​HPR EXCLUSIVE: JOE BONAMASSA INTERVIEW

The blues guitar wizard has been a legend since opening for B.B. King and John Lee Hooker when he was just in junior high. At 38 years old, he has 12 solo albums under his belt, one Grammy nomination and he even performed at London’s Royal Albert Hall. His latest release “Blues of Desperation” saw him teaming up with some of Nashville’s top songwriters to record an album of entirely original compositions.

In addition to his solo career, Joe Bonamassa is part of Black Country Communion, a super group featuring drummer Jason Bonham, former Deep Purple singer Glenn Hughes and keyboardist Derek Sherinian, who has played for Dream Theater and Alice Cooper. The band formed in 2009 and released three albums before breaking up in 2013, but they recently announced plans to reform next year.

Bonamassa took the time to open up to HPR about his latest album, his massive guitar collection and the Black Country Communion reunion.

High Plains Reader: With your last two releases you made a move from albums with a lot of cover songs toward albums comprised entirely of originals. How easy has it been transitioning from taking on someone else’s work to starting from scratch?

Joe Bonamassa: Sometimes when you do a cover of a song you’re almost better off writing a new song and you end up writing a new song anyway. We never just did verbatim versions of songs and the last two albums I decided to rekindle my interest in making original music and it’s been worth it. All that hard work that goes into making a record ultimately comes out when we play the songs live. It’s just like the crowd immediately responds to them and it’s been a real nice transition and it’s been successful over the last two albums. The last two albums, ‘Different Shades of Blue’ at number eight [Billboard] top 200 and the new one was number five, so it’s been working.

HPR: Last I heard your guitar collection was at around 120.

JB: Actually I was a little bit mistaken. I was miscounted by like 140. It’s up to about 250 at the moment. I didn’t realize it accrued that much until I redid my insurance and I started going through case after case after case just like hitting serial numbers and just seeing what I had and went, ‘Sh*t. That’s my 250th guitar,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, man.’

HPR: And you had cut back a little bit too right? Because I know before you had said it was around 300.

JB: Yeah, I had sold off a bunch of guitars about five or six years ago to fund the purchase of one big one. You know what I mean? You’re basically trading 150 guitars or so for one guitar. And I ended up selling those off and I don’t miss any of that stuff that I sold off. I’ve just been kind off socking away ever since, so anyway, it is what it is. It’s an addiction.

HPR: So how many guitars did it take you to record the new album?

JB: Probably about 11, 10 or 11. I had different tool kits. I had a couple acoustics ... I had a Gretsch, I had two vintage Les Pauls, I had my ’58 Flying V, 345, and ES-5, just all the screwdrivers.

HPR: I read in an interview that you didn’t start singing until you were 18 and regretted starting so late. Having already been established as a great guitarist, what made you want to pursue singing too?

JB: I got tired of lead singers so I figured I’d become one so I didn’t have to deal with fear of success or fear of failure. And I knew I wanted to be successful and I knew I wanted to keep my head on straight and make a run at this thing. But if you’re constantly at the beck and call of a crazy singer, then you’re whole destiny is almost controlled by somebody else, unless you want to play instrumental music. That’s double tough, you know what I mean?

HPR: Was it difficult learning how to sing or rather learning how to sing and play such technical parts on guitar at the same time?

JB: Singing is probably the hardest thing that I do on a daily basis because it is very unpredictable. Your voice is just like a muscle and some days you have it and some days you don’t and some days it’s better than others. But I’ve embraced it and I think it’s become just as strong as a part of my shows as the playing. I’ve been singing it for 20 years now. At the end of the day it’s been well worth it.

HPR: While I’m sure you had trouble learning some songs as a kid, are there any songs you have trouble with in your adult life?

JB: Yeah, it’s very strange because I’ve never been one of those kind of guys that’s just out to learn a song. Take ‘Stairway to Heaven’ if you want, like I don’t really know it. You know what I mean? I never learned cover material, I only just learned songs that I was going to play for the show ... I would jam to records, I would totally jam to records. I’d put Cream on and jam along to ‘Crossroads’ or ‘White Room’ or something like that and learn how to solo and improvise.

HPR: Black Country Communion announced they’ll be reuniting. Will this be a new album and another tour?

JB: We’re gonna start an album, let me just say that. We’re gonna do an album and we’re gonna go from there.

HPR: What did it take for you guys to get back together?

JB: I just reached out to everybody. Life is too short to hold a grudge and we make good music together. I just reached out to Jason and I reached out to Derek and I reached out to Glenn and I had dinner with Jason ... And just kind of made my amends and said I’m sorry and there was a lot of stuff taken out of context and there was stuff taken in context, but it was one of those things where we said we we’re gonna keep on doing it. So we’ll see about maybe doing some shows and just take it one day at a time.

IF YOU GO

Joe Bonamassa

Saturday, May 7, 8 p.m.

Fargo Civic Center, 207 Fourth St N