Joe Bonamassa Quotes

Joe Bonamassa

Profession : Musician

Birth : May 8, 1977

I used to watch MTV when they played music, and discovered Robert Cray, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey.

Joe Bonamassa

If we got into a time machine and went back to the 1700s, classical and baroque music would have been the equivalent of Beyonce and Jay-Z.

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

I've never been universally loved from the beginning.

Joe Bonamassa

I'm not a household name; I'm just a household name to guitar freaks.

Joe Bonamassa

Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can't even begin to understand or explain.

Joe Bonamassa

I went through a period in my life where I didn't have money to buy ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly, but I also needed to go to the guitar store and buy strings and picks and polish and rags. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't play guitar.

Joe Bonamassa

The one area where I'll say that Hendrix is underrated was his ability to use chord melodies. He used different inversions of chords and was able to make a three-piece band sound absolutely huge. From the moment Hendrix and the Experience came on the scene, power trios had their work cut out for them.

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

There's always talk about the blues dying out, but it won't.

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

It's good to see young kids getting into the blues.

Joe Bonamassa

I've been lucky and very fortunate over the course of my career, and I try to do something good for people every day.

Joe Bonamassa

I'm an acoustic guitar owner - in the sense that I own them, and they sit at my house, and I never play them.

Joe Bonamassa

There was a rumour that I was buying Gibson. It circulated around the Internet... And I just go, 'How well off do you think I am?' I play blues-rock for a living. It's like a vow of poverty.

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa

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

Joe Bonamassa