Joe Bonamassa has become such a figure in the world of vintage guitars, some tend to forget that he can actually play the things, too.
More than 20 years and 15 solo albums into his career, the boy wonder-turned-bluesman Bonamassa is preparing to head out on another U.S. tour, which includes one special show with both Kenny Wayne Shepard and Jason Bonham in August.
After so much time away as a result of the pandemic, Joe tells Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke that his upcoming run of shows will be as joyous as ever.
"You remember when you would go to a birthday party when you were a kid at the skate-o-rama, you know, and by the end of the night, which was about 7:30 ... the announces would come up like, 'All right, it's an all-skate! Everybody out [on the floor]! It's going to be one of those things [with all the musicians]," Joe says. "We've got a couple of songs [to do with everybody]. We're going to do a Led Zeppelin song, obviously, we're going to do a blues that Jason and I did that was a Zeppelin song. We're gonna to 'Tea for One.'
"We're gonna try and get as many members of each band on stage at the same time and try to make sense of it all. Those are always fun."
And you know Joe will have plenty of great guitars to put through their paces during the gigs. His latest purchase happened innocently enough, during a coffee run in SoHo with longtime Paul McCartney guitarist Brian Ray.
He says the "most expensive coffee" came with a Les Paul Gold Top from Rudy's Music.
"I'm a guitar addict," he admits. "I don't know what to do. I think it's a healthy addiction because I can always sell [later]. There are worse addictions, and that's how I justify it.
"But if I was addicted to something else like I'm addicted to buying guitars, it's bad. It's real bad."
Check out the full conversation via the player above!
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