An excerpt from the Joe Bonamassa Feature Article "THE REAL ME" (written by Henry Yates)

Which bands are playing on the Bonamassa stereo? “Y’know, I’ll tell you, I think the best band to come out in a very long time is The Black Keys,” he says. “To me, that stuff has changed the game, and I think the record [Dan Auerbach] produced for Dr. John was just great. Some people do lo-fi for the sake of being cool, and maybe the hip rock magazines will pick it up, but, no, those guys, they walk the walk and talk the talk. One of the people that I really take a lot of arrangement ideas from – and people might be surprised at this – is Bruce Hornsby. The forgotten crooner, y’know? He’s like a musical nomad, and I take a lot of cues from him, because one day he’s doing a bluegrass record, next thing he’s got techno riffs, next day he’s putting out the best Americana stuff.

He’s got musical ADD – just like I do.” It’s not just musical. It’s easy to forget, as Bonamassa gabbles away like an old friend, that you’re in the presence of an arena-league superstar. His interview persona is the guitar-geek-donegood, and today he explains that the jut-jawed, Terminator-shaded figure of his electric shows is less a stab at cool, or an attempt to ‘hide himself’, as a practical necessity. “I’ll tell you why that is,” he says. “I always wear sunglasses because I’m very light sensitive. If there’s a bright light, I start to tear up, so imagine two 40,000-watt spotlights pointed at you, at all times. You know, it’d be like, ‘Why is he crying all the time?’ I wear sunglasses just because I see better, it’s less taxing on the eyes, plus, when I get tired, I get black circles, and it’s not very flattering…

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