You’d be hard-pressed to find another artist who’s recently dominated the blues world more than New York native, Joe Bonamassa. The 42-year-old holds the world record for most albums to top Billboard’s blues sales chart (22 to be exact) and has been playing professionally for 30 years. He rises in renown with each passing year thanks in part to an inspiring spirit and fervor for playing that’s entertained audiences around the globe.

Bonamassa took time out of his schedule to speak to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay ahead of his two-night stand at Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall. Read our full Q&A below.

Joe Bonamassa
Mon.-Tue. Feb. 24-25. $87-$207.
Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen Booth Rd., Clearwater.
rutheckerdhall.com

I know you're playing two shows at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater which is kind of a smaller, intimate venue and I just have to ask, are you happier playing for two nights in a place like as opposed to a big arena? Do you feel like you connect with the audience better in a setting like that?

I do like that better. To me, it’s a better fit for the fans. Yeah, you know, I always say if it’s good enough for B.B. King or Aretha Franklin or Frank Sinatra, it’s good enough for me. Here’s the thing about when you scale arena shows, you gotta bring strings and this kind of music is not about that.

I think there's probably a lot lost when you're playing in a place that’s too big. The audience sometimes feels like they’re not even part of it. I know that, personally, every time I go to a show at Ruth Eckerd Hall, I feel like I'm right there with the artist.

Exactly!

I’d like to go back a bit. I know you you've been doing this for 30 years and that you had the opportunity to open for a blues legend, the great B.B. King when you were 12 years old. What was that like? You had to have been panicked.

I didn't really understand the gravity of it back then. They asked me to play and then I got to meet B.B. King and, I loved his music, but he was just this nice guy. Now, I look at some of those old photos and I think ‘Wow! How lucky am I!’ to have been able to do that. And, you know, B.B. helped a lot people. He helped [blues guitarists] Kenny Wayne [Shepherd], he helped Jonny Lang so there were a lot of people he was very supportive of and he just wanted the music to live on.

To jump forward a bit, I know you've got a new album coming out that you recorded at Abbey Road Studios. What was that like? What was the vibe there?

Yeah, we just finished two weeks ago. The vibe was great. You know, the one thing about that building, those consoles, all of it…the one thing those won’t do for you is write those songs. So, at the end of the day, it did exactly what I was hoping to do. It gave a Union Jack spin on the blues-rock that I’ve been doing. Just like the records I recorded in Nashville, I hear that 615 (area code) in them. And with these albums, you know the Abbey Road record, I hear the +44 (area code). I mean, I hear I hear the area code and it’s good to have. It’s good to do that once in a while. That's why I don't have a home studio that's why I don't record everything in the same place because, if I did, then the albums would become interchangeable so I really enjoy doing these kinds of missions where we’re kind of out and about.

It seems like doing that would give every record its own feel and character, I would imagine.

It totally does, it really focuses the vision of the songwriting.

I know one of your most recent albums, Live at the Sydney Opera House, was your 22nd no. 1 album on Billboard’s blues chart.

It is. It’s the all-time record, and that’s a testament to the fans, straight up. They’ve been with me on this journey for so long that, you know, I have 22 no. 1 blues albums which is the most out of anybody in that category which is insane and I’m one away from tying the all-time record in any category which is held by George Strait who has 23 no. 1 albums on the country chart. The fans are the people who’ve stuck around for 30 years. They’re the ones who come back time and time again to hear what we do. The fans are hardcore.

I wanted to talk to you a little bit about some of your other interests. Tell me a little bit about the “Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation.” How did that come about?

Well, it’s just about us giving back. We do two cruises a year and we help schools buy instruments and it doesn't have to be blues-related it just has to be music-related. The school music programs are hard up for money if they exist at all so anything that we can do to raise money, you would think it's a no-brainer. Raising money for kids in school and music. It’s actually a lot more difficult than we thought but most of the money comes out of what we generate on the cruise what we generate out of our pockets and then the people donate you know you know are extremely generous but you know you would think it would just come rolling in but it’s a lot of work to get people to donate. So we manufactured different ways to generate money and all the money, 100%t, goes to the kids.

I also hear you’re a big car collector. How did that come about?

I’m not a car collector. I have a hobbyist-level car collection… but a world-class guitar collection. You know the difference between cars and guitars? Guitars don’t fucking leak oil. You don’t have to have AAA pick ‘em up on a flatbed when they suddenly stop working which happens multiple times with cars. I have enough cars to get in trouble and to have, like I said, a hobbyist-level collection but I’m more into guitars.

It sounds like your guitars are way more reliable. Do you have a particular favorite guitar that you like to play the most out of all of them you have?

Yeah and easier to store they don't cost a whole lot to store.And not really I mean the different facets of the collection I have mint, preserved stuff and I have the stuff that that that gets used every day and you know I mean it’s a real passion of mine. I like being the custodian of them.

Speaking of guitars, I know Guitar World magazine named you one of the 20 best guitars in the decade. That’s gotta make you feel pretty good.

I don't know, those lists are tough because there’s a kid in his bedroom that could outplay anybody else. The whole thing is I’m not really in the guitar business, I’m in the entertainment business. I’m an entertainer. I'm a reasonably good guitar player and a reasonably good entertainer and that’s why people come. They don’t just come to hear guitar heroics. They come to see the whole act and the show and the spectacle of it. Sometimes they try to make music a competition and some of the aspects of the songwriting and the entertainment value gets lost by the theatrics and the acrobatics of who plays fastest but I’m honored to be on any list. But I’m more honored to be a fan’s list that says, "My favorite guitarist is Joe Bonamassa."

That's got to be more meaningful than somebody at a magazine picking and choosing who to list. Now, you're one of those guys who, although blues is predominately the genre that you're categorized in, you still take a lot of different musical routes. Is that something that you consciously do?

Well, I write the songs that I like to hear. It’s not straight blues. I just made a straight blues record with an artist named Joanna Connor from Chicago and our mandate was to make a rough and ready Chicago blues album just like they did fifty, sixty years ago and we accomplished that. The way that I looked at myself was ‘I’m not a straight blues artist,’ by any means, but it’s also that, with any kind of music or any situation, you want to make it interesting. You want to challenge yourself, challenge the listener, challenge everything.

You have to keep it fresh and keep it interesting.

I agree.

I know you were mentored and trained by the late, great guitarist Danny Gatton.

Yeah, I was mentored by him. He was my friend Danny who played the cool Telecaster but you don’t realize the magnitude of what he felt.

I know that album of his, 88 Elmira St. from 1991 is one we used to sell a lot of when I worked at a record store back then. That’s a great album.

It is a great album but the records that he did on his own that his mom funded, 1987’s Unfinished Business and Redneck Jazz from 1978, all that stuff, the even the record he did with Tom Principato … he was an underground guitar hero in Washington, D.C. and when he got signed to a major label, Elektra Records, that’s when people starting realizing who he was. But after he died, that’s when people realized who the hell he was and what he was able to accomplish. He was probably the greatest overall musician I’ve ever met. He played music on an extremely deep level that not many people will ever achieve.

So that experience had to have influenced you quite a bit. Is there anything in particular that he might have said to you that’s stuck with you over the years?

It influenced my taste in guitars, the vast range of the music. It made me realize that it’s not just a straight blues world and that there’s a lot of stuff going on. He always used to say, "You gotta be diversified’ and always have that extra trick in your bag."

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