OFFICAL ILX JOE BONAMASSA CELEBRATION THREAD

Listening to Bonamassa for the first time
It's like I got new ears

Are they still doing the Roadhouse reboot? He totally has to be the Jeff Healey character

WTF

Before he reached 18 years old, Bonamassa was playing in a band called Bloodline with the sons of Miles Davis, Robby Krieger, and Berry Oakley.

https://media.giphy.com/media/WriRAEzCFF9HG/giphy.gif

I strongly dislike this person's clenched anus blues rock

just a regular joe and his axe

https://media1.fdncms.com/connectsavannah/imager/u/original/4055961/bonamassa_--_rick_gould.jpg

Joe Bonamassa is known for his collection of incredibly rare sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standards. But his own signature Gibson Les Paul is a goldtop, created for him by the company in 2008.

Bonamassa recently traded in the prototype of the model at Norman’s Rare Guitars. In the video below, he talks about the guitar and how he felt when the prototype was delivered to him.

“When you’re a kid and you see a Gibson Les Paul, and then something that you’ve idolized over the years shows up at your door and it says [your name] on the truss-rod cover—it was a very special day,” he recalls.

Bonamassa immediately put the guitar to work on the recording of his 2009 album, The Ballad of John Henry, which hit Number One on the Billboard Top Blues chart.

The guitar features Gibson Burstbucker pickups and a black back. “I was trying to make like an early ’57,” he explains. It also has mismatched volume and tone knobs. Bonamassa explains that the different feel of the knobs allows him to know which one he’s grabbing without having to look, which is vital when he’s performing and singing.

Bonamassa explains that Gibson was nervous about the guitar, not knowing if his name had enough clout to carry a signature guitar. “This represented a risk on their part, and it represented a journey for me,” he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQWcD5YO8Cw

His favorite guitar is a ’59 Les Paul Sunburst, a “Holy Grail” that he actually takes on the road with him.

“I tour nine months a year,” Bonamassa told Gibson.com, in a 2011 interview. “What am I going to do, come home and noodle with it on the couch? Go, ‘Wow look at this, I’ve got a ’59 Les Paul that never gets used, maybe on a recording here and there.’ I’d rather get a nice case for it--which I did--hire an ex-secret service agent as my security guard--which I did (laughs)--and take it on the road.” In an interview with AmericanBluesScene.com, Bonamassa praised the ‘59’ Les Paul’s extraordinary tone. “I have over 300 guitars, but out of all of them, that one is definitely my favorite.”

Those trademark shades he wears vary with the seasons.

“I have four sets of them,” Bonamassa once told GuitarMessenger.com. “I have the 'hot summer show' ones–called Silhouettes, because they wrap around your ears. That prevents them from sliding off. Then, when you get into the wintertime and the theater’s not that hot, I wear a set of Pradas. I also have a set of Ray Bans and a set of Revos. I’m sure I’ve bought enough sunglasses to put somebody’s kid through college.”

The place you’re most likely to find him, when he’s not on tour, is The Home Depot.

“I’m deep into home improvements,” Bonamassa told a fan forum, in 2006. “I love The Home Depot. I'm good at walking in and picking things out, buying the supplies for the deck or whatever other project is on the list. But I leave the work to the pros. I’m just good at the buying part.”

people really only know joe as a guitarist, they don't realise just how complete a musician he is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXm79DTIw9w

FUCK YEAH

I can't pick which of these quotes is better

I appreciate anyone whose life appears to be a fake documentary.

joe bonamassa: the normcore nigel tufnel

"This one doesn't go anywhere."

"This is Steve he's my guitar's security guard"
"You mean your security guard?"
"Nope. Just the guitar."
"..."
"He also keeps an eye on my sunglasses, but I don't pay him for that."

"Oh my god Joe's been kidnapped! Steve you were right there why didn't you do anything!"
"Hey, I work for the guitar not the player!"

if the ads i see on the sides of local buses are to be believed, his performance here will be the 'guitar event of the year'

shot this at a stop sign the other day

https://s17.postimg.org/qyrlbd1j3/Guitar_Eventofthe_Year.jpg

TACO VS BONAMASSA

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/08/b1/02/08b1026e3c3f42afb36c79a8832683c5.jpg

http://fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/medium/1/bonamassa-mania-miki-de-goodaboom.jpg

http://theguitarbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Tom-Noll-Painting-of-Joe-Bonamassa.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7d/15/60/7d156032052b9ddbb736c88c79a6196a.jpg

Just heard a Bonnamassa radio commercial

Dude is like Black Flag!

If I come home from work and telephone pole at the end of my block is covered in Pettibon rip-off Bonamassa flyers...well, let's just say I won't be surprised

hell yeah dude check out this sweet fretboard inlay

http://theguitarbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Joe-Bonamassa-R9-with-Fingerboard-Inlay.jpg

Did he sign that in Tipp-Ex?

tipp-ex improves string vibration and thus adds 16% more bluesiness to bends iirc

Woah that inlay

tempted to start a pigfuck revival band called bonamassa

https://reverb.com/news/welcome-to-nerdville-inside-joe-bonamassas-home-collection

“We’ll check out the Bonaseum later,” Joe says. “No cameras in there right now.”

watching the video. he namedrops his friend steven seagal

This video came across my desk a little while back and I thought the bass player was Bonamassa, just based on his appearance and the guitar faces he was making .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH1u5j-1QZw

a day late but happy bidet, joe

https://jbonamassa.com/newsletter/2014-18/images/bonamassa-37-birthday-wish.jpg

https://jbonamassa.com/features/2015/bonamassa-100th-lespaul-anniversary-nl25/img/720x405-les-paul-100th-birthday-papeo-28.jpg

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0533/5597/products/2015_Birthday_Pin.jpg?v=1431715024

check out this bitchin' mouse mat

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0533/5597/products/how-many-guitars-f-mouse-pad_1fe5e036-2561-48f6-aded-6416420c75f3.jpg?v=1489509144

joe does some casual cultural stereotyping

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0533/5597/products/ktba_at_sea_ii_pin.jpg?v=1455036932

surfing on a cactus woah

kangaroo penis iirc

kango penis keeping the blooze alive fair dinkum bonnamassa

https://jbonamassa.com/features/2015/bonamassa-100th-lespaul-anniversary-nl25/img/720x405-les-paul-100th-birthday-papeo-28.jpg

this photo just screams Wall-Street-CEO-Steps-Out-Of-Boardroom-To-Drop-Some-Bitchen-Clapton-Licks-To-Unwind-After-Hard-Day-Making-Millions

Max-Headroom-drops-a-deuce-while-shredding was my take

thanks for the new DN

I feel like this thread can't live up to its full potential until we allow unregistered viewers to post on it. It's really missing the random Googlers so common to Ye Threades of Olde.

https://www.facebook.com/JoeBonamassa/videos/10155255820969659/?pnref=story.unseen-section

Hey, because of you people and your links, I've got Joe Bonamassa advertisements all over my internet, trailing me like a hellhound.

mission accomplished

I feel like this thread can't live up to its full potential until we allow unregistered viewers to post on it.

― Guy Pidgeotto (Tom Violence), Wednesday, May 10, 2017 1:19 PM (one week ago)

hi

you guys prompted me to ask my pal who used to work at the company that put out the top guitar mags what edit staff thinks of Boner Master. Only a few as such like him, but he said that his music is what the readership of the mags, or whatever form presently constitutes what used to be known as the readership of Guitar World and Guitar for the Practicing Musician, would make if they had the resources.

I do kinda give the guy credit in that he says that blues music made by black people in the 1940s-1950s is boring to him, and that his shit is Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Peter Green and Humble Pie. This is surely true for most dumbfucks in his position, but most dumbfucks know it's a bad look to admit such a thing and lie about it, and he doesn't.

lol i mean i guess that's a take. i don't think he would ever come right out and say it, but across the board he has a preference for white blues musicians over black ones, it's just so weird. the few times i've bothered to listen to his music it has sounded identical to blueshammer. idk it's like he is some kind of tim heidecker creation or something

i mean i'm not saying anything new or that we don't all know already, i guess that's just his enduring appeal is how he is able to achieve these stunning heights of douchebaggery and it's apparently not a bit

I do kinda give the guy credit in that he says that blues music made by black people in the 1940s-1950s is boring to him, and that his shit is Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Peter Green and Humble Pie. This is surely true for most dumbfucks in his position, but most dumbfucks know it's a bad look to admit such a thing and lie about it, and he doesn't.

― veronica moser, Monday, April 20, 2026 12:24 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

just to be clear, i have seen quotes about how he was influenced by british blues (wouldn't be the first or last modern blues player to say that) but he definitely reveres BB King, Albert King, etc and I can't seem to find evidence that he has said disparaging things about 40s or 50s blues?

maybe not disparaging but i've heard him say something to the effect of "not for me" -- i.e., just sort of dismissive like it was obviously not as compelling as Eric "God" Clapton. but i'd be hard pressed to track it down

"But those guys were my guys – Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page. There's a certain sophistication to their approach to the blues that I really like, more so than the American blues that I was listening to. B.B. King's a big influence – he's probably my biggest traditional influence. I love Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker and stuff like that, but I couldn't sit down. I was always forcing myself to listen to whole records by them, where I'd rather listen to Humble Pie do "I'm Ready" than Muddy Waters, you know? I think, the English interpretation of the blues just hit me a lot better, you know?"

I think Joe would be good at SHOCKING ILM confessions.

― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, November 8, 2017 10:07 AM (eight years ago) bookmarkflaglink

ah oh thanks

holy shit i did not realize that henry kaiser has a guitar instructional video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcS1ZvsB-IU