Exclusive Interview: Joe Bonamassa Gets Real About Redemption

by. Laura B. Whitmore

With Redemption, we find Bonamassa confessing his shortcomings through well-crafted songs chock full of tasty guitar licks that push the boundaries of blues-rock while sharing his soul-searching message. “I’m going through some other stuff in my life I didn’t expect to be going through. It’s a rising, it’s contrition, it’s acceptance, it’s everything. It’s painful, but knowing that there’s a rising coming,” he explains.

Here we sat down with Bonamassa to get further insight into this well-rounded project.

Can you share a bit about your concept behind Redemption?

We made a record called Blues of Desperation and this seemed to be the next logical step. To look inward before looking outward. Sometimes you have to blame yourself before you can blame others. And that’s kind of the frame of mind I’ve been in for the last year or so.

How do you walk that line between personal and universal?

A lot of this stuff is autobiographical, but I’m very leery of giving away too much of my personal information. I’m not one of those people that has to share personal experiences. That’s not really the kind of writer I am. I’m a very private person to begin with.

You had a few other guitarist on the album…did that change your approach to your own guitar playing on the project?

We had three great players on there; Rob McNelly, Doug Lancio and Kenny Greenberg. It was good to have those different colors. Normally I’m in charge of the guitar department. It was nice to have different textures and tones and stuff to work with on the record. It was a refreshing change.

Did you learn anything new from a guitar perspective?

I try to learn something new every day about things. I like to be in the room with players that are better than me. That’s always a good place to be.

Do you look for new ways to challenge yourself with each project?

For me going into it, you always try to make the best song. If you come armed with good songs and a good approach, stuff kind of plays itself. That’s always been my headspace, is to come up with the best tunes. Because that always brings out the best in other players. You can have the greatest assembly of musicians but if you don’t have a song, it’s going to be a tough day.

With Eric Clapton in semi-retirement and the recent passing of B.B. King, do you see yourself as a steward of the blues?

Everyone so often people come along that do something different with the blues. If history has taught us anything, it’s not one person that shapes it. It really is up to a generation of musicians to pick up the torch and do something different with the blues. It’s an old form of music and there are only so many notes on the fingerboard. But there are a bunch of great players and artists out there helping to create the movement. The strength is in the movement, not the individual.

How do you see the blues fitting in with what’s going in the world today?

At the end of the day, people try to write off rock ‘n’ roll or the blues, or music with guitars. Here’s the thing. If we got into a time machine and went back to the 1700s, classical and baroque music would have been the equivalent of Beyoncé and Jay-Z. So Bach and Mozart, they were the stars. But somehow people still go to a classical concert that is playing those arrangements of those songs. Conversely, when we talk about 2018. Yeah, is guitar driven hard rock derivative of the 1980’s burning up the charts? No. But is it just going to disappear? No. It was a huge movement that lasted for years and part of popular music from the ‘50s through the ‘90s.

Ultimately in 2247 there’s gonna be some dude that’s plugged into some electronic device – maybe a hologram or some sort of Jetsons stuff – that is going to be revisiting some sort of Chuck Berry song. It’s relevant to whoever finds it relevant.

There’s something visceral about the blues…people relate to the blues.

Well people feel music that’s played by human beings. It’s like a glass of Country Time Lemonade every time someone puts on a record that was played by human beings. Everyone goes, wow, that’s so dynamic and refreshing. Well of course it is, because it wasn’t played by robots! And it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to people that human beings are much better at conveying emotions through music than some sort of quantized programmed algorithm-based machine.

Can you share a bit about your Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation and your mission behind that?

We give money to schools that need it for musical education, for instruments, for guitars, for PAs, microphones – you name it. If they’re going to make music with it, we don’t care what kind. As long as they’re making music and having fun with it, that’s all we care about. It’s one of those things that I really do enjoy being a part of, because of the good that it does. If it inspires one kid to do it as a career, and they go out there with a guitar or a piano or just their God-given voice and change the world…it’s all been worth it.

Joe Bonamassa is now on an extensive tour in support of Redemption. Find out tour dates and more here: https://jbonamassa.com/

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