cell. And we were smart
enough as people to to realize that one of the
things you're famous for is you and your manager do
it all by yourself, which no one else does. How

(49:42):
did they come up and how did the two of
you come up with that game plan? The vertical integration
started when the music business decided to push me out,
Meaning I had a deal with Epic Records when I
was a kid. Um, when I was the first solo
Michael Caplan sign me will Always be Grateful. Harvey leads Uh,

(50:05):
Steve Barnett, Um and Tommy Motola was still running the
company Sony and basically our record comes out in August
twenty years ago, exactly twenty years ago, because my reissue
just came out comes out in August. By October, I
was gone because the company had posted their first quarterly

(50:26):
loss under Tommy Matola's leadership, just as the business was
kind of changing and whatever. And so I found myself
back to square one. After working so hard to get
a deal. Back at my parents house, we went um.
We we approached people like Alligator Records, Tone Cool, which

(50:48):
was Susan Tadeshi's record label at the time, and they
were signing Blues Axe and nobody would take us. Nobody
would take us. Roy's brother had a little label that
was doing compilations. We put our second record on that. Finally,
by the time two thousand two runs around rolls around,
we are now listless, you know, we have we have

(51:11):
we have no direction. My my agent, who are now
friends with Bet she actually probably regrets dropping me. Um
who was the agent, Oh, I'm not even it was Monterey.
I'm out, I'm I'm I don't have an agent. I
got not a okay, not a except Roy. We then

(51:36):
decided to pull our money and we make this record
called Blues Deluxe, and Roy's brother Eric, who was running
U Distribution company down in Florida, gets the records in
the stores basically force feeds you know, um, you know,
F F y E and stuff like that. No sales
records and we didn't know anything about return reserves and
all that stuff that fun part of the record business. Um.

(51:59):
And he ended up deciding to go it alone, and
we sold more records of that Blues Deluxe record than
we'd ever you know, basically done in the past and
made way more like wait, wait, since you're an unknown quantity,
how did you just sell the records? Because of the
generosity of people like BB King and Paul Rodgers and

(52:22):
Bad Company and George Sara are good and I know
I'm missing somebody, buddy guy. And one of the few
things that I did take away from the experience at
Monterey was relationships with people like that, and they would
let me open up, especially BB King. So I would
go out there and I would have this like truncated

(52:44):
set that would just play to that audience and we
would crush it, crush it at the merch stand two
CDs and a half hour right signing Boom boom. We
would crush at Peter Frampton whose I was, I'm forgetting sorry, Peter,
Peter Frampton, huge for me, Peter Franz another another Nashville resident. Yes,

(53:04):
and a good friend and and a legend. And the
thing was, we sold that record because we had no
other choice. And then all of a sudden, we we'd
see our sound scans going up boom boom, boom, boom boom.
Then William Morris takes us on as a client and
we start getting more opening acts, and then we're kind

(53:25):
of doing headline clubs and and and and opening acts.
And the opening acts were the you don't get any money,
but the merch was great, so it was it was working.
Two thousand five. Um, we got tired of the of
the offers that in the types of venues that we're
going Listen, Joe Bonasa just the blues act. He only

(53:47):
is gonna play like dirty clubs, and you know, it'd
be like one night to be Guar and then me
and then and then it would be like you know,
you know, you know, just you could you could put
whatever whoever, you know, So it was like these clubs,
do you know, they just hose him down and and
and they just replaced you know, you're just a widget.

(54:08):
And what I realized is that my audience didn't like
go into those kind of places. They weren't kids. They
wanted to sit down, they wanted to chair, they wanted
to theater because they saw me in the theater opening
up for Baby King or Peter Frampton or whoever Farrell Good.
So we decided to do our first four Walls in
two thousand five, and we did one of For those
who don't know, four walls, you basically rent the room

(54:31):
and you do everything yourself. Yes, yes, it's a you're
you're the promoter. And we did our first two. We
did Jacksonville, Florida, and we did Fort Wyne, Indiana. Do
you remember how big those buildings were. We did the
Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne. I know, I remember the cap,
I remember what we sold. And well, well that's what
I want to hear. Okay. We were playing this place

(54:51):
called Pierre's in Fort wayn Indiana. They would give this
four thousand dollars to draw approximately people and we would
do good in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Okay, but it was
a big club and we got four thousand dollars. Taking
or leave it. Okay, we took it. We played the
Embassy Theater holds I've sold it out many times. Okay,

(55:11):
first time I played, I draw the same people. We
went from a twelve dollar ticket price to a thirty
five dollar front row in a twenty in the balcony.
Balcony wasn't open because we didn't sell that many, but
we did thirty five to twenty. We walked out with
there's your sign. Jacksonville. We played the Florida Theater. We

(55:35):
used to play his place called Freebird Live. Same deal.
Wouldn't give us more than three thousand dollars. I don't
care the whoever is on the other end, I don't
care if he's bringing Eric Capton with him, I'm giving
him three thousand dollars. You know that kind of agent
promoter thing. We we read the Florida Theater, which was

(55:55):
a friend of Roy's dad, and we do six hundred
people made thirteen dollars. You can see. But now, how
do you continue that on? Because you need capital to
do these four walls or these these self promote because
a what happens is you have to pay for the advertising.

(56:16):
You're you're you're fronting this whole thing, and then you
get it all back on a settlement a couple of
days later. So we started picking our battles and our
tour so we would do too maybe the four of
these four walls per tour. Then as the years started
to progress, by oh seven o eight, we were doing
se four walls because we reinvest the money into the business.

(56:40):
And then by two thousand nine, which is basically the
last year with William Morris, we decided, you know, early
two thousand and ten was debate last year William Morris
and I have no I have I have. I have
no hard feelings to William Morris except for the fact
that they overcharges for their acts on the crew. So
fuck you William Morris, just for that. Okay, you can
take it right to the top for me to them,

(57:01):
to them, they over they try to go just because
they're bitter about not taking a cap. That's just me talking.
Doesn't matter. I'll take that, you know, I don't. I see.
We've had to we've had to do end a rounds
because it won't even bring our offers for the cruises
to their acts because they're just they're just a little
bit they hold a grudge, no problem. Um. We ended

(57:27):
up parting ways with William Morris am the couple, which
I thought until we started making doing cruises. Um, and
we basically went on our own. So at that point
in time in America, I was unsigned. I had my
own label. We would do one artist, which was me,
and we had no we had no agent, we had
no nothing. We just did it all in house. And

(57:48):
that was the vertical integration of the of the of
the company. And that's that's the rest is history. Okay,
So there's a lot of hats to be worn. Do
you have a full time staff taking there's twenty people
in the office, between twenty and twenty two people depending
on how busy we get. Um, that's their sole jobs

(58:08):
to run everything. Joe Bonamassa and uh, that's been the
art department. There's an there's a social media department. There's
a marketing department. There's there's a merchandizing department. There's a
web store, there's everything. But it's also when you vertically

(58:29):
integrate your your model, you're you're not leaving these huge
chunks of money on the table which you then can
use to reinvest in yourself. It's not like you just
it's like if you normal show you have a ten
percent agency. Okay, there's a ten percent kind of promoter fee.

(58:51):
Then there's the show cost, which how how does a
bag of lace potato ships become six it's you know,
you know what I mean, you get when you when
you promote your own shows in four wall, you get
to see exactly what everything costs. The building rental is
six grand, the ushers are three, the popcorn people are

(59:15):
are are five hundred bucks. And then there's a you know,
so you get to see the macro of of what
you're trying to you know, of the real expenses. And
then you look at a settlement sheet from a promoter
like man, these are inflated, you know, and and and
so you start saving money and you don't have you're
not giving away off the top then having to pay

(59:36):
your bills, so that actually twenty to that you're saving
by doing your own four walls. Um uh, you know,
you able to reinvest in yourself. And and it's it's
called scaling a business. That's how it scales. And we
we my manager and I we we've had many discussions

(59:56):
about that. It's like, thank god we invested in especially
now because we didn't sell our merchandise we didn't do
one of those dreadful three sixty deals. We didn't. We
didn't give it away for a big chunk, you know,
because when you give it away for a big chunk,
the chunk doesn't it's not big forever, you know. And

(01:00:17):
then when you're you know, you're like, oh, man, I
really could have used that that money to reinvest and
you know, do something else. And it's the same with
the label. And it's I know, I'm long winded today,
but it is what it is. Okay, pre COVID, how
many gigs a year were you doing? Hun between hundred

(01:00:40):
and how many domestic it's been basically fifty fifty, so
you're looking at probably call it fifty five per per
per territory plus Australia thrown him. Okay, of those hundred
and five eight, how many were four world? So no
matter you go to a foreign country, you do it

(01:01:01):
there too. I do it, I do it there. UM
promoters will try to tell you that that um promoting
a show is like splitting the atom in complexity and
and and it's not, it's just it's are you willing
to now? The only times we will not four walls
if we're doing festivals obviously if we do, if you know,

(01:01:21):
if we do like north Sea Jazz or montro or
we're not, that's it's end. But but as far as
if there's a Joe b headline show, it's four walled
everywhere we got. Okay, So just starting with domestically, how
often do you have a date that's in the red
never and even how about when you started? I think

(01:01:47):
once once or twice where we broke even we we
we pushed and the venues you play now capacity tends
to be um well, taking red rocks off the table,
which is five thousand, Okay, I'm talking to an expert here,

(01:02:10):
I should have done my research for I talked to you. Um,
we're we're in the twenty five to five range, depending
on like we'll do cut Arenas in in in Europe,
we'll do the Albert Hall in London, which is five thousand.
We'll play the the The Rhyme in which is twenty
three hundred, so it's in that range, and then we'll

(01:02:30):
go down it like well, sometimes we'll do a Tuesday
night account Basie Theater, which is people and it's rocking.
We love it, you know, I get the meat balls.
From Buenos Sarah. It's beautiful experience. You know, I've been
going there for years, So it just depends. Yeah, you know,
there's a lot of philosophies which you may or may
not agree with. But a lot of people say, you know,
once you get the ball rolling, you don't want any

(01:02:50):
any empty seats. You don't want to play in a
bigger venue. Do you think that's a factor? People don't
care taping ont have eyes in the back of their head.
And the thing is, I'd rather scale into it then
scale myself out of it. You know, it's manifest destiny. Um, yeah,
do you want every seat sold every time? Yes? But

(01:03:12):
I watched bb King not what that wasn't his His
his strategy. His his strategy was this is where we
play now on Tuesday night. Maybe we don't sell out,
but we're we're average eighty five too. I think our
last tour, pre COVID was sold average. There's nights it's

(01:03:33):
blown out, there's there's nights that it's eighty four. It's good,
it feels fine in there. And the rest of the scent,
you didn't sell his ego and and and because at
the end of the day, not only you're entertaining people
first and foremost. That's the reason why you're there. Be

(01:03:55):
you're keeping your machine going. And and and see you're
employing thirty people on the road in the music business,
they'll have families and wives and houses and kids. Okay,
over this, let's call it ten years. It's longer than that.
But um, business going up, down, staying the same. I

(01:04:18):
think generally our EPIDA is earnings before interest tax. And
suddenly I forgot the A. Yeah, I think it's a
depreciate and appreciation depreciation. UM, I think we've kind of
we we went up after the initial explosion and then

(01:04:40):
I call the explosion PBS when when public broadcasting, Thank
you very much. UM. I'm eternally grateful for them because
they started running our Albert Hall two thousand nine DVD
in two thousand eleven. And how did that come together?
A little affiliate in Albany, because I was around there,
said hey, listen, we like Joe's DVD. Would you make

(01:05:02):
and would you make an hour edit like it already
been out? And we went and all in with the
DVD and it was something Okay, it wasn't it wasn't
you know, it was it was we're gonna lose money
in a time we couldn't afford to lose money, and
they we made him an hour edit in in in
public broadcasting, their internal numbers are a one to a five,

(01:05:26):
you know, and it's like good to bad, you know.
So if you like, it's on their in their pledge drives.
So when we put this thing out in all of me,
they raised like dollars in the hour, which was like
like it was like, oh my god, this is crazy.
They did it again to see if it was a flute,
did the same thing, then it then it Then it

(01:05:47):
kind of made the rounds PBS corporate like the not
just the affiliates, but the mothership. They decided to do
it as a whole campaign and then went from twelve
to three thousand pretty quick, and so it went up.
That was the explosion, and I think right now we

(01:06:07):
we generally go up three to five percent a year. Um.
Sometimes it's a push depending on the venue choices in
the time of year we do it, but it's it's
always on an uptick. There's always new fans no matter
how popular you think you are. Okay, and I'm a
d e or f less celebrity. You're really relatively You're

(01:06:29):
still relatively unknown, and there's always room to grow. You know.
It's like you whether you find the plateau or where
you find the peak. And you know, the chances of
me having a hit song are like seeing Aurora borealis
during the day. Highly unlikely, and most likely it's the sun,
you know what I mean. So it's to me the

(01:06:51):
arena feeling notions. That's not gonna be me. Me. I'm
going to be a theater act. I love being a
theater act. Pay my bill. I live a very nice life,
and I'm grateful. Most importantly, I'm grateful. What do you
think is driving new attendance? I think what drives new
new attendance these days, and I hate to say it

(01:07:15):
is like Instagram and and social media, and you know, like, hey,
you know, it used to be word of mouth, you know,
but now it's like you have to be an instagram ner,
an influencer, you know. And I'm not sure if I
like that or not. And I have a love of
hate relationship with Instagram and social media because of the

(01:07:40):
the I think familiarity breeds contempt. If they know they
can get to you, then then they try to poke
the bear, and I should be better at not letting
the bear get poked. But then there's just some stuff
that you just go, I'm just not letting that go. No. No,
I learned not to respond unless I know you or

(01:08:01):
you have a name that I'm aware of. Problem is,
ten percent of the public is certifiably insane, certifiably and
they might say something reasonable. Whatever, you respond, and then
it's open season. I've had a lot of bad experiences,
but uh, you know, once you put your head above
it's the nature of the game today. So on social media,

(01:08:22):
to what degree is that your personal responsibility or does
your team take care of it? Team take takes care
of the Facebook. I run Twitter and I run Instagram,
and sometimes I sometimes I don't read the I mean,
here's the problem with with with social media. And I've
gotten myself in trouble a few times by either coming

(01:08:42):
off a little bit tone deaf. But I'm not. I'm
not on the forefront I'm not. I'm not. I'm not
on the forefront of it. I just if I go, hey,
here's a cool picture, you know, but don't post it
on someday or when you know, it's like maybe I'm
not paying attention to the news even though a news junkie,
and I'm distracted, and then all of a sudden, you're
worse than like like, I can't believe it. Okay, whatever,

(01:09:05):
that's the loud minority talking to you. Most of the
people don't really care or check. Um. The problem with
with being a celebrity like yourself, um, in social media.
If you have an opinion, now, Bob, you are in
the opinion business. Believe me, I know if you have
an opinion and you stick the landing. Okay, And I

(01:09:27):
watched one of the one of the most entertaining things
I ever watched, was your your It was a debate
with Gene Simmons. Okay, but there was no right or
wrong because both of you had an opinion and you're
willing to stick the landing. And the problem is now
you have to. It's like social media. To be really successful,

(01:09:49):
you have to be the most perfectly curated, crafted vanilla
wafer of all time, who ray for everyone, who ray
for everything. Everybody's right. There's nothing wrong except the things
that are agreed upon by the masses to be wrong.
You know, if you have an opinion on music, if
you have an opinion on anything, look out because the

(01:10:12):
arrows are gonna come back at you, and you know,
and and and then it becomes a game of gotcha,
and it's like that didn't sign on for that. Okay,
So since Instagram is driving new bonham maassa fans, what
works on Instagram? I'd say what works on Instagram sincerity
and and it's the candid moments. It's it's the ones

(01:10:35):
that the post that means something. It's not the ones
that the you know, social media like people. They're like
social media consultants. It's like, well, you know, you must
post between one fifteen and one nineteen every day because
that's the peak hours and people are, you know, having
their salad at lunch and they're checking. I could care less,
could care less. If it means something to me at
the moment, I'm going to post it or not, you know,

(01:10:59):
and let aley not. I just I find myself happier
posting much less. And I don't need the dopamine shot.
I don't need your peek. How many times were you
posting and how much are you posting today? It was
two or three times a day? You know, if I
was you know, if we were doing something. Mostly it

(01:11:19):
was just one time a day, and I try to
do once a day and then, but there's there's days
I don't do it anymore. Um. And there was a
couple of weeks where I let I needed to get
away and I let the I let I let the
web master do it. And the fans didn't like that
at all because they're like, who's this JB. Web Master.
I'm like, that's Scott. He's a nice guy. Give him

(01:11:39):
a break, you know. Finally said no, no, I'll take
it back, but on a contingency. And and I also
there's there's a certain thing that you have to look
after more than more than your followers, more than your career,
more than anything. It's called your soul. And if you don't,
if you don't protect that, you lose your soul. And
that I see people going down those rabbit holes where

(01:12:01):
you're just like, you can't fight everybody. It's like it's like,
you know, reading the history books about my grandfather fought
in Korea, and when the Chinese got involved, it was
one of those two soldiers one rifle kind of thing.
They just keep coming. You're like, man, no, no, no no, no,
none of this anymore, and and it was to me.
I'm much happier posting less. And when I post, I

(01:12:22):
don't look at the comments anymore. Just don't. So you
guys want to punch yourselves out and get into big
fights over really nothing that matters. A picture of a
less Paul doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
But if they want to get involved in that, that's
up to them. Let's talk about you personally relative to
your career. Uh, Males tend to like to keep going up, okay,

(01:12:46):
and you you get a unique thing, which is you
get to be on stage. You get a hit which
you can't get anywhere else in the world, which is
very fulfilling. But at this point in time, despite yourself
deprecating manner, are there certain goals, certain wants that are
still driving you know, I'll tell you what bout. I

(01:13:07):
can tell you this, and I think I'm coming closer.
I'm not there yet. I have not made the definitive
Joe Bonamassa record yet. I think the one at Abbey
Road is getting It's the first It's the first step
in a long journey to where I have not made that.
I've had good songs, and I've had songs that people

(01:13:28):
come to my concerts to see. That's that means that resonates.
I have not made a ten song released at all.
Ten of them are that like that. And it's not
for lack of trying. It's not because I'm trying to
get lazy. It's not. It's it's it's nothing other than
the fact that a need to capture lightning in the
bottle ten times. And if I can do that, I'm cool.

(01:13:52):
I'm cool with Let's just assume you do that, and
I would presume your sales on albums is relatively the same.
So let's say you hit it out of the park
and the reception is the same as the previous records.
How will you handle that? Emotionally good question? Like I

(01:14:15):
played a song called Self Inflicted Wounds every night and
it goes over well, it's not it's not a standing
oh song. But I played every night because I think
it's the best song I've written in ten years. And
that's just for me. I love saying it. I think
it's the best message and it's based on a true event.
I I play it and and never discounts spite is

(01:14:37):
a great motivator, you know. But I'm also I'm also
very cognizant of the fact that I need to give
the folks in the crowd what they want, and I
don't take anything personally because if if there's the nights
that you think are great, man, this band is like
kicking ask and we're we all get off the stage
and everybody's arms get huge, and we all pikes ourselves

(01:15:00):
on the back, and then the fans, the fans have
been there twenty times. You guys were off, and then
the ones and the ones you think absolutely owe everybody
their money back because we were it was amateur night.
They it was I don't know what you guys were doing. Uh,
it was magic tonight. You go. Okay, And same same

(01:15:23):
tangentially to to a concert a record ten songs that
mean the world to me, that I think are great,
that I think is the definitive Joe bonamassa record most likely,
and I got my head around this most likely will
be the least successful one. But at least I can
say I made the statement. Okay, But those inside the

(01:15:45):
business certainly are aware of your career. We live in
an arrow where the biggest acts of less penetration than
ever before. So you have created your own business, and
generally speaking in terms of other genres, it doesn't tend
to intersect. It's wort of its own silo. Do you
how do you feel about getting more recognition, being more

(01:16:07):
integrated with the so called mainstream, getting more acknowledgement. To
what degree is that important to you? In the degree
if it, if it requires more work on my end
to be one of the cool kids, count me out, okay,
because I already worked plenty, and everybody's been saying I
need to take a year off. I have a hard time.

(01:16:28):
I have a hard time being around mainstream anything I have.
I don't know what it is. It's a there's a
visual reaction reaction to to it. I've always been the outsider.
I've not I've not been an outcast, but I've been
an outsider my whole life. And a few times that

(01:16:49):
I flirt with the mainstream, it's like it's like it's
like two north ends of a magnet. They tend to
just do this, you know, And I don't feel at
home or I don't feel at home around celebrity and
and and red carpet. I never I've never walked the
Red carpet in my life never will. The two times

(01:17:11):
have been nominated for a Grammy didn't go because as
soon as I heard that, Charlie Mussele White and Ben
Harper were playing, and I go, guess who your winner is?
You know? And I was right. And and the thing is,
I've never been comfortable around that. And I'm not trying
to say this in a facetious, like up my own assway.

(01:17:33):
I just I luckily, at forty three years old, I've
been around long enough. I've been successful enough to not
do things that make me feel uncomfortable out of sheer going, Man,
we really need this one. I bet I better get
to that that that Grammy pre party and and you know,

(01:17:54):
network and shake some hands. That sounds like a nightmare
to me. Not that I don't like the people in
the room, but doing that out of necessity seems so
phony and so disingenuous and and and to myself of
why I do this and why I got into the
business to begin with that, I I just can't do it.

(01:18:17):
It's talking about it, you can see me. It just
makes me up tight and it's weird. And I don't
mean to I'm not de meeting anybody who who who
goes into those situations and flourishes, because they're gonna be
a lot more successful than I will. But I'm willing
to sacrifice success for my soul. And since you're working

(01:18:38):
all the time, how has this affected your personal relationships
and love life? I'm never, I'm I've never I've never
been great at being the boyfriend. Never, not that I'm
a bad boyfriend. I don't cheat, I don't whatever. I'm
just like if you, I mean, if I gave you
a tour of my house in California, you would walk

(01:18:58):
in and go, this man is not married at all,
work at all, these fender signs. Look at these amps. Now,
it's well done. It's done like a museum. Um. And
I've had some very wonderful women and very understanding women
in my life. Unfortunately, it's just my consistency and my

(01:19:19):
resolve eventually wears them down to where they don't resent me.
But it just it doesn't work. So unfortunately, I've been
very unsuccessful at that. But I never I never said
I wanted, you know, kids and a family. I may
want a dog one day, and I already have a

(01:19:40):
name for the dog. And a breed of the dog
that I want to rescue. Obviously I'll get a rescue dog.
But but it other than that, I never had those goals.
I never put that like, well, I really just just
doing this until I can find the right woman and
settle down and have me a bunch of kids, because
how do you raise a kid when you are one?

(01:20:03):
Let's say, say if you don't have kids or a
child forever. Okay, let's get into the guitar collecting thing.
How many how many guitars Joe? Now? I would say
they're spread out over three locations. I would say approximately
about four hundred and fifty. Okay, if you buy a
new guitar, at what point do you get rid of
a guitar at all? You know? You remember remember the

(01:20:26):
CEO of ge Jack Welch, the late of course, Yeah,
And he would always go on this is when CNBC
was in the nineties. I used to watch it and um,
he used to talk about this concept and he did
it with people, okay, which is okay, that's these are
people's livelihoods. He used to do it, but he used
to go he would clear out the bottom ten percent
of his employees every year the underperformers, the ones that

(01:20:48):
that that that weren't that we're just kind of along
for the ride or wherever wherever criteria. He attached to
that every year, I look at the collection top down,
and I haven't obviously we have an inventory and everything,
and I clear out the bottom ten percent as because
you only have so much room. B you're not playing

(01:21:10):
these things. And see you probably were in the moment
and you bought it and you thought it was cool.
Because when the addictions raging, Luckily I don't have drugs
and alcohol. I have guitars and amps, okay, which is
to me a healthy addiction to a point. And when
the addiction is raging on the road and you're in
a store and you've got four or five things going
on at the same time, you go, hey, what about this? Yeah,
I'll take it. You don't think about you. I'll take

(01:21:32):
it because it's the it's the rush, you're in finding mode,
you're in you know, your vacuum it all up and
so I I get rid of ten percent of the
guitars um per year. Quietly, it's not like the Joe
Bonamasa Annual Collection Reduction sale here on Instagram. Bye bye bye,

(01:21:54):
you know Sunday Sunday Sunday is that nothing like that.
It is really, ultimately um, just an exercise. And am
I a hoarder or am I got control over this thing?
And just to clear out the collection? And they're all
good guitars. And people have bought guitars for me, like wow,
I can't believe you got rid of it because it
just wasn't the guitar for me and it didn't speak

(01:22:16):
to me. There's things that I hold onto that people
I don't know why you keep it. It just means
something to me. And the criteria is different for everyone. Okay,
let's assume you do want to get rid of guitars.
How do you lay them off? I got about four
or five people that want stuff, and very it's very
rarely in the public um. And I know the kind

(01:22:38):
of guitars that people look for, and I just call him, Okay,
do you want this? Here's if there's any issues. I
don't really buy stuff with issues, but if there's any issues,
I just disclose them. I give them a price and
they like it or they don't, you know, so it's
it's not a big deal generally. Generally speaking, you make
money trading guitars, lose money, break even, don't care. I

(01:22:58):
always call I was when I buy. Remember I'm the
son of a guitar dealer. I buy not wholesale, but
not retail. I buy in the brackish area where I
just like I could listen, did like like we're talking
about guitars that are anywhere from five thousand dollars to
four thousand dollars. Okay, you're you're talking about stuff. Like

(01:23:24):
I said, I just want to dignified exit strategy. There's
no reason to buy a guitar to lose money. I
just like to barely if I can break even. You know,
if you come out a little bit ahead, great, um.
But I don't do it for a living, and I don't.
I don't buy with the notion I will never ever
find The people offer me stuff all the time, original
owners and stuff like that. Some people want to give

(01:23:46):
it to you, like, let's not even go down that road.
I'll pay you fair because I don't want to take
advantage of people because of my stature, not only as
a collector but as a musician. And I've I've corrected
people when they've been super undervalued on things many times
and like, I'm not gonna pay you that because they
think I'm gonna try to get it for less. I'm
gonna pay you more because I have a conscious and

(01:24:08):
I want to be able to look at anything in
my collection and go, remember the story. I buy stories,
not instruments. And that little old lady who got three
thousand dollars for a guitar when she was asking a thousand,
that's the story I'm gonna tell because she was she
just was like, you know what, thank you for the honesty,
and I go, You're welcome. I would hope that would

(01:24:29):
be the same thing if somebody was, you know, if
I was doing if I was if I showed up
with a with a with a painted egg get an
antique dealer going hey, I give me fifty bucks for this,
I hope somebody would say, like, you know, this is
a faberge. You know what I mean. It's like you
just kind of invest in, you know, your belief in people. Okay,
so you get rid of how do you replenish? That's

(01:24:51):
not the problem. That's not the problem. Finding this stuff
is not the problem. Um, I'm a big electro magnet
for guitars. People off me stuff all the time. And
that's not just guitar dealers. Most of the stuff I
try to buy is from original owners and from the source.
And and that's the hunt, because when you have four
and fifty of them, who cares? You don't need another?

(01:25:14):
It's it's like, oh, like I just found uh you know,
I just found like a once in a lifetime um
Fender Esquire from a friend of mine who works for
Guitar Center, and he bought it and and it's got
a picture of a woman in a short skirt playing
playing this sunburst Fender Esquire from nine nine. And you're like,
oh my god, that is like you can live two

(01:25:35):
collecting lifetimes and never seen anything like that. That's what
I go after. It's the ones in the lifetime stuff
that you if you're not in the circle. If you're not,
don't keep your finger on the pulse. That's what you're
gonna miss out on. Did you go to the Me
exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum which is now you do?
You're saying, no, I missed it. I missed I was

(01:25:55):
on tour, I was making the record, and I know
it went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
But you got you gotta see. You know they have
the original you know, Frankenstein guitar from Van Halen, which
has been well documented. When you see it up close,
you would not take it outside of your bedroom. It
looked like, you know, it would fall apart so soon
as you took it out stage. And uh, certainly some

(01:26:19):
the Keith Richard stuff. There's a lot of great stuff.
But in terms of what you're looking for in a sound,
is it more about the model just I'm talking about
the at the end of the day. Is it more
about the model number or reality? No matter what the
model number is, they all sound different. Here's the thing

(01:26:41):
what people don't realize in terms of gear is everybody
wanted a fifty nine Less Paul. Why because Jeff Back
and Jimmy Page play one. Eric Clapton used one in
John Mayo on the Blues Breakers and cream Um. Keith
Richards had one, you know when they played uh you know,
shin dig You know, all of a sudden, everyone in

(01:27:03):
fifty nine Less Paul ain't gonna write the songs for you.
You're not gonna sound like Jeff Beck if you got one, Okay, Um,
You're not gonna You're not gonna come up with. I
feel free if you happen to have one on the
you know, on a stand. So they were tools. I
use the guitars as tools. I also like being a
custodian of history and a history buff. I love history,

(01:27:27):
you know, preserving American history. You know that all the
stuff that I collect was made in America. Every screw
and bolt and nut and speaker and string and capacitor
in pot it's all us made, all manufactured here, and
it's a documentation of a time which this country made
everything for itself that will never get back. It's the

(01:27:48):
world is too big. It's there's two inner you know,
you know, it's just too intertwined now to where the
potentiometers and your Gibson guitar most likely now are made
in China or outsource to China. Buy the company that
Gibson buys them from. And get this, No, it's no
fault of Gibson's. It's just what they have. And they've
been doing business with CTS pots since the forties. So

(01:28:12):
all of that, you know, is what goes into being
a collector. Now, Like if in terms you asked me
about my love life, if I'm on a date, and
she goes, I see you collect guitars. Um, I'm like, yeah,
I'm a big collector, and then like you you know,
you know I really like And then if she asked me,
like why do you need all those dates over? Why

(01:28:37):
why do you need why do you need why? Why
do you need all this? If you have to ask
me that you don't get the collecting thing, it's either
you get it or you don't. And it's okay if
you don't. But I like to be surrounded by history.
I like to be surrounded by things that I love
and and play and cherish. And I have stories and
I'm a story collector that happens to masquerade as an

(01:28:58):
instrument collector. Of the four and fifty, how many do
you play within twelve months? Maybe forty? About there's about
forty road guitars and rotation. Those road guitars also double
his studio instruments. These are the ones that are set
up to play. There's the ones like like the prevailing

(01:29:19):
narrative with collectors, you want to as original as possible.
You want the original frets, you want the original everything.
And I have tons of that stuff that's never been
touched molested even looked at. It's like the Nigel Toughnesal conversation.
You know, It's like, I don't even look at it
meant perfectly preserved tons of I never play it. Why
because it doesn't deserve the beat down. It's survived sixty

(01:29:40):
five years? Why do I have to beat it down?
But I also have a fleeting guitars that are set
up for playing, and and I play about forty of
them every year consistently. And how many amps? Okay, so
you Gibson a refender, totally fender with them with the

(01:30:02):
amps most of my am Okay, Well I'll stop first
talking guitars. Um. I I serve both masses. I'm equal
about two hundred each. UM I love, but I do
love solid bodies. I only collect solid bodies and a
very few arch tops. UM. I like solid body fenders

(01:30:24):
made from nineteen fifty to about nineteen sixty four. I
love solid body Gibson's that were made from about nineteen
fifty two through about nineteen sixty five. That's about it, um.
And it's all just different variations and colors and and
and conditions of that. Okay. So let's say I had

(01:30:45):
three guitars. I had a Jaguar, jazz Master, and a Stratocaster.
Which one do you pick? And why? Okay, if you're
talking about in terms of a canoe and a river,
you take the jazz Master and the Jaguar. If you
want to play real guitar, take this trap. Okay, I
gotta go a little bit deeper there. I'm just making
a bad joke. Um, I take the strap because I'm

(01:31:08):
comfortable on his strap. Noki Edwards is great, great on
a jazz Master. Um. John Fascanti changed the world with
a Jaguar. Um. I'm I'm not a fan of those
kind of serve guitars because it's just there's something because
I'm a lead player. Um, they don't feel right when
I play lead. UM strato caster to me is more

(01:31:31):
of a tool that I can use. That that is, well,
Leah didn't invent it for me, but but but it
suits my style better. Okay, I'm gonna get click bait
it on that one. I'm gonna get killed. But but
your Fender amps, you're a tube guy, right, Always a tube.
But never discount a solid state amp, especially early solid

(01:31:52):
state like um Vox super beatles sound great. Rick and Bocker.
Transnics sound great. Some early silvertone solid states sound great,
um generally. But the weird thing is like we're the
last industry that uses this technology. I mean, like maybe
the Hi fi stuff, like they use tubes, but we

(01:32:16):
used quarter inch cables, okay, and we'll be using quarter
inch cable as long as we're playing electric guitar. Apple
will not even keep the same headphone input for more
than six months, you know what I mean. It's like
it's like it's like every time you look at it,
it's like I don't have the right adapter. I don't
have to write plug. You know. They change the plugs.
And we use quarter inch cables like old telephone you know,

(01:32:38):
operator headphone jacks. They're called phono jack's, you know, and
and and switch craft and all the it's ald timey stuff,
you know. So we're kind of a steam powered car
in the middle of a digital ocean. And how do
you feel about the English company Marshall Orange, etcetera. Uh,

(01:33:01):
James James Hendricks did pretty good with marshals Um, so
did Slash and so did you know everybody? I used
to use Marshalls a lot um Orange again, Tony Iaomi,
Jimmy Page. There's always a Matt Amp on stage with him,
which was an Orange product. Um and you know Vox.
The kids from Liverpool did great with them, you know,

(01:33:23):
you know Mike Campbell, Tom Petty Vox, you know uh Hank, Marvin,
the Shadows use Fox um and you know. So again,
it's all about the toolkit in which you require to
get the sound in your head and your heart. And
some people prefer brighter. I prefer darker guitar sound. But
it's just what I feel in my heart, not my head.

(01:33:46):
How about pedals and other effects? The Edge does great
with him. Um. I think the reliance a little bit
nowadays is a little bit too much on the stomp
box and not enough on the on the tactile playing
elements where the box does the rites the part. Now

(01:34:07):
there's a there's an argument to say that a lot
of great songs are written that way. Happy accidents you
put on two pedals at once, or or you know
Trevor Rabin like Owner of a Lonely Heart that solos
with the rack freaked out and all the things went
on at the same time and like that, Wait, don't
you know Trevor Horners like, don't touch it, just do
this all so you get the happy accidents. So you

(01:34:28):
have to have it around to have the happy accidents,
but also to the great players can just walk up
to an amp and a cable and they and you go,
oh that's Mike Campbell or oh that's the Edge, or
oh it's Jimmy Hendricks or whatever. And I use pedals
to augment the playing. And I use pedals historically, and
I've said some weird controversial things about pedals in the past,

(01:34:50):
but that was a different me in a different time pace.
You know the time and place and a headspace. But
you know, if you rely too much on on on
Tristan Knobs, the music is gonna go by and you're
not gonna you're not gonna get the most out of
the music. You know. Um, But if you're just in
the moment and playing with the band, you're gonna enjoy

(01:35:12):
the experience a lot more and you can just be freed, minxed,
turn up and go at least my attitude. Okay, let's
assume you're invited to a dinner party, not a small one,
but one way. There are multiple conversation. Okay, eight or
twelve people, and we're not talking about the subjects we're
talking about today, you're gonna fit in converse about other things?

(01:35:33):
Are you're gonna tune out? You'd be surprised, how how
how little I know about a lot of subjects. No,
I'm not saying, but are you comfortable? Is that a
good night to be talking a little bit about a
lot of subjects? Yeah? Well you say, I'd rather I'd
rather be anywhere but here. Yeah. I I don't I
like talking about Like I'm fascinated with journalism, fascinated I'd

(01:35:56):
probably be a journalist in another life. And I'm fascinated
with with um, people that dedicate themselves to public service. Um,
but not politics. I I you know, to me, it's like,
you know, it's it's the people that are in the
State department that that are a political they have been

(01:36:17):
those jobs for for you know, fifty years under the
attache to the Swedish ambassadors. Like it's like it's a
fascinating life to me, you know what I mean, Like
just the just what you're dealing with, it's so different
than what I do. And I'm fascinating with history and
news and and again like I said everything about politics,
because that that that is just a toxic pool of

(01:36:40):
nobody wins on that one, especially if we discussed it
at a dinner party or publicly. You know, and I've
seen good friends defriend each other not only on Facebook
but in real life over a post. You're like, no,
that's how it works. You can agree to disagree. Okay, Well,
we've certainly hit a nerve here. We could talk all day.

(01:37:00):
There are a lot of things that you were saying.
I would like to expand, but we'll do that sometime
off the podcast. Joe, I want to thank you so
much for doing this. I loved hearing the story, especially
since you're unique business and uh you're collecting for those
who may have forgotten. For the top of the show,
this Sunday, The Joe will be doing a live show,

(01:37:23):
which will also be available in case you aren't available
yourself for the following week. Joe, thanks so much for
doing and I'm a big fan when you when you
reach out and say hey, you want to be of course,
thank you and thank you for doing it. Until next time.
This is Bob left SAX

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