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Joe Bonamassa Forum → General Topics → New Joe Bonamassa Interview (Audio + Text) For GuitarMessenger.com
Hey everyone,
just wanted to let you all know that we just launched a new interview (audio + text) over at GuitarMessenger.com with Joe Bonamassa. Check it out - I hope you dig it!
http://www.guitarmessenger.com
Click the picture of Joe in the middle to view the feature! (You can always access it by clicking 'Interviews' on the menu bar as well)
Ivan
What a beautiful interview.
Fantastic interview! Joe had so many great comments I can't decide which is my favorite. Love the golf hat picture. 
So sad when your past comes back to haunt you.
I can't listen to the audio at work but I'll be sure to catch it tonight. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks..I love these..learn something new everytime! But, I disagree with his assessment that "girls" aren't into guitar riffs....more on that later... Cathy
I can't listen at work either, but I have read and looked at pics.
Hey Joe, don't worry about that pic ..."wearing that crazy-ass plaid golf hat. I looked like a golf prodigy--it was sick." I got plenty of pictures of myself when I had dark rimmed horn shaped glasses, really big glasses, "Beatle hair-cut pictures," we all got 'em in our past, just a part of youth.... you're still the coolest dude 
I know.
pattyluvsjoe
What a great interview! It's really interesting to read (yea I can't listen at work either) all of the blues and rock artist, guitarist, etc.. that have touched you in some way in your past, so that now your style and music touches us.
Gr8 interview. Thanks for posting it up. Was surprised to read: "By and large, I would probably choose Eric Johnson, or Shawn Lane, or even Joe Satriani as bigger influences on me, than someone like Paul Gilbert." That's the first time I've seen Joe say that Joe Satriani was an influence on him. Still wishing for an eventual G3 tour with Joe, Joe, & *whoever*.
L8r... John
After reading that interview, it confirmed what I've always thought: KWS is more traditional than Joe. Not a bad thing, I really enjoy KWS's work. There's a reason why Kenny was compared with SRV so much: because when it came down to it, SRV was much more traditional than any of Joe's major influences outside of Eric Clapton, who is the epitome of a traditionalist when it comes to blues. And that's cool. Kenny's style seems very dirty and funky and greasy, while Joe's is very smooth and fiery and in your face. God bless them both.
After reading that interview, it confirmed what I've always thought: KWS is more traditional than Joe. Not a bad thing, I really enjoy KWS's work. There's a reason why Kenny was compared with SRV so much: because when it came down to it, SRV was much more traditional than any of Joe's major influences outside of Eric Clapton, who is the epitome of a traditionalist when it comes to blues. And that's cool. Kenny's style seems very dirty and funky and greasy, while Joe's is very smooth and fiery and in your face. God bless them both.
I was gonna say it is because KWS modelled his style very heavily off of SRV, while Joe tends to draw from a, dare I say, much more diverse selection. But you raise a good point as well.
I think the problem, as Joe has even said before, is that some people pretty much try to be clones instead of just drawing from their influences. After SRV died (God rest his soul), it left a void in the modern blues scene and so you had a bunch of young guys trying to fill it by "continuing" the SRV thing. I think this kind of lead to a lot of SRV clones because they didn't take what SRV brought to the table and pushed it further, they just seemed to want to out "SRV" Stevie, and that just ain't gonna happen. I think it would be much more respectable to both Stevie and the blues in general if we (as guitarists) incorporated his playing into our own language with the guitar (much like he did with his influences, which were pretty broad) and speak our own voice with it rather than trying to ride his coattails, so to speak. I think he would like that more than people just trying to wear his shoes. Wear your own shoes!
Now, I enjoy KWS, but I think, at times, he sounds like he's trying to be SRV a little too much. Although I definitely think he is less like that now than when he first started out, which is a good thing. I mean, I can tell that SRV has influenced Joe, but I never get that feeling that he is trying to be SRV like I do sometimes with KWS. I just think Joe's "blues stew" is a little more diverse, if you will. Kenny is great though. Not trying to take anything away from him at all.
Anyway, that is my rant on the matter.
PS- This reminds me of the other day when I was in Guitar Center and saw a guy that had the boots and the Billy Jack hat and the choker around his neck. He was playing a Strat through a couple of Fender amps. It was very clear that his biggest influence was Stevie in both playing and his appearance/fasion. All he did was sit there and play SRV lick after SRV lick. I really wanted to go ask him if he knew anything else. I had never seen anyone take the clone thing that far before. I laughed a little inside and just shook my head. Then I left because the people working at the GC were just being silly idiots. That and the 4 or 5 kids in there trying to out "Eruption" one another got really old.
In KWS's playing, I hear Albert Collins and Albert King and Buddy Guy and other guys like Bryan Lee and Buddy Flett just as much if not more than Stevie, along with guys like Billy F. Gibbons. It's just to the point that anytime someone does those wide bends, people hear Stevie. There were a couple of times on the 10 Days Out set that I thought KWS's tone was very strikingly similar to Albert Collins's.
That brings up another point, and I think Joe wholeheartedly agrees, and is partly why he doesn't plays very many Strats anymore: it's gotten to the point where every blues who sees a guy with a Strat must sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
And it does come back to the point that KWS's style may seem more limited to a shorter range because it is in fact. He is just way into the traditional guys, which means there's not as much room. You'll hear him mention SRV, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin. Those are all as close to pure blues as you can get. Then, we look at SRV, and his influences went past blues to guys like Kenny Burrell, Hendrix, and so on. But those are still pretty close to blues. Now, we look at Joe, who cites Joe Satriani, Danny Gatton, Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Green, and so on. So much diversity in the influences. Some of the stuff he does frankly stretches what blues is in my opinion, but it's all good. And with Kenny, those guys he listens to are more frantic, more raw, honestly. While Joe's influences tend to be more refined and smooth. I would make the argument however, that Kenny Wayne's music is more varied and different than people like to think. I mean, he went from Live On in 1999, very much a traditional blues-rock record, to 2004's The Place You're, which is a rock record through and through, to his latest project 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads, which is as traditional a blues record as you can make.
We need both Joe and Kenny in the blues world today. To me, personally, they go hand in hand, and that may be unpopular with some, but let me explain. Joe is very firmly set on the future of the blues, while Kenny is set on its past. With as history-based as blues is, without the past, guys like Joe forget their roots, where it came from. With guys like Kenny, if there is not a progression, they will get stuck in a rut. We need them both.
Again, I say, thank God for them both.
Now, if Kenny would actually get out there and do more, he and Joe would make a great tag-team to push the genre through the roof into the....dare I say.....mainstream marketplace. It needs two or three groups together to do it, i.e. SRV, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Robert Cray in the 80s.
In KWS's playing, I hear Albert Collins and Albert King and Buddy Guy and other guys like Bryan Lee and Buddy Flett just as much if not more than Stevie, along with guys like Billy F. Gibbons. It's just to the point that anytime someone does those wide bends, people hear Stevie. There were a couple of times on the 10 Days Out set that I thought KWS's tone was very strikingly similar to Albert Collins's.
That brings up another point, and I think Joe wholeheartedly agrees, and is partly why he doesn't plays very many Strats anymore: it's gotten to the point where every blues who sees a guy with a Strat must sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
And it does come back to the point that KWS's style may seem more limited to a shorter range because it is in fact. He is just way into the traditional guys, which means there's not as much room. You'll hear him mention SRV, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin. Those are all as close to blues as you can get. Then, we look at SRV, and his influences went past blues to guys like Kenny Burrell, Hendrix, and so on. But those are still pretty close to blues. Now, we look at Joe, who cites Joe Satriani, Danny Gatton, Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Green, and so on. So much diversity in the influences. Some of the stuff he does frankly stretches what blues is in my opinion, but it's all good. And with Kenny, those guys he listens to are more frantic, more raw, honestly. While Joe's influences tend to be more refined and smooth. I would make the argument however, that Kenny Wayne's music is more varied and different than people like to think. I mean, he went from Live On in 1999, very much a traditional blues-rock record, to 2004's The Place You're, which is a rock record through and through, to his latest project 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads, which is as traditional a blues record as you can make.
We need both Joe and Kenny in the blues world today. To me, personally, they go hand in hand, and that may be unpopular with some, but let me explain. Joe is very firmly set on the future of the blues, while Kenny is set on its past. With as history-based as blues is, without the past, guys like Joe forget their roots, where it came from. With guys like Kenny, if there is not a progression, they will get stuck in a rut. We need them both.
Again, I say, thank God for them both.
Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with you really, and I wasn't trying to criticize KWS so much as pointing out that his style is heavily moddled after SRV and SRV's particular influences. I personally hear more SRV out of him than anyone else (which of course, vicariously, means you are going to hear some of SRV's influences in his playing as well, such as Guy, Sumlin, Collins, King, ect.). The blues (even "traditional" blues) is a very very vast field. I think that the reason KWS sounds a lot like Stevie at times is because they have very very similar influences. But even SRV drew from a, relatively, limited aspect of the "traditional" blues, and Kenny seems to have drawn from a very similar pool of influences. I mean, listen to Johnny Winter. That guy drew from traditional blues sources as well, but you'd be hard pressed to say that SRV or KWS sound anything like him. It just goes to show the vastness of the blues in general, and how there are so many pools of influence to draw from.
I would agree with you on the Stratocaster comment as well. It is really unfortunate, too, because there are plenty of people out there that do not sound like Stevie and play a Strat. Hell, I didn't even think Joe sounded like Stevie when he played a Strat, but some people associate the image of a Strat with that kind of thing, rather than the actual sound of it.
Once again: I really enjoy KWS and am really happy he is doing what he is doing, but I can see why some people would want to call him an SRV clone, because they do have a huge number of similarities in the way they sound and the influences they drew from. But, like you said: Thank God for the both of them.
Thanks for checkin out the site and the interview everyone. I'm glad you liked it! 
Feel free to stop by anytime at the site, it's being updated on a regular basis. I'll be launching an interview with Al Di Meola later today!
Ivan
Hey gents, I know I don't play but I feel compelled to say that's it's a shame that sounding like SRV had become a bad thing..That's why I fell in love with The Hoax from England. Jessie Davy did dress like Stevie, granted that was a decade ago, but he also played with his entire body and soul. IMHO when I saw Stevie, he and his guitar were one..It was spellbinding. And, like you said, Stevies sound grew from A.C. and the whole "Texas" guitar world. There are certain times I'll listen to one of the new young ones and I'll hear a riff that is spot on Joe like Back Door Slam whose lead guitar player names Joe as an influence...Will it become a bad thing to be called the "next" Joe? I'm not asking for a clone type thing, but I want that whole SRV Strat sound and playing style to live on...Thanks for tolerating my uneducated opinion, Cathy
Hey gents, I know I don't play but I feel compelled to say that's it's a shame that sounding like SRV had become a bad thing..That's why I fell in love with The Hoax from England. Jessie Davy did dress like Stevie, granted that was a decade ago, but he also played with his entire body and soul. IMHO when I saw Stevie, he and his guitar were one..It was spellbinding. And, like you said, Stevies sound grew from A.C. and the whole "Texas" guitar world. There are certain times I'll listen to one of the new young ones and I'll hear a riff that is spot on Joe like Back Door Slam whose lead guitar player names Joe as an influence...Will it become a bad thing to be called the "next" Joe? I'm not asking for a clone type thing, but I want that whole SRV Strat sound and playing style to live on...Thanks for tolerating my uneducated opinion, Cathy
Hey, even if you don't play, you are certainly still entitled to your opinion, so don't worry too much about that!
It isn't as though it is bad to sound like Stevie, it's just that the guitar is a very personal instrument, so when you can find your own voice, that is when the true magic happens. I'll be the first to admit that SRV is a huge influence on my playing, but I wouldn't want to sound exactly like him when I play. I'd feel too much like I was stepping on Stevie's toes if I were to do that. Out of respect for SRV and his music, I continually try to find my own voice on the instrument, as opposed to completely mimicking his much loved style, which is what I think Stevie would probably want anyhow.
Hey gents, I know I don't play but I feel compelled to say that's it's a shame that sounding like SRV had become a bad thing..That's why I fell in love with The Hoax from England. Jessie Davy did dress like Stevie, granted that was a decade ago, but he also played with his entire body and soul. IMHO when I saw Stevie, he and his guitar were one..It was spellbinding. And, like you said, Stevies sound grew from A.C. and the whole "Texas" guitar world. There are certain times I'll listen to one of the new young ones and I'll hear a riff that is spot on Joe like Back Door Slam whose lead guitar player names Joe as an influence...Will it become a bad thing to be called the "next" Joe? I'm not asking for a clone type thing, but I want that whole SRV Strat sound and playing style to live on...Thanks for tolerating my uneducated opinion, Cathy
Hendrix went through it back in the late 70s I've read and been told. It's just what happens when a guitar player comes along that is so influential. Think about it: Eddie Van Halen comes along, and by the end of the decade everyone was shredding, and everybody got tired of it. When Hendrix died, everybody tried to be the next Hendrix, and his reputation slagged. Stevie's going through the same thing, but with guys like Joe and Derek Trucks coming up who are doing something different, it will be soon that Stevie's reputation will be better. It happens. These people that say they're tired of Stevie's stuff are basically saying they're tired of other people trying to copy it, because it has been done and done and done again. And it has. But, like I said, when someone that huge has that much influence, it will happen, but in a few years, it'll be good.
Deezer...Right. I go to a blues jam and some drunken college kid jumps on stage and says,"Let's do Pride and Joy!" If I'm in a good mood I say "...great tune! Is Stevie here?"
If I'm tired of wannabees I'm often enthusiastic & ingenious in my combinations of insults & foul language. My deaf drummer just says, "No wonder you don't have any friends." I love SRV. I love Albert King, too.
Cathy dear, if you really do sound like SRV, that is a good thing. faking it and not making it is tiresome. grumble, grumble. grumble.
Oh well, I'm just
Jeff
I am OK now....Sweet!
Rock On & Keep the Faiith,
Rocket
"
In my opinion there are WAY too many guitarists who sound/dress etc like SRV. I will say he is a HUGE influence on my playing. It is okay to be heavily influenced by someone, but I believe that music is an art form used to state ones individuality and state of mind. SRV was an amazing musician with timeless playing that was the amalgamation of many legends before him. I can hardly listen to guys like Chris Duarte, Wes Jeans, KWS and Henry Garza because all I hear is note for note SRV without the spirit and individuality SRV had. Master guitarist and educator Don Mock expresses how ones influences should lead to his or her originality.
Emulation: The Road to Originality
by DON MOCK
You've probably heard from several players that learning licks or lines is an important ingredient to mastering improvising. I'm no exception. It has been proven to me time after time how helpful emulating favorite musicians is to developing as a player. Despite popular belief, we're not born with music running through our veins. We have to put it there. Only a very very few musicians are "naturals" able to make up their own music without hearing or copying other players. Most of us normal folk need to surround ourselves with music and force feed it to ourselves. After a few short years of copying the licks and styles of our heroes, we will begin to discover our own individual style. Let me give you the short version of my own learning guitar story. When I was young I never gave the notion of sounding "original" a second thought. I simply wanted to sound exactly like my favorite players. In my late teens and early twenties I practiced over ten hours a day. I'd latch on to the "hot" guy at the time and spend weeks trying to cop every note off his record. Over the next ten years or so I emulated many of the top players traversing from rock to blues and finally spending the most time in the jazz world. If someone came up to me at a gig and said "Don, you sound just like George Benson!" I would happily respond with:"Thank you very much!" I had accomplished my goal.
A few years later when playing a gig in L.A. an excited fan came up to me and said; "Don, I have never heard anyone play like that before! How did you come up with all that stuff?" He insisted that I had a very original style and wanted to know how I developed it. I told him that it just happened all by itself. I explained that sounding like no one else was not my intent, I just wanted to play as well as the guys on my records. I later realized that my style was a natural evolution of learning. No matter how hard I tried to sound like my record collection, I would always end up sounding like myself. Students of other art forms such as painting or poetry, also find that emulating the styles of the masters paves the way to their own originality. My playing is a mixture of many influences culminating into my own style. (My only regret is not spending more time on horn and piano players.)
I should mention that throughout my years of studying recordings, I paralleled this with an intense study of music theory. All the hot licks in the world would have been useless had I not known what scale or chords they belonged to. Theory can also help you find new ways to use licks that you know. I soon began to superimpose lines over different chords than on the recording. I also changed individual notes, rhythms, added bends, as well as stylistic inflections such as hammer-ons and pull-offs.. And then there is musical style. Who says you have to play lines in the same style, or with the same guitar sound as the original artist? This was my ace in the hole. I often took lines from traditional jazz players like Joe Pass and played them in a jazz/fusion setting with screaming distortion on my Les Paul. I combined maybe a Hendrix lick with a Pat Martino phrase. McLaughlin with Montgomery, etc. You get the idea.
I could name a long list of extraordinary guitar players who all learned to play the same way I did. In many cases, it's nearly impossible, when hearing them play, detecting who their influences were. The note-for-note learning of lines from recordings or from books mature in a players mind and soul in the following manner. At first, a new line may feel foreign with uncomfortable fingerings, tricky picking patterns and unfamiliar sounds. After a few weeks of practicing the line, it starts to feel more natural yet still seems a bit mechanical. Several months later the line is comfortable but you still must consciously think of it as "so and so's lick" to recall it. After a year or so, the line starts to become a part of you. You find yourself humming it and can play it with almost unconscious thought. The line by now has also probably changed a bit. You might be playing it with different accents or maybe changed a few notes or the rhythmic orientation (triplets instead of 8th notes, etc). You may even have unknowingly connected it to another line idea. And finally, a few years down the road, you may not even remember the specific line as you first learned it. It has evolved to a pure musical thought that you "hear" in your head. And "playing what you hear" is, after all, what improvising is all about.
Joe Bonamassa Forum → General Topics → New Joe Bonamassa Interview (Audio + Text) For GuitarMessenger.com
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