AX Man

Guitarist Joe Bonamassa's South Florida Connections Propel His Huge Success

When blues guitar wizard Joe Bonamassa hits the stage, his powerful vocals and sheer mastery of the instrument show that there is no stopping him. He plays about 200 concerts a year and is currently on a 22-show European tour. He has 17 No. 1 blues albums on Billboard — more than any other artist —and it looks like his latest, "Live At Carnegie Hall: An Acoustic Evening," will become his 18th No. 1.

Bonamassa has many Grammy nominations and more than 6 million sales from his 34 albums — and has done it all without a major recording company contract. Behind his amazing success is a Sunshine State secret. Unlike most music stars with Los Angeles, Nashville or New York management, Bonamassa relies on his own management company and record label, J&R Adventures, based in Deerfield Beach, and his manager of 26 years, Boca Raton's Roy Weisman, to guide his career. Clearly, the arrangement works.

In 1991, when Weisman saw the 13-year-old guitar prodigy (already nicknamed "Smokin' Joe") on a TV special, he called the family's Utica, New York, home, and their future together began.

'The Florida connection came about 100 percent because my manager lived in Florida,’ Bonamassa told us during a phone interview from France. "If he lived in Bismarck, we would be based in Bismarck. Everyone who works there is from Florida.”

From Deerfield Beach, Bonamassa's tours are booked; venues arranged; records distributed; and merchandising, publicity and social media finessed. Thanks to that thriving partnership, Bonamassa gets to enjoy his twin passions — making music and collecting. His California home, complete with the sign "Welcome to Fabulous Nerdville," houses his famed collection of Gibson and Fender guitars from the 1950s and 1960s — some 300 to 350 rare instruments that he often uses onstage.

Yet, he no longer owns the first guitar that his dad gave him at the age of 4.

"I'm a guitar player I trade up," he says. "I'm not sentimental about my own memorabilia. I don't have that kind of ego, and I don't have any of my early instruments.’ Instead, he collects — and loves to perform with — vintage guitars.

But why?

"Why not? I love Americana, and I love guitars," he says. "A lot of people who come to my shows love guitars from that era as well, so, to come out on stage with a 1958 Gibson Flying V — people love that. It is all about being a custodian of history.

Bonamassa's near future already is set: He'll be in Cuba in June to record a DVD ("I want to get there before they put up a Starbucks in Havana," he quips) and back on the road touring the U.S. and Canada in August.

'I always knew I wanted to be a guitar player," he says. "I wanted to be a musician, and I set my mind to it. I'm living my dream.

Source: John Blosser | BOCA Observer