Joe Bonamassa recently returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s blues chart with “Live at the Hollywood Bowl,” his 28th release to do so.
That's more times than any other artist in the history of the chart.
His latest tour is playing Arizona Financial Theatre, a 5,000-capacity room.
By any reasonable metric, at 47, Bonamassa is the most successful blues guitarist of his generation.
As to how this came to be, the man himself has no idea.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
“I've been thinking about it my whole career,” he says.
“I've been lucky. We've had a couple of records that have done really well, a couple of live DVDs that have done really well. Something connects, you know? I'm not sure what, but it does. And it's worldwide. It's not just here, you know. I'm arguably bigger overseas. I don't know what it is. It ain't my good looks, I'll tell you that much.”
Joe Bonamassa cut his teeth on the blues as Led Zeppelin reimagined it
Bonamassa grew up in a musical household and started playing the guitar at 4, encouraged by a guitar-playing father who turned him onto the heroes of the British blues boom of the 1960s — Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and other Brits who cut their teeth on classic blues releases they imported from Chicago.
“I always say my journey to Chicago went through London,” Bonamassa says.
“I was enamored with Clapton, Beck and Page, Paul Kossoff, Rory Gallagher, all the great British stuff. The first version of 'I Ain't Superstitious' I heard wasn't Howlin' Wolf. It was Jeff Beck. So my journey always went through London first.”
Those legends of the British blues scene played a huge role in shaping the guitarist he became.
“I know musicians try to turn it into a myth and say, 'No, I was into the real stuff, blah blah blah,’” Bonamassa says.
“But if you were a suburban white kid and were at all interested in blues guitar back in the '80s, you went to Stevie Ray Vaughn. You went through ‘The Beano Album’ with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers. You went through 'Truth,' 'Beckola,' 'Zeppelin I,' Fleetwood Mac, 'Irish Tour '74.’ All of that was extremely relevant. That's how you got introduced to the greats. I was like, ‘Wow, this is exciting and raw!’ It had swagger. And that's pretty much how I got here.”
You can definitely hear him striving for that level of excitement in his own approach to blues guitar.
“Well, it can't be boring,” Bonamassa says. “I've been accused of being boring, but I try not to be.”
A guitar star is born:
Joe Bonamassa picked up the guitar at 4 and never put it down
From the time he started playing, Bonamassa knew he’d found his life’s work, even if he may have phrased it differently at 4.
“I never had a B plan,” Bonamassa says. “When I was a kid, I was like, 'This is it. This is all I want to do.’ It’s just always been something for me that I've really looked forward to, playing music and being around guitars.”
It took a while before he felt he’d hit his stride as an aspiring blues guitarist.
“I think you start hitting your stride after your first 10,000 hours in any field, any career,” he says.
“You start hitting your stride when you figure out, obviously, what to do, but most importantly, what not to do, and avoiding mistakes and pitfalls and things that people get trapped in all the time.
"That's something that's really important to me and very much a constant journey. You're constantly changing things about yourself, constantly trying to make it better, make your live show better.”
He’s still working toward that goal, moving the goalpost just enough to keep him motivated to improve as he gets better.
“By sheer attrition, you become a better singer over time,” he says.
“And I surround myself with the best musicians I can find. They're all better than me. I mean, that's how you make yourself better. You surround yourself with people that are better than you. Then you have no choice but to rise to the occasion.”
Bonamassa on playing with an orchestra: 'Like chewing gum and peanuts'
For “Live at the Hollywood Bowl,” Bonamassa surrounded himself with a 40-piece orchestra for his performance on the stage of that iconic venue.
“It was great,” Bonamassa recalls.
“I mean, they don't like guitars, but that's OK. Orchestras don't like loud guitars. That's just a fact. We had to make some pretty major adjustments sonically on stage from what we normally do, like crazy adjustments. My guitar was in another county, but we made it work.
He credits his longtime producer, Kevin Shirley, with sorting it out in the mix.
“When you marry orchestra with loud blues rock, those two, it's like chewing gum and peanuts,” Bonamassa says. “You don't want to take a handful of peanuts and chewing gum at the same time. But I’m thrilled. I thought Kevin Shirley did a great job.”
Bonamassa cut 'Blues Deluxe Vol. 2' to see if he'd gotten better in 20 years
Bonamassa’s latest studio release, “Blues Deluxe Vol. 2,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s blues charts, was intended as a sequel, of sorts, to a 2003 release called “Blues Deluxe.”
“I just wanted to see if I was better or worse in the 20 years,” he explains.
“I mean, that was the goal. Am I a better singer now? We answered that question, yes. Am I a better artist? Well, I couldn't pull off those songs 20 years ago. So it was really a good record, a fun record to make.”
One important key to that improvement, Bonamassa says, is making the occasional mistake.
“You learn a bigger lesson when things go wrong than when things go right,” he says.
“If a show goes well, you're like, 'Yeah, that went exactly like I planned it.’ If something happens or you're not great, you learn from that experience. And it's important to be open to that time and time again. You don't know everything. Even though I've done thousands of shows, every show is a learning experience. It has a learning curve.”
Joe Bonamassa says 'we've lowered the bar' for live music,' but he won't
One of the things he’s come to love about touring is knowing, at any particular concert, he can always try again to do a better show the next night.
“If you have an off night, which everybody does, then you have a chance to redeem yourself tomorrow,” he says.
“One gig is not gonna define your career. Good or bad. Every show, we start at zero. We were great last night. It doesn't mean we're gonna be great tonight, you know? And I think I can speak for my band when I say that's what keeps them excited every night as well, going into the unknown without a net.”
And to be clear, there is no net at Bonamassa concerts in an industry where smoke and mirrors are more the rule than the exception.
“You know, I can be like a lot of other acts and run a bunch of tracks, and we can go up there and mime, and it'll be exactly the same every night, and rip the fans off, or whatever you want to call it,” Bonamassa says.
“But we do everything live. It's a live show. I mean, things go wrong. I sing out of tune every once in a while. But I think fans like that. It's way more honest.”
Seeing people play to prerecorded tracks doesn’t cut it for Bonamassa.
“My litmus test is that if I hear background vocals that are more in tune than the Beatles at Shea Stadium, I'm out,” Bonamassa says.
“We've kind of lowered the bar over the last 30 years. You remember when people used to get caught doing that expletive) and that would be a career-ender? Now that's OK. Just remember the name of the city. Put your vocal up for that in the announcements, then you're literally just miming to tracks, and that's perfectly OK. I think what keeps us relevant is we don't do it that way.”
Bonamassa has been working on a followup to "Blues Deluxe, Vol. 2," not that necessarily thinks you need it.
“You know, I've made a lot, a lot of records in my career,” he says. “So I'm slowing down as far as what I put out. You know, the world does not need another Joe Bonamassa album. There's something like 40-something with the live ones. We don't need another one.”
Joe Bonamassa at Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2.
Where: Arizona Financial Theatre,400 W. Washington St., Phoenix.
Admission: $69 and up.
Details: 800-745-3000,ticketmaster.com.
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com.
