Features

Joe Bonamassa: The Quiet Prince

When the 35-year-old Bonamassa says that he has spent 25 years building his career, it may sound hard to believe but he isn’t exaggerating. He got his first guitar before he started elementary school and was playing Hendrix while other kids will still playing T-ball. Before he reached 18, he was part of the rock band Bloodlines, which famously featured sons of Miles Davis, Berry Oakley and Robby Krieger.

While that band never hit it big, the young guitar whiz attracted attention and admirers. One of his early champions, the legendary Tom Dowd, produced his solo debut, A New Day Yesterday, which features guest appearances by musicians like Gregg Allman and Leslie West. Since his acclaimed debut, Bonamassa has seemed to be constantly busy—recording CDs, touring, releasing live albums or working on projects like Black Country Communion. (The rock supergroup includes drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Derek Sherinian besides Bonamassa and Hughes.) All told, he’s released 15 CDs and five DVDs since 2000.

Album by album, show by show, Bonamassa has steadily built his career in a workmanlike fashion. He even uses construction terms to describe his approach: It’s about “big foundation, not about walls and a roof.” The end result might not be something enormous—“world domination is not for us,” he asserts—but rather something rock-solid and built to last while allowing him to do many things.

His BCC buddy Hughes remarked via email that Bonamassa’s career route is attracting “one fan at a time,” adding that “his contribution and accolades will come over time, like all great American blues artists that came before him. He will take it to the streets and build yearly.”

Bonamassa’s blue-collar attitude to being a musician likely comes from the fact that music is his family’s business. His father Len Bonamassa owns a music store. Len, who also plays guitar, was the one who gave a young Joe his first guitar at the age of four. Bonamassa’s grandfather and great-grandfather were both trumpeters. As a child, consequently, he was able to hear, and absorb, a wide variety of music, which resulted in his varied musical interests now.

During his youthful musical education, Bonamassa was drawn to the sounds of the British blue rockers. He has said that he had a more immediate connection to than the traditional American bluesmen, who, of course, had inspired the English electric bluesmen.

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Many of his blues-rock heroes—guys like Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff, Gary Moore and the American Roy Buchanan—were not only great guitarists but also, sadly, had their battles. Addiction lead them to early graves, while another major influence, Eric Clapton, nearly died from his struggle with drugs and alcohol.

Other significant guitar greats, like Peter Green and Danny Gatton, are known now as much for their wonderful playing as their struggles with their inner emotional demons. Gatton, who tragically took his own life, served as a teacher/mentor to the teenage Bonamassa, who has credited him with introducing him to genres outside of blues like country and jazz.

Bonamassa, however, comes off as too levelheaded to stumble into a tragic path that affected the lives of many of his guitar heroes. Maybe it is because he is a fourth generation musician, but Bonamassa understands the occupational responsibilities to a career in music.

Hughes says, “Joe has his feet firmly planted on the ground.” Bonamassa puts this way: “It’s a job (and) you can’t spend the day drinking and laying around and expect to keep your job—even in rock and roll.”