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Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast

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Speaker 1: Why Guess Today because guitarists extraordinary? Joe Bonamas, Joe, thank

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Speaker 1: you for having me, Bob. This is like a real honor.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've been a fan of your work for

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Speaker 1: twenty years, you know, and the fact that like I'm

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Speaker 1: on your radar is it's it's it's a real it's

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Speaker 1: a real treat. You know. I even set you an

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Speaker 1: email saying, hey, thanks for the kind words about my song.

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Speaker 1: You know, you don't get that every day, not around

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Speaker 1: here at least, I don't get positive feedback like that

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Speaker 1: every day. So, Joe, you're doing a live stream in

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Speaker 1: a couple of days. Tell me how that came to be. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, we all we've just been sitting around for

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Speaker 1: five months and we're bored, and you know, and now

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Speaker 1: is the thing. It's like, well, how do you promote

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Speaker 1: a record in the traditional avenues of promoting the record

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Speaker 1: are not available to you like we would we would

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Speaker 1: start playing songs traditionally off a new album a month

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Speaker 1: two months before a tease, three or four songs, and

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Speaker 1: everybody kind of oh, you know, can't wait for October.

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Speaker 1: Well we haven't toured since March, and we decided to

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Speaker 1: do this pay per view at the Rhyme and and

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Speaker 1: we're gonna debut the record, you know, start to finish

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Speaker 1: in order, which we've never done before. And it's a

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Speaker 1: way to promote the record. It's also a way to

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Speaker 1: raise some money for charity. Um, because I've been I've

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Speaker 1: been doing this thing, uh for the last few months

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Speaker 1: called fueling Musicians, And it's basically because I've been very

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Speaker 1: fortunate my career and I can weather the storm and

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Speaker 1: you know, hopefully come out the other side doing okay. Um.

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Speaker 1: But a lot of my friends in the music business,

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Speaker 1: especially in the blues business, are really struggling to find

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Speaker 1: ways to pay their bills until we're allowed to come back.

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Speaker 1: So it was a win win on both sides. We

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Speaker 1: get to promote the record, raise some money for a

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Speaker 1: good cause, and hopefully, you know, make some people happy

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Speaker 1: in a time where we need that. Tell us more

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Speaker 1: about the philanthropy, the charitable end of the show. Well,

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Speaker 1: the whole thing about it is We've had this thing

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Speaker 1: called Keeping the Blues Alive Foundations. You know, it's a

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Speaker 1: nonprofit for about seven or eight years, and you know,

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Speaker 1: through our cruise and you know, just just raising money

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Speaker 1: in the private sector. We were able to you know,

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Speaker 1: come up with about six hundred thousand dollars in which

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Speaker 1: we were you know, given away to schools and music programs.

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Speaker 1: Since then, we've raised over a million dollars because were

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Speaker 1: five thousand has coming the last few months and we've

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Speaker 1: been given it away to musicians. So when you buy

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Speaker 1: the hundred dollar package, um of you get your you know,

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Speaker 1: you get your face, cardboard face in a seat, you know,

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. That's really to me. You know,

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Speaker 1: like like a portion of that money is going to

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Speaker 1: go directly to musicians in need, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: them are represented. Ten of them at least are represented,

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Speaker 1: you know in the after show, like people like Tired

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Speaker 1: Bryant and all of our friends from you know, Keeping

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Speaker 1: the Blues Alive, pass cruises and whatever. We've helped people,

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Speaker 1: and you know, again, it's like philanthropy. If you're lucky

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Speaker 1: enough to be able to do it, Now is the time.

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Speaker 1: Now is the time to step up and make a difference. Okay,

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Speaker 1: keeping the Blues alive. From your viewpoint, what is the

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Speaker 1: state of the blues and can blues survive? And come back.

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Speaker 1: You know, they've been writing this article since the sixties.

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Speaker 1: Is Blues dead? You know? How how do you kill

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Speaker 1: off something that never was? You know, like it's one

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Speaker 1: of those things where like, you know, is the Blues dead?

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Speaker 1: Is the blues still relevant? Is the blues this is?

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Speaker 1: It's like, you know what, here's the thing keeping the

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Speaker 1: blues alive. The blues is how you make it. You know,

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Speaker 1: every ten years there's a Gary Clark Jr. That comes

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Speaker 1: along and and gives it a B twelve shot in

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Speaker 1: the butt, and all of a sudden is the new

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Speaker 1: blues boom question mark? And then and then somebody you

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Speaker 1: know that it kind of fades and rides the wave

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Speaker 1: and then and then you know, something else comes along,

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Speaker 1: and then somebody else like you know, you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: Chris stone Ingram kingfish Ingram. Well, he'll make a definitive

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Speaker 1: record that changes his life, you know, and then they'll

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Speaker 1: be right in the same thing about him in five

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Speaker 1: or ten years that they wrote about me in oh nine,

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Speaker 1: and they wrote about Gary Clark Jr. In two thousand,

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Speaker 1: you know, like two thousand. To me, at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, Um, it's not a question of is

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Speaker 1: the Blues dead. What's the status of the blues. It's

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Speaker 1: just who's gonna who's gonna give it the B twelve

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Speaker 1: shot that comes along every decade. And you know my

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Speaker 1: turn was in O nine in ten and and you

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Speaker 1: know Gary's was five six years ago, or you know,

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Speaker 1: three years ago, and it'll be somebody else's to take

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Speaker 1: in five years, you know. So that's that's what I. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we'll get back there, but let's stay with the live show.

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Speaker 1: So the live show is Sunday the twenty at one pm.

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Speaker 1: How did you decide on one pm? That's uh, four

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Speaker 1: pm East coast, one pm West coast. We need sell

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Speaker 1: packages in Guam. Apparently I'm big and Guam, you know.

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Speaker 1: So the whole thing is is we decide it's three

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Speaker 1: pm Central, so before percent, you know, four pm on

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Speaker 1: the East coast, Uh, you know, you know, one one

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Speaker 1: pm on the West coast. Plus Europe, it'll be like

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Speaker 1: just after dinner, eight o'clock, nine o'clock. You know, we

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Speaker 1: have a lot of fans in like Moscow. St. Petersburg

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Speaker 1: will be ten eleven o'clock. And then also it would

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Speaker 1: be like wake up to Joe Bonamassa and friends, in

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Speaker 1: Australia and you know New Zealand and Hawaii and all

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Speaker 1: that stuff, and and so we decided to kind of

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Speaker 1: try to just play the whole globe. What would be

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Speaker 1: the best time to play this gig where everybody has

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Speaker 1: a good chance to watching it as it goes down.

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Speaker 1: Now it will be on it will be on the UH,

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Speaker 1: it will be on the interwebs and on our our

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Speaker 1: our our stream for seven days, so you can watch

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Speaker 1: it anytime after you you know, if you buy it,

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Speaker 1: you can you don't have to watch it as it

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Speaker 1: goes down. You can watch it the next day at

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Speaker 1: your convenience. But we've just figured, you know, three pm

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Speaker 1: Central would be a good starting point. We're just guessing.

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Speaker 1: We're making this up as we go along about you know,

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Speaker 1: That's why I'm asking, we're informing everybody the whole live

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Speaker 1: performance world is in transition. How do you decide on

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Speaker 1: the rheman selfishly? It's a block from a house, okay,

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Speaker 1: and to what degree do they have infrastructure? To what

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Speaker 1: degree do you have to bring in your own UH equipment? Well,

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Speaker 1: ever since this thing started, um, you know, you walk

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Speaker 1: by the Rhyman and there's there's TV trucks, you know,

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Speaker 1: um out there almost daily, you know, so they've been

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Speaker 1: live streaming, people have been doing special events there. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's a very special place for me because it means

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Speaker 1: the world that I get to play there. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I have posters on my wall that' say you know,

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Speaker 1: you know the next three nights Joe Bonamassa live at

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Speaker 1: the Rhemans. This was inen and that we did one

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Speaker 1: last year and and it's a beautiful place. It's it's

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Speaker 1: something that I never thought I would achieve in my career. Going, man,

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Speaker 1: I could. I literally can walk to work and it's

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Speaker 1: the Rhyman Auditorium. And I know a lot of people

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Speaker 1: in this town, a lot of people that don't live here, going, man,

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Speaker 1: if I could just play the Rhyman one time, it

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Speaker 1: would be fine, you know. So it's a special venue

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Speaker 1: to me. Um. It's also a great venue, has great acoustics.

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Speaker 1: So even though there's no no people, but you start

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Speaker 1: putting the room mix in it and you know, I

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Speaker 1: call it the Frampton comes Alive effect. It's like that

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Speaker 1: big reverb thing. It's nice and so it's gonna make

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Speaker 1: for a good live concert. And um, you know, the

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Speaker 1: band will look good on stage. We were dapper folks.

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Speaker 1: Need let's just say we have a virus at this

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Speaker 1: time and you're doing this live show. What are you doing?

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Speaker 1: What precautions are you taking so that the people actually

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Speaker 1: in the band and the building and the crew are

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Speaker 1: not getting infected. So we bay basically we're all tested

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Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. Happy to report everybody is

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Speaker 1: COVID free. We will rehearse with that in mind, meaning

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Speaker 1: that we're starting to get into the bubble, and then

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Speaker 1: on we're tested again. On the we really go into

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Speaker 1: the bubble band and crew, and we don't really come

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Speaker 1: out until like you know, five o'clock on September twenty. Now,

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Speaker 1: if there's a if there's a problem, we have to

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Speaker 1: deal with it, um. But we're taking as many precautions

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Speaker 1: as not only the rhyming requires, but as we require

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Speaker 1: as just human beings, um to make sure that that

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Speaker 1: that our people are safe, because that's really tantamount to

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Speaker 1: what we're doing. There's no gig worth somebody's health. There's

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Speaker 1: no gig worth somebody's life, obviously, But what we're doing

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Speaker 1: is we're without it being like without really just putting

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Speaker 1: isome you know, isometric chambers around Reese Weinen's and and

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Speaker 1: and you know myself. We're basically, you know, um uh

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Speaker 1: you know, we're basically doing as much as we can

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Speaker 1: to prevent everybody, you know, from being at risk. I

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Speaker 1: don't even know if is I so metric the right now?

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Speaker 1: It's but I wasn't gonna bust you onf no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: But I was like, what is what did I just say?

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, remember those exercise from the sixties.

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Speaker 1: But then I think of Carson hyperbolic? That is that?

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Speaker 1: Is that the right? Is it? With its hyperbolic chambers? Sorry,

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Speaker 1: I've been producing a record my brains mush pop. But

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Speaker 1: thank you for That's okay, that's okay. I was gonna

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Speaker 1: let it slide, but it was I thinking, oh god, okay.

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Speaker 1: So one interesting thing. If somebody goes to your page

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Speaker 1: and they want to go to this show or watch

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Speaker 1: this show, they're different levels of buying, which you also referenced.

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Speaker 1: How did you come up with that concept and how

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Speaker 1: did you come up with the specific price points for

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Speaker 1: this show? Well, we we basically looked at other models

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Speaker 1: what people were doing. Um, now there's some it's it's

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Speaker 1: like it's like it's like when you buy vinyl, vinyl

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Speaker 1: is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? No

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Speaker 1: people pay more for the for the was it the

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Speaker 1: five grand vinyl and stuff like that. So some people

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Speaker 1: want to watch in HD. Some people have a huge

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Speaker 1: rig at their house. They have the mac they have

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Speaker 1: the Macintosh power ramps and the and the super High Deaf,

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Speaker 1: which I'm not sure how I look in super high deaf,

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Speaker 1: just saying okay, some people don't need to be shot

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Speaker 1: in super high Deaf. I probably am one of those folks,

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Speaker 1: like you're like, whoa geez bombases it's been a rough

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Speaker 1: forty three, So I mean based on the tears are

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Speaker 1: based on the definition. And then obviously obviously what we're

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Speaker 1: talking about is is you know, like the hundred dollar

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Speaker 1: packages is a donation to the charity. You know, you

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Speaker 1: also get a you know, you get a record credit,

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Speaker 1: a DVD credit, so like they'll be seventy or whatever.

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Speaker 1: People we sell this thing too is they're gonna be

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Speaker 1: you know, credited on the DVD and you know, so

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Speaker 1: they get to look at themselves eventually in All Music

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Speaker 1: Guide and be like, hey, look at me. I was

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Speaker 1: credited on Joe bonamass Alive and you know the COVID

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Speaker 1: sessions at the Rhyman whatever we're gonna call this thing,

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Speaker 1: and and you know, it's just trying to engage the

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Speaker 1: fans and make them feel vested while also you know,

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Speaker 1: donating to charity as well. How long you lived in Nashville.

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Speaker 1: I had this place three years. I still have the

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Speaker 1: place in California. By the way, I I I'm very

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Speaker 1: lucky in my career. I have three theme parks that

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Speaker 1: are guitar based. I live. I have a place in California,

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Speaker 1: New York and and here. But I've been working here

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Speaker 1: out of here so long, it just made sense to

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Speaker 1: buy a place that you know, it's supposed to just

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Speaker 1: stay at a hotel for a month, you know, while

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Speaker 1: you're making a record or writing. Okay, people, what studio

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Speaker 1: did you recorded? We just got done. Um I just

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Speaker 1: produced a record for Eric Gales the great Erica as

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Speaker 1: a guitar right and um I um. We worked at

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Speaker 1: Sound Emporium. So I either work at Sound Emporium or

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Speaker 1: I work at Ocean Way, and they're great studios. We've

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Speaker 1: done records at Blackbird. You know, so you're kind of

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Speaker 1: spoiled for choice in this town. And also you're spoiled

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Speaker 1: for choice as far as a musician. You know, like

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Speaker 1: the level of musicians here in any genre any way

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Speaker 1: you want to look at it, or if it's not here,

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Speaker 1: it's not anywhere. I mean, they're all they're they're all

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Speaker 1: congregating in Nashville, especially now it's cheaper to live in

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Speaker 1: l a bro Uh. But what it's what's it like

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Speaker 1: being a blues player in a country town. I think

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Speaker 1: it's cool because you stand out, you know, do do

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Speaker 1: you ever get called for sessions? I get called to

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Speaker 1: do guest spots, like you know, they they call me

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Speaker 1: because they want the little the little the little yellow

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Speaker 1: sticker on on the CD featuring special guests so and so,

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Speaker 1: so and so and so and so. So they don't

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Speaker 1: call me to be like, you know, like like a

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Speaker 1: Brent Mason or somebody like that. Um, they call me

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Speaker 1: to to to overplay over changes. You know, they're like,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, we need some blues rock overplaying Carbon Amassa,

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Speaker 1: you know. And that's it. But I don't really put

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Speaker 1: myself out there, nor do I really fancy myself as

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Speaker 1: session guitar player, because I don't feel that. I believe

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Speaker 1: what makes me good as an artist would make me

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Speaker 1: a bad session player. And if I became a session player,

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Speaker 1: it would dilute my what I am as an artist.

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Speaker 1: And and so for me, that's that was a conscious decision.

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Speaker 1: Years ago. You're like, oh, what makes you great as

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Speaker 1: an artist? I'm a bowling the China shop. I stand

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Speaker 1: up there, I play louder, and I make people notice me,

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Speaker 1: and that's what makes me good as an artist. Listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm a blues rock artist with a strange last name,

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Speaker 1: a very funny speaking voice, and people say I sound

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Speaker 1: like Kermit the Frog, especially the kind of microphone that

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Speaker 1: I use. Um, which is what kind of microphones? And

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Speaker 1: I don't know I use. I use a telephone in

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Speaker 1: and live. But but when I speak, I sound like

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Speaker 1: Kermit the Frog. When I try to sound like Paul

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Speaker 1: Rodgers when I sing, I fail in both both categories.

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Speaker 1: And I don't have a discernible hit song. So that

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Speaker 1: so that in the music because the deck is stacked

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Speaker 1: against me, but because I have this chip on both shoulders,

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Speaker 1: and when I play and when I sing and when

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Speaker 1: I do something, I try to move the needle. And

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Speaker 1: that's what makes me good as an artist. And and and

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Speaker 1: and I step up there and I just do what

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Speaker 1: I do un apologetically. That's what's that's what's gotten me

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Speaker 1: noticed over the years. And a few decent songs which

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Speaker 1: came first You're bull in a China chop style, or

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Speaker 1: you realizing that worked and you empty up. Um. I

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Speaker 1: knew it worked when I was eleven years old. I

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Speaker 1: walked up there, I was called up to play. Oh god,

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Speaker 1: I was called up to play with a cold shop

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Speaker 1: blues band in Hamilton's, New York at a place called Nardies.

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Speaker 1: And it was the Hamilton's Blues Festival and it rained

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Speaker 1: all day, so they moved it inside. Luckily. Unluckily for

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Speaker 1: the promoter, was like a hundred fifty people showed up

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Speaker 1: for the entire blues festival, included the headliner, James Cotton,

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Speaker 1: the late great James Cotton, And he watched me play

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Speaker 1: with the opening act and he invited me to up.

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Speaker 1: He invited me up to play with his band, and

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Speaker 1: he says, man, you know how to get people's attention,

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Speaker 1: don't you. And it always stuck with me and I said,

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Speaker 1: I just don't know anywhere else. It was like I

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Speaker 1: was a shy kid. I'm still a shy kid, but

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Speaker 1: you give me a guitar and a namp and I

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Speaker 1: know what to do, especially electric guitar, because that's really

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Speaker 1: where I've always found my confidence. And I found the

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Speaker 1: other character meeting. The character is the guy in the suit.

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Speaker 1: That's the confident Bona Massa. Not to speak to myself

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Speaker 1: with the third person, but that's what I'm doing. And

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Speaker 1: the shy kid is the nerd kid with the guitar collection,

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Speaker 1: with the glasses and the hat that you see on

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Speaker 1: the zoom call. And ultimately it's two different people, but

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Speaker 1: it's all the same person. It comes from an authentic place.

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Speaker 1: And I don't really I don't want to be the

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Speaker 1: guy who dresses for the gig when he goes to

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Speaker 1: Walgreens to pick up a toothbrush, you know. And I

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Speaker 1: don't want to be the oh shucks. I just I'm

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Speaker 1: just here to just here to participate guy either. So

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Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of the road. Okay, through your eyes,

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Speaker 1: who's the best rock gutars, best blues guitarists of all time?

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Speaker 1: UM paid to say it, but I will if you're

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Speaker 1: talking about a guy who's reinvented himself and then in

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Speaker 1: to me the top of the heat for five decades

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Speaker 1: in a row. I gotta say, Jeff Beck, I'm with you, Okay.

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Speaker 1: People don't realize. And he plays without a pick. I

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Speaker 1: want to talk to him and said, you never miss

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Speaker 1: a note, and he was humbled about that's not his reputation.

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Speaker 1: But when he plays, it's astounding. It's astounding. You say

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Speaker 1: he reinvented himself, Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?

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Speaker 1: So starting the sixties, he comes out he's just out

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Speaker 1: of the yardbirds, got a chip on his shoulder's gonna go.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna show them. And then he makes Truth and

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Speaker 1: Beco Lah almost in the same year, recruits his kid

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Speaker 1: from wherever, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Mickey Waller, Nicky Hopkins,

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Speaker 1: and they go in and they're like, we're gonna make

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Speaker 1: a heavier Beano record, which, by the way, tomorrow I

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Speaker 1: get to interview John Mayo. How cool is that? Right?

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Speaker 1: And then he makes two those kind of records. The

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Speaker 1: band breaks up and they and they cancel on Woodstock.

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Speaker 1: Next thing you know, he's he's in the studio with

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Speaker 1: Bobby tench and he doesn't sound the same as he

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Speaker 1: did four years or three years before. Okay, next thing,

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Speaker 1: you know, blow by Blow wired all those records. All

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, the musos like him. Then he goes

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Speaker 1: through there and back and then meet Simon Phillips, and

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Speaker 1: then he makes Guitar Shop, then he makes who Else

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Speaker 1: and Neal. Brush with the Blues changed the game. Okay,

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Speaker 1: stop there, because the only problem with Brush with the

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Speaker 1: Blues is not enough people have heard it well. The

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Speaker 1: only there's two problems with Brush with the Blues. The

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Speaker 1: two problems with Brush with the Blues not to slide anybody,

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Speaker 1: because we've all been influenced, is if you listen to

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Speaker 1: Ray Gomez, who used to play with Stanley Clark and

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Speaker 1: Rita Franklin. If you listen to a song called sweet Life,

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Speaker 1: which predates Brush with the Blues about fifteen years, and

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Speaker 1: then Brush with the Blues he something chicken or the Egg.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything. I'm just suggesting you listen to

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Speaker 1: Ray Gomes as well. But we've all been influenced. The

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Speaker 1: problem Brush with the Blues is you go, oh my god,

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Speaker 1: here's a guy who at that point in his career

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Speaker 1: could have just said whatever, I'm Jeff Beck and you're not.

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Speaker 1: But keeps going and going and doubling down and then

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Speaker 1: you know, um was it the last record he did

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Speaker 1: with um Loudhailer or one of those records where people

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Speaker 1: kind of looked at me like, well, what's he doing.

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Speaker 1: It's like he's experimenting and he's never he never rests

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Speaker 1: on his laurels. And that's why I think he's the

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Speaker 1: best of all time. Hendrix was the biggest game changer

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Speaker 1: because it just it just went it just went mad,

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Speaker 1: you know. But without buddy guy, no Hendrix, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's like it's all it's all interrelated,

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Speaker 1: and it's not it's not something that you you can go, well, well,

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Speaker 1: you know who's the best of all time, because it's arguable,

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Speaker 1: there's it's there's taste, there's perspective. To me, the most

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Speaker 1: immaculate conception blues guitar player of all time Albert King.

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Speaker 1: Nobody sounded like him before and everybody copied him after.

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Speaker 1: There's just no there's no like well, big Bill Bruns,

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Speaker 1: he sounded like Albery. No, he did not. Albert bent

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Speaker 1: a certain way he phrased a certain way. He was

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Speaker 1: also a drummer. His name is Albert Nelson and he

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Speaker 1: played on Jimmy Reed records as a drummer. So, okay,

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Speaker 1: I know you're a big guitar collector, but you go

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Speaker 1: that deep? Are you a student of the game. Are

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Speaker 1: you someone who's wrapped up in history and knows all

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Speaker 1: the credits? No, I'm not a musicologist like my friend

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Vavino. Um, my friend Paul Stanley. These are these

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Speaker 1: are Stanley of Kisses A is a big musicologist. Paul Stanley.

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Speaker 1: Will you don't want to play rock and roll Jeopardy

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Speaker 1: with Paul Stanley? He will school you on everything, soul records,

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Speaker 1: blues records, rock records. You you you just you just

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Speaker 1: just listen and learn, okay. And you know, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of those kind of people that that I try

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Speaker 1: to I get into things that I like and I

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Speaker 1: go down the rabbit holes. But there's so much you

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Speaker 1: know that that you can it to me. Sometimes it

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Speaker 1: becomes a distraction because you're just going, you know, is

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Speaker 1: that is that you know who's playing on this James

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Speaker 1: Brown record? You know, it's like like I don't know,

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Speaker 1: You're trying to identify just but you can't enjoy. At

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Speaker 1: some point, you just want to put it on and enjoy,

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Speaker 1: you know, as a as a fan. Are you friends

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Speaker 1: with all these players at this point? You know? One

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Speaker 1: of the weirdest things. One of the weirdest things is

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Speaker 1: having your heroes text you. You know, You're like, wait

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Speaker 1: a minute, it's Warren Haynes. You know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: You know that's that's you know, it's just whatever, and

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Speaker 1: and and you just go. I never thought any of

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Speaker 1: my life would turn out this way. I hoped that

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Speaker 1: I would be able to make a living playing guitar.

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Speaker 1: I had hoped I would be able to just have

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Speaker 1: fun and enjoy being around guitars. And thank god I

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Speaker 1: never had to get a real job, because I think

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Speaker 1: I would fail miserably in the in the in the

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Speaker 1: in the private sector. You know what I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: like what, I'm selling cars, you know, or I'm I'm

401
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Speaker 1: I'm God forbid him. In an office, I would be

402
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Speaker 1: fired at it, almost said, will I'm a loose cannon.

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Speaker 1: I have I wear my heart on my sleeve and

404
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Speaker 1: I'm a character which is not conducive to normal operations,

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Speaker 1: and I would be fired and and I would just

406
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Speaker 1: be like running a comic book shop with guitars on

407
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Speaker 1: the walls. You know. Okay, we all know a lot

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Speaker 1: of musicians. And what I always say is if they

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Speaker 1: weren't a musician, they could not work in the real

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Speaker 1: world because they couldn't even show up in the seven

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Speaker 1: eleven on time. So the question becomes you, to what

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Speaker 1: degree are you disciplined? If I say, hey, you know

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be somewhere too, You're gonna be there too.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna be there three five of ten after I'll

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Speaker 1: be there at two. I pride myself and being on time,

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Speaker 1: and I hate running late, and I hate putting people out.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a it's a it's a Roman Catholic

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Speaker 1: guilt that's instilled in you from baptism. Okay, you never

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Speaker 1: put people out. I'm an upstate New York Italian who

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Speaker 1: went who was raised Roman Catholic, and you never you

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Speaker 1: never keep people waiting. You always rather be earlier than late,

422
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: and you'd always over over deliver and under promise. Those

423
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 1: are those are tenants of my life. And when it

424
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,399
Speaker 1: comes to Catholicism, you're still a believer. No, I haven't

425
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:54,439
Speaker 1: been for a while. What what changed there? Um? It

426
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,399
Speaker 1: was an incident when I was a kid where the

427
00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:59,959
Speaker 1: priest ran off with the neighbor's wife and took them.

428
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's cliche at this point, but

429
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 1: it seemed like like and these people idolize this guy,

430
00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: and it broke that rule. He broke that rule. He

431
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 1: broke that rule. He kind of like just chiseled off

432
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: some of them commandment things, and and then uh, there

433
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 1: was that, and there's just a few other things where

434
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: I just you know, as you go down rabbit holes

435
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 1: of science, you go down rabbit holes of of of things. Now.

436
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,399
Speaker 1: Do I believe in the tenets of religion? Yes? Do

437
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 1: I believe in being a good person? Yes? Do I

438
00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:34,439
Speaker 1: believe in giving than receiving? Yes? Do I believe in

439
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,439
Speaker 1: not stealing? Do I believe in all the things at

440
00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,160
Speaker 1: the tank commments teach you when you're at religious going

441
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:44,360
Speaker 1: absolutely except for that pesky when it says I'm your

442
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,199
Speaker 1: one God and there's no other God but I that

443
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:52,440
Speaker 1: I don't believe because because that's that's like it's specious reasoning.

444
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: It's like saying this, this this poster has prevented Barrett

445
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 1: or this lap steal that you see here in the

446
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: photo has prevented Barrett X in my my condo in Nashville,

447
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: in the sense that that there hasn't been any bear

448
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: attacks since this thing has been sitting here. But is

449
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,400
Speaker 1: it really preventing them? Okay, so you're from upstate New York.

450
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:15,680
Speaker 1: We're exactly Utica, New York. Not to be confused with Ithaca,

451
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 1: of course for that. But you know, I know the difference.

452
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,040
Speaker 1: People are not New York savvy. May not. People go like,

453
00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 1: you're from Ithaca. That's Cornell Universe. Utica, it's from Cornell University,

454
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, it's not. That's our that's our

455
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: Ivy League brethren in the South. Okay, we're Utica. We

456
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:37,840
Speaker 1: were military industrial complex. We were what we are. I mean, um,

457
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: blue collar proud. You still have a used of a

458
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 1: place there. No, No, I haven't lived there for twenty

459
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,679
Speaker 1: two years. Okay. And then Genesee Beer there was a

460
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:52,399
Speaker 1: Unica Beer, wasn't there. I believed Utica Club which is

461
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: now saranac Um. The Utica Club Genese I believe was

462
00:25:56,640 --> 00:26:00,400
Speaker 1: from the Batavia, Rochester it was, you know, but see,

463
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: I love the fact that I grew up in a

464
00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:06,600
Speaker 1: working man's town. And one of the things about Upstate

465
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:09,199
Speaker 1: New York, especially that part of Upstate New York, is

466
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,840
Speaker 1: we are recession proof, and we are we are salad

467
00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: year proof, if you know what I mean. The boom

468
00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: never reaches us, The bust never reaches us. It the

469
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: when the co War ended and the last of the

470
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 1: factories closed. Basically, economically, the area flatlined and it and

471
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 1: too huge gains in the stock market through huge recessions.

472
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: It didn't change if you take home three and fifty

473
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: dollars after taxes in Utica, New York in eighty you

474
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: were living large. In nine you were living large in

475
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: two thousand. When I left, you were living large. That's

476
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: what that's that area in a nutshell, and there's nothing

477
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 1: wrong with it, but it's just because of how isolated

478
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: it is, and it never grew past the industrial age

479
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: and the and the military industrial complex. And that's that's

480
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:08,959
Speaker 1: It's true. But about a lot of areas in the country.

481
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: In Ohio, Michigan, you know, it's like the rust belt.

482
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:20,159
Speaker 1: It's rust belt. How many kids in the family. My

483
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: sister is four years younger than me. To the day,

484
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: to the day that says something interesting about your parents

485
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: birth control, just like it was consistency. Yeah, she's she's

486
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 1: technically May nine. I'm May eight, but we're hours apart. Okay,

487
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,600
Speaker 1: And what is she up to these days? My sister

488
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: is smarter, She got the looks, she got, the brains,

489
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: she got the she's just superior to me in every way. Um.

490
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: And she has two beautiful children and a wonderful husband, Michael.

491
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: And her name is Lindsay and uh and and the

492
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: two kids, Gibson and Waverley, And they live in San Francisco.

493
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 1: They've been living there for about ten years. And she's

494
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: doing great and has a master's degree in business. And

495
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: you know, she just she's superior to her brother in

496
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:13,760
Speaker 1: every way except playing. Okay, So how many How long

497
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: was your family in the Utica area up until about

498
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:22,000
Speaker 1: two years ago? No, the opposite. Your parents? Were they

499
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 1: born in that area? Did they moved? They were born? Okay,

500
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: and it's all over. Your parents ran a music store?

501
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: Was that their mode of providing food and shelter when

502
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 1: you were born? My mom worked from the State of

503
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 1: New York for the State of New York. Um. From

504
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: basically high school after she graduated high school. Still when

505
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,800
Speaker 1: she retired, different jobs. She worked for Universities um Department

506
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: of Labor, but she it was it was a state

507
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: state job with great benefits and and you know, healthcare,

508
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,640
Speaker 1: which provides My father did various things through his life

509
00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: and he's both still alive and they live in Sonoma,

510
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:00,920
Speaker 1: California now and I got the Son of the Year

511
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: plaque for that, by the way, anyway, that's just another story.

512
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:10,200
Speaker 1: But basically, you know, when I was born in nineteen

513
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: seventy seven, and when my parents were born in nineteen

514
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,400
Speaker 1: fifty four, and when their parents were born, it was

515
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: the prevailing narrative was you you're born in this community,

516
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: and you stay in this community, and it was just

517
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: the cycle of life. Now, this is not unique to

518
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 1: upstate New York. This is not unique to California or

519
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:31,280
Speaker 1: any It was basically, and a lot of my classmates

520
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:35,880
Speaker 1: still lived there from my class of because if you're

521
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 1: born in New Yorkville, New York or New York Mills,

522
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: chances are you marry your high school sweetheart or somebody

523
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: you met in college, and then you settle and have

524
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: kids in New York Mills, and then your kids go

525
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 1: to New York Mills Junior Senior High School and their kids,

526
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: and a lot of times you have the same teachers

527
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: that have been there thirty five years. It's a story

528
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: that's repeated so many times in America. And that was

529
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 1: the We were the first generator, and I think Generation

530
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 1: X to ever kind of like bust out and say

531
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 1: maybe I don't want to live here my whole life.

532
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: Maybe I want to do something, Maybe I want to travel,

533
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:14,640
Speaker 1: maybe I want to see something or experience something different.

534
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: And we were one of the first people, first generations,

535
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: to really take a chance and and kind of buck

536
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,400
Speaker 1: the system, as they say in the in the sense

537
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: that we were like I'm moving to New York, Okay,

538
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: good luck. And my my mom freaked out and I said, well,

539
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 1: because your your room is always there, and the offer

540
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: was still stands. You know, there's always a room for you.

541
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 1: If this thing goes bust, I'm like, okay, thanks. My

542
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 1: mother is the opposite. I left Tolim at seventeen. Don't

543
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:45,440
Speaker 1: come back. She literally said, you talk on the phone,

544
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:47,440
Speaker 1: but don't come back and live in my house. But

545
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: she turned my bedroom into an office. But at what

546
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: point did your father open a store selling guitars. This

547
00:30:55,680 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: is about Okay, so this was this is not how

548
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: you grew up with a guitar shop. No. I grew

549
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,720
Speaker 1: up my mid to late teens. I was around a

550
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: guitar shop. My dad had two different shops. He he

551
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 1: opened up for about seven years, close for about six years,

552
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: and then opened up again. And it was fun being

553
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: in a guitar shop. Doing guitar shows. I met a

554
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 1: lot of characters that I still know, Like like if

555
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: you took the best Hollywood scriptwriters, like like like the

556
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: out guys, you know, like like you get Stephen King,

557
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,720
Speaker 1: and you know Tim Robbins and and and and and

558
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 1: you know somebody else like like just like you know

559
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,720
Speaker 1: the Coen Brothers and something like that. Okay, and you go,

560
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 1: Here's what I need you to do. I need you

561
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 1: to come up with a cast of twenty people that

562
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: are as eccentric as they are driven, as they are crazy,

563
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: as they are weird as they eccentric. They couldn't come

564
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,240
Speaker 1: up with the characters that show up on a yearly

565
00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: basis to the Dallas Guitar Show. Okay, Okay, this is

566
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: the only place in the world where sweatpants and a

567
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 1: Fannie pack full of hundred dollar bills is socially acceptable.

568
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 1: So this is the world I'm thrust into. And these

569
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: guys are shrewd. They're buying, they're selling, they want, they

570
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 1: they're collecting, or they're not, or they say they are.

571
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: The New York Guitar Show, you know, the first time

572
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 1: as a church and you know, um, twenty three Street,

573
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: and you're like, on, how many sins are being committed

574
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 1: in this room right now? You know that shall not steal,

575
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:36,320
Speaker 1: you know, being the biggest one of them, you know,

576
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, so all of that like kind

577
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: of permeated as I was starting my career. I was

578
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: signed to E and My Records at that point, and

579
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: then we were we had a band um that was

580
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 1: called Bloodline that was kind of an A O. R oriented,

581
00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 1: you know, Southern rock band at the same time as

582
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 1: The Archangels and Cry of Love and Brother Kane, and

583
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,800
Speaker 1: I was helping my dad. I was living at home,

584
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: and then finally I just said, you know, I need

585
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 1: to I just need to go and and take a

586
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,960
Speaker 1: chance on Joe Bonham Moss. I dropped smoking, drop all

587
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 1: that nonsense and take a chance. And I've had lucky.

588
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,080
Speaker 1: I've had the same manager for thirty years. Who's gone

589
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,040
Speaker 1: with me on that on that journey. Okay, let's break

590
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: some of this down though. So when do you first

591
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 1: pick up a guitar? When I was four and there

592
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 1: was just a guitar line around, how did that happen?

593
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: Dad played professionally. Um, he would do weekend gigs. So

594
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:38,479
Speaker 1: he was playing Dan Fogelberd songs, Crosby Stills in Nash songs,

595
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:43,000
Speaker 1: Neil Young songs in a duo setting at the ground Round,

596
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 1: which was like a chain of steak houses that that

597
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,880
Speaker 1: instead of serving bread as the appetizer or the free

598
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: appetiser was it was peanuts. So they were you know,

599
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: you get a hamburger and then he would play, you know,

600
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 1: and you know, he made some good money and and

601
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:02,200
Speaker 1: and and I was extra money because he worked in

602
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 1: a factory at the time. You worked in a factory

603
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: in Utica that made suits. It's called Joseph and Feiss,

604
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 1: And they would they would make these suit coats. And

605
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 1: my mom would work for the state and she dad

606
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 1: would play. And we had an oldsmobile and in a

607
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: little house on Campbell aff and but Dad always had

608
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: a guitar, so I wanted to follow in his footsteps,

609
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I love this guitar. And

610
00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 1: then he would play Eric Clapton records like just One

611
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 1: Night from and you'd see that black strap with the

612
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 1: worn out neck, and then like it. Once I got hooked,

613
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,839
Speaker 1: Stevie ray Vaughan came out a year later. Um, then

614
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: he would take me down the rabbit. If you like

615
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 1: Steve Rayvonne, you need to hear Robin Trauer. I feel

616
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,919
Speaker 1: like Robin Trout. You like hear Hendrix And then it's

617
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: just my whole world exploded. Okay, she you picked up

618
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: his guitar. How did you learn how to play? He

619
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 1: would teach me things. He would teach me the fundamentals,

620
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 1: like chords and a few rudimentary pentatonic scales. And then

621
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 1: I had this knack to hear something and then play

622
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:12,040
Speaker 1: it off a record. So I would hear it, I

623
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,839
Speaker 1: would play it and mimic it. So by the time

624
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: I was six, I'd really gotten serious about it and

625
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 1: was like, you know, I'm actually pretty good at this.

626
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 1: I can actually hear something in like Voodoo Child. I

627
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 1: can actually pick it out the notes and then mimic

628
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:28,920
Speaker 1: the sound, at least in my mind, you know. And

629
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,080
Speaker 1: I know Jimmy Hendrix, but I knew I had a

630
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,719
Speaker 1: propensity or proclivity depending on the positive negative context. You're

631
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 1: whipping out the big so okay, but what I'm saying

632
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,880
Speaker 1: it is like you know, positive negative sums it's positive

633
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 1: something it's negative. Is I knew I had a I

634
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 1: had some sort of gift for it. But I also

635
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 1: had a good work ethic, and that was instilled by

636
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 1: my parents, Like they always used the preaching, if you're

637
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 1: not gonna work for it, then what's the point. It's

638
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:01,840
Speaker 1: not gonna come to you. Nobody's gonna give you anything.

639
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 1: Nobody's given the Bonham Mass is anything. We're working for anything,

640
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 1: you know. And and that's been my story for forty years.

641
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,879
Speaker 1: And I've been playing guitar thirty nine years. And it's

642
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: just like, okay, so you're six years old and you

643
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 1: go to school for another twelve years. Are you you

644
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,080
Speaker 1: have friends or you're so deep in the guitar thing?

645
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 1: Where do you fit in the social structure of the school.

646
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: Few friends, um never never never never never on the

647
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: never a hip kid, And I kept the guitar playing

648
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,719
Speaker 1: to myself because I didn't want I didn't want any

649
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,399
Speaker 1: trouble I wanted. I didn't like being made fun of. Um.

650
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:45,040
Speaker 1: I was made fun of a lot when I was

651
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 1: a kid. That's why I have such an issue with

652
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 1: bullying now. UM not to say that, like, don't feel

653
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,239
Speaker 1: sorry for me, because I can give as good as

654
00:36:53,239 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: I get. The problem with social media is like you're

655
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,760
Speaker 1: kind of doing it with one hand time behind your back. Anyway,

656
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 1: I digress. Um, So I don't want to be made

657
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: fun of. I don't want to be bullied. I wat

658
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,360
Speaker 1: nonsense and want that trouble myf I just like I

659
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 1: would do my work, go to school, get off the bus,

660
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: go home, whatever homework we had, get through it, play

661
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: the guitar the rest of the night. That was really

662
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: the whole, the long and short of every single day.

663
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: I didn't play sports. Um. I played. My parents kind

664
00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,680
Speaker 1: of said, hey, the kid needs some exercise, getting a

665
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 1: little pudgy, Let's get him into some soccer. He can

666
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,399
Speaker 1: run around. Um. And I never signed up for any

667
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:35,399
Speaker 1: of the school activities. It was a one track mine

668
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:41,720
Speaker 1: and I was completely anonymous musically until the third grade

669
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: and what happened then. That's when the third and fourth

670
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:49,200
Speaker 1: grade at New York Mills Elementary School, they had these

671
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 1: cheap Japanese Cordoba guitars, like these class guitars. They like

672
00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:57,320
Speaker 1: twenty of them. There's a lot of them. Were just rotting,

673
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, crappy strings and whatever. And

674
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: so my my one of my few friends, knew I played,

675
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,560
Speaker 1: and the music teacher goes, um, hey, does anybody know

676
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 1: how to play guitar? And then of course my friend

677
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,560
Speaker 1: just sells me out. Joe knows how to play. And

678
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: I was always a shy kid, never participated in the

679
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:20,200
Speaker 1: in the anything, you know. I just would answer questions

680
00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 1: if I was called upon, because Joe play is really good.

681
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: And she's like, does he So I just learned Rude

682
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 1: Mood by Stevie ray Vaughan, which is this very fast

683
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 1: shuffle do do do? Do you know? I was proud

684
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 1: of it. I learned it, and she's so I get

685
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: up there and I'm like, oh god, this is terrible.

686
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 1: I sit in the chair and I get the guitar,

687
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:45,799
Speaker 1: I tune it up and it's like, you know, there's

688
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: laughter because you know, it's like this that awkward moments

689
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 1: out of a movie. You know, it's like it's like

690
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 1: you're tuning up. It's like that dead silence. It seems

691
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 1: like an hour, but it's like thirty seconds. And then

692
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:57,279
Speaker 1: she goes, are you gonna play anything for us? And

693
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,160
Speaker 1: I just start into it right and I keep the

694
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:03,839
Speaker 1: kids go nuts because they never expected it coming out

695
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 1: of me. And I see her run out of the

696
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:11,759
Speaker 1: room and she goes and gets to high school music

697
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 1: teacher because it's all the schools are connected, and the

698
00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:16,960
Speaker 1: principal and what did I do to my said this

699
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:22,319
Speaker 1: is this is insane? Right, So afterwards they're like, when

700
00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: did you learn how to? I go, I play all that,

701
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 1: and then I think they called my parents and said,

702
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:28,799
Speaker 1: do you know he plays guitar really well? I was like, oh, yeah,

703
00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 1: he's been playing for years. So that was the first

704
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:35,239
Speaker 1: time I publicly went out as a guitar player. And

705
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, that applause is a good

706
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 1: deflection from the from the from the stuff that they're

707
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:42,640
Speaker 1: they're aiming at me, And I go, hm, I could

708
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 1: now use this as a shield as a weapon at

709
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: the same time, and I was like, mmm, not a

710
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 1: bad way of looking at things. Bonamassa And then I

711
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,040
Speaker 1: started playing setting, you know, sitting at my dad's do

712
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 1: around eight or nine. And then I had my first

713
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,359
Speaker 1: professional gig when I was a love it And that

714
00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:04,360
Speaker 1: was first professional gig was at a place called the Metro,

715
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:08,120
Speaker 1: which was a converted bank in Utica, New York. We

716
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,719
Speaker 1: charged five dollars. There was an article in the newspaper,

717
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,600
Speaker 1: and my grandfather collected money at the door and we

718
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: made three thousand dollars at night. And and I go,

719
00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: that's not this is this is this is? I get

720
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:21,839
Speaker 1: the new I said. The deal was all the money

721
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:23,959
Speaker 1: has to go into bank, except I wanted a Super

722
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,399
Speaker 1: Nintendo and some new pickups from my guitar, at which

723
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:31,880
Speaker 1: they my parents acquiesced and let me buy. And okay,

724
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: that's a big success. It could only be downhill from there.

725
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:37,399
Speaker 1: What happens well, by the way, after I got done

726
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: paying the band, which was about a thousand bucks, say

727
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: about two thousand net to an eleven year, I Mr

728
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 1: Burns at that point and and I and I go,

729
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:50,240
Speaker 1: then we started doing this, and we started drawing a crowd,

730
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: and I was known as this kid from upstate, New York.

731
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,399
Speaker 1: And then there was there was like about a year

732
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:57,160
Speaker 1: and a half later, there was a rumor there was

733
00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:59,720
Speaker 1: a there was a kid. But this is pre social

734
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:02,800
Speaker 1: media yet, so it's all just it's all just rumor.

735
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:07,239
Speaker 1: And and a few newspaper articles at this point. Then

736
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,279
Speaker 1: there was a rumor there was a kid in Jacksonville,

737
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 1: Florida who played slide, you know, who was about a

738
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 1: year or two younger than me. I'm like, wow, there's

739
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 1: another one. And then there was another one. And then

740
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:19,720
Speaker 1: there was a kid named Eric Gals And then and

741
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: and well you know that, you know that the kid

742
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, you know, eleven year old playing slide like

743
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 1: an adult, was Derek Trucks. And kid from Memphis who

744
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,200
Speaker 1: who's playing with his brothers and got a deal with

745
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: Electric Oh my god, I got a major deal. It's

746
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:40,239
Speaker 1: Eric Kales. And here we are now thirty years later,

747
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 1: laughing at this notion of like these we were the

748
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse Club of blues guitar players, you know, like

749
00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:50,800
Speaker 1: we were we were like this, these young kids that

750
00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:56,760
Speaker 1: are popping up regionally. But without the without the invention

751
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,760
Speaker 1: of social media, nobody knew about us. Only the people

752
00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:02,520
Speaker 1: in our areas, you know. So there was there was

753
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,320
Speaker 1: Joe in the North, and Derek in the South, and

754
00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:07,600
Speaker 1: and and Eric in Memphis. And there was a kid

755
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 1: from Australia, Nathan Cavalaria. I never forget his name. He's

756
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:13,920
Speaker 1: a fellow Italian. He was a kid who was twelve

757
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: years old ripping up the guitar. So there was these

758
00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:21,000
Speaker 1: prodigies or I don't consider myself a project with these

759
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,800
Speaker 1: people that were the kids are well advanced in guitar

760
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,120
Speaker 1: um popping up all around the same time. This was

761
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: the early nineties. Okay, as we all know, they're making

762
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:34,520
Speaker 1: new people every day and the rest of us get older.

763
00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: At some point, you're no longer the young phenomenon. Where

764
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 1: does that leave you? You know, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who's

765
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:43,960
Speaker 1: also I need to put in that category because he

766
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 1: was sixteen and he had a major label deal and

767
00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 1: he's had hits on the radio. Johnny Lane was fourteen

768
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: or fifteen, but there were a few years later. There

769
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:54,680
Speaker 1: was like there was a two and a half year gap.

770
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 1: And because Kenny came out in the ninety six and

771
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 1: same thing with John Lane. And uh so, you know,

772
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 1: like I was having this conversation with Kenny Waan Shephard

773
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: and we're sitting there like going, I go, first of all,

774
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:13,120
Speaker 1: do you realize that both of us are older than

775
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:17,360
Speaker 1: Stevie Ravon when he died by seven years, you know,

776
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 1: which is crazy that we're now older than our hero

777
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 1: that really wrote the roadmap between him, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson,

778
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:32,080
Speaker 1: um Satriani Vye, those were the those were the guys

779
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,640
Speaker 1: that wrote the book the Roadmap for me in the eighties,

780
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,359
Speaker 1: Gary Moore and Early Nice. And I said, and then

781
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,200
Speaker 1: do you realize that we're not the kids anymore? And

782
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: we both just had this moment like yeeks, you know,

783
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 1: like like because we've always looked at as the kids,

784
00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, oh, there's the younger generation Johnny

785
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:56,279
Speaker 1: and Kenny and Joe and Derek, and we all got

786
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 1: four in the first number. Okay, I think I think

787
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: Derek just turned already. We all got a four and

788
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:05,000
Speaker 1: maybe John's thirty dynamic he's close, you know what I mean.

789
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:07,760
Speaker 1: So it's like it's it's one of those things where

790
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a generational shift. I mean, like

791
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:13,359
Speaker 1: you can't you can prevent a lot of things in

792
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 1: your life. Lapping the sun every three d and sixty

793
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:18,799
Speaker 1: five or three hundred sixty six days is not one

794
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:24,080
Speaker 1: of them. Time going you get old. Okay, So you

795
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 1: have the band signed Bloodline signed to E M I.

796
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:31,160
Speaker 1: How does that come together? We had a I was

797
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 1: on a television show called Real Life with Jane Pauli,

798
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 1: which was the predated Dateline NBC. My manager um uh

799
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 1: Roy Wiseman and his father, Elliott Wiseman. They had a

800
00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 1: company called Premier Artist Services and they managed Frank Sinatra

801
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 1: and Dean Martin and lizmllion most of all of the

802
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:57,280
Speaker 1: rat Pack, really Um and they went to the record companies.

803
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:01,400
Speaker 1: We've taken meetings with Colombia and E M I and whoever,

804
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:04,560
Speaker 1: and they're all saying the same thing. It's like, what

805
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:06,799
Speaker 1: it's like, he's good, but what do we do with it?

806
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:09,760
Speaker 1: He's an instrumental guitar player who likes to play blues.

807
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,319
Speaker 1: It's not a he's not an artist, he's a he's

808
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,880
Speaker 1: a well, I'm really at that point was the the

809
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: equivalent of the polar Bear riding a unicycle, juggling bowling

810
00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 1: pins at the p T Barnum. You know, I came

811
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,120
Speaker 1: out and did my thing, made the crowd go nuts,

812
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 1: and then left. I didn't have a song, couldn't sing,

813
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:31,400
Speaker 1: I didn't really have an act, and so the idea

814
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:34,479
Speaker 1: of putting this band together, Um, I had met Barry

815
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: Oakley Jr. And Whalen Kreeger at this Leo Fender tribute concert. Um,

816
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: they recommended we call this guy Aaron Davis, who happened

817
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,920
Speaker 1: to be the son of Miles Davis. Next thing, you know,

818
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:47,759
Speaker 1: we got all these sons of famous musicians and a

819
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,440
Speaker 1: keyboard player that was working with my solo band at

820
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: the time, Luca Gretty. There's a really good keyboard player,

821
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:59,160
Speaker 1: very nice man, and and we were really, um, we're

822
00:45:59,239 --> 00:46:00,919
Speaker 1: kind of put together. Other than I and my goes,

823
00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:04,719
Speaker 1: Charles Cobbin goes, there could be something there, you know,

824
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: you know, big New York meeting Smith and Wilenski and

825
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: never forget it, you know what I mean? It was

826
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:14,160
Speaker 1: it was classic music biz like pre It was the

827
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:16,440
Speaker 1: way you wanted to be, you know. It was expense

828
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 1: accounts and car services and Manhattan, Smith and Wilenski Lobster

829
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:26,080
Speaker 1: tales are eighteen pounds or some world record ship. Anyway,

830
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,919
Speaker 1: it was. It was just classic they and they signed

831
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 1: us to a development deal and we were writing with

832
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:36,040
Speaker 1: people like Warren Haines um Mark Hudson from the Hudson Brothers,

833
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:37,879
Speaker 1: but he wrote a lot of hits with aerosmith at

834
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:40,880
Speaker 1: the time, Richie super who was an arrowsmith, but he

835
00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 1: was working, you know, with Desmond Child and and all

836
00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:46,759
Speaker 1: of a sudden we get enough tunes to make a

837
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:50,080
Speaker 1: record in Memphis with Joe Hardy at Arden Studios and

838
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 1: our band. We were dysfunctional kids with egos, me included,

839
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 1: and we didn't really see the forest from the trees,

840
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 1: and we didn't realize how good we had it, and

841
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: we screwed it up. We did. We screwed it up,

842
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: and luckily for me, I screwed it up at an

843
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 1: age where it wasn't fatal to my career. I learned

844
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 1: the lessons of the music business and how hard it

845
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 1: is to achieve a major label deal at the time

846
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 1: early on, and I never took it for granted ever again.

847
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: And that was a lesson I learned when I was

848
00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:27,879
Speaker 1: sixteen years old. And and thank god it didn't I had.

849
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:31,560
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity for a rebirth and a second

850
00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,279
Speaker 1: act and a second chance at my career where some

851
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:36,480
Speaker 1: of the people that were later in there, you know,

852
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 1: and some people just bailed on the business, and some

853
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:43,880
Speaker 1: people made bad choices. It's not this is not news,

854
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:47,200
Speaker 1: and this is not new to the music business. Fair

855
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 1: success is terrible and it and it plagues a lot

856
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:52,839
Speaker 1: of people. Okay, so how do you hook up with

857
00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:56,800
Speaker 1: your manager? Called us on the phone. We were listed.

858
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: We were the only two bottom mosses in the in

859
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: the in the Utica phone book. One was my dad's

860
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:06,400
Speaker 1: brother and one was us. They called his brother first

861
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:08,680
Speaker 1: and then they called us. Are you are you from?

862
00:48:08,719 --> 00:48:12,759
Speaker 1: Are you lem Bonamassa? And are you um? Are you

863
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,319
Speaker 1: Joe's dad? And they're like yeah. And by the way,

864
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 1: as soon as that thing aired um on national television

865
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 1: Jane Pauli Sunday Night, National Television pre Netflix, we had

866
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:32,320
Speaker 1: heard from every major label. Mercury, we had heard from Colombia,

867
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: E M I Capital, um god, I think it was

868
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,880
Speaker 1: the Crystalists called next thing. You know, we have lawyers

869
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 1: driving up. Okay, um, what's his name? David Sodenberg? Right,

870
00:48:47,239 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: Big music music and sorry and I'm like, we're in

871
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:54,200
Speaker 1: a nine square foot ranch house, okay. And my mom

872
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,760
Speaker 1: would put out these nice bagels and these are power

873
00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,319
Speaker 1: players coming up to the house, one of which was

874
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:05,160
Speaker 1: Um Roy Wiseman and Um and his girlfriend now wife

875
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:07,879
Speaker 1: of thirty years, Debbie, and we just had a meeting

876
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:09,920
Speaker 1: and we really got on his people. And he was

877
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:12,880
Speaker 1: ten years older than me, and his father was you know,

878
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:16,440
Speaker 1: now he's in his eighties, but the patriarch of this

879
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: music business family. And we just got on his folks.

880
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:21,239
Speaker 1: And that's how many people do you know has had

881
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 1: the same management thirty years? Very few? So what was

882
00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:27,279
Speaker 1: his pitch back then? Pitch was along. It was a

883
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,759
Speaker 1: long play versus a quick cell. And we were smart

884
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,920
Speaker 1: enough as people to to realize that one of the

885
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: things you're famous for is you and your manager do

886
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:42,879
Speaker 1: it all by yourself, which no one else does. How

887
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,319
Speaker 1: did they come up and how did the two of

888
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,239
Speaker 1: you come up with that game plan? The vertical integration

889
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 1: started when the music business decided to push me out,

890
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:56,360
Speaker 1: Meaning I had a deal with Epic Records when I

891
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:59,760
Speaker 1: was a kid. Um, when I was the first solo

892
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: Michael Caplan sign me will Always be Grateful. Harvey leads Uh,

893
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,840
Speaker 1: Steve Barnett, Um and Tommy Motola was still running the

894
00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:16,640
Speaker 1: company Sony and basically our record comes out in August

895
00:50:16,760 --> 00:50:19,640
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, exactly twenty years ago, because my reissue

896
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: just came out comes out in August. By October, I

897
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:26,720
Speaker 1: was gone because the company had posted their first quarterly

898
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,520
Speaker 1: loss under Tommy Matola's leadership, just as the business was

899
00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:35,360
Speaker 1: kind of changing and whatever. And so I found myself

900
00:50:35,400 --> 00:50:38,319
Speaker 1: back to square one. After working so hard to get

901
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:43,760
Speaker 1: a deal. Back at my parents house, we went um.

902
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:48,160
Speaker 1: We we approached people like Alligator Records, Tone Cool, which

903
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,319
Speaker 1: was Susan Tadeshi's record label at the time, and they

904
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:55,439
Speaker 1: were signing Blues Axe and nobody would take us. Nobody

905
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 1: would take us. Roy's brother had a little label that

906
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,640
Speaker 1: was doing compilations. We put our second record on that. Finally,

907
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:05,960
Speaker 1: by the time two thousand two runs around rolls around,

908
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 1: we are now listless, you know, we have we have

909
00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:14,759
Speaker 1: we have no direction. My my agent, who are now

910
00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 1: friends with Bet she actually probably regrets dropping me. Um

911
00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:24,680
Speaker 1: who was the agent, Oh, I'm not even it was Monterey.

912
00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,799
Speaker 1: I'm out, I'm I'm I don't have an agent. I

913
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:36,359
Speaker 1: got not a okay, not a except Roy. We then

914
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 1: decided to pull our money and we make this record

915
00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: called Blues Deluxe, and Roy's brother Eric, who was running

916
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:46,000
Speaker 1: U Distribution company down in Florida, gets the records in

917
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:50,200
Speaker 1: the stores basically force feeds you know, um, you know,

918
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 1: F F y E and stuff like that. No sales

919
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:54,880
Speaker 1: records and we didn't know anything about return reserves and

920
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:58,839
Speaker 1: all that stuff that fun part of the record business. Um.

921
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:02,520
Speaker 1: And he ended up deciding to go it alone, and

922
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 1: we sold more records of that Blues Deluxe record than

923
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:10,480
Speaker 1: we'd ever you know, basically done in the past and

924
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:15,000
Speaker 1: made way more like wait, wait, since you're an unknown quantity,

925
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:17,719
Speaker 1: how did you just sell the records? Because of the

926
00:52:17,760 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: generosity of people like BB King and Paul Rodgers and

927
00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,279
Speaker 1: Bad Company and George Sara are good and I know

928
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:31,800
Speaker 1: I'm missing somebody, buddy guy. And one of the few

929
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:34,040
Speaker 1: things that I did take away from the experience at

930
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 1: Monterey was relationships with people like that, and they would

931
00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:42,359
Speaker 1: let me open up, especially BB King. So I would

932
00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: go out there and I would have this like truncated

933
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:47,279
Speaker 1: set that would just play to that audience and we

934
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 1: would crush it, crush it at the merch stand two

935
00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:55,640
Speaker 1: CDs and a half hour right signing Boom boom. We

936
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 1: would crush at Peter Frampton whose I was, I'm forgetting sorry, Peter,

937
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 1: Peter Frampton, huge for me, Peter Franz another another Nashville resident. Yes,

938
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:08,520
Speaker 1: and a good friend and and a legend. And the

939
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:14,920
Speaker 1: thing was, we sold that record because we had no

940
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 1: other choice. And then all of a sudden, we we'd

941
00:53:17,120 --> 00:53:19,959
Speaker 1: see our sound scans going up boom boom, boom, boom boom.

942
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:23,920
Speaker 1: Then William Morris takes us on as a client and

943
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:25,839
Speaker 1: we start getting more opening acts, and then we're kind

944
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 1: of doing headline clubs and and and and opening acts.

945
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:34,800
Speaker 1: And the opening acts were the you don't get any money,

946
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:37,200
Speaker 1: but the merch was great, so it was it was working.

947
00:53:38,239 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 1: Two thousand five. Um, we got tired of the of

948
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,239
Speaker 1: the offers that in the types of venues that we're

949
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:47,560
Speaker 1: going Listen, Joe Bonasa just the blues act. He only

950
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,120
Speaker 1: is gonna play like dirty clubs, and you know, it'd

951
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:52,400
Speaker 1: be like one night to be Guar and then me

952
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:55,799
Speaker 1: and then and then it would be like you know,

953
00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 1: you know, you know, just you could you could put

954
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:01,600
Speaker 1: whatever whoever, you know, So it was like these clubs,

955
00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:05,960
Speaker 1: do you know, they just hose him down and and

956
00:54:05,960 --> 00:54:08,040
Speaker 1: and they just replaced you know, you're just a widget.

957
00:54:08,880 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 1: And what I realized is that my audience didn't like

958
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:14,080
Speaker 1: go into those kind of places. They weren't kids. They

959
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: wanted to sit down, they wanted to chair, they wanted

960
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,640
Speaker 1: to theater because they saw me in the theater opening

961
00:54:18,680 --> 00:54:22,280
Speaker 1: up for Baby King or Peter Frampton or whoever Farrell Good.

962
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: So we decided to do our first four Walls in

963
00:54:26,080 --> 00:54:28,759
Speaker 1: two thousand five, and we did one of For those

964
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,160
Speaker 1: who don't know, four walls, you basically rent the room

965
00:54:31,160 --> 00:54:33,799
Speaker 1: and you do everything yourself. Yes, yes, it's a you're

966
00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:37,360
Speaker 1: you're the promoter. And we did our first two. We

967
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: did Jacksonville, Florida, and we did Fort Wyne, Indiana. Do

968
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 1: you remember how big those buildings were. We did the

969
00:54:42,680 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne. I know, I remember the cap,

970
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 1: I remember what we sold. And well, well that's what

971
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:51,359
Speaker 1: I want to hear. Okay. We were playing this place

972
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 1: called Pierre's in Fort wayn Indiana. They would give this

973
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:58,359
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars to draw approximately people and we would

974
00:54:58,400 --> 00:55:01,480
Speaker 1: do good in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Okay, but it was

975
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:04,040
Speaker 1: a big club and we got four thousand dollars. Taking

976
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:06,759
Speaker 1: or leave it. Okay, we took it. We played the

977
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:11,600
Speaker 1: Embassy Theater holds I've sold it out many times. Okay,

978
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 1: first time I played, I draw the same people. We

979
00:55:15,680 --> 00:55:19,000
Speaker 1: went from a twelve dollar ticket price to a thirty

980
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:21,560
Speaker 1: five dollar front row in a twenty in the balcony.

981
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:23,719
Speaker 1: Balcony wasn't open because we didn't sell that many, but

982
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,719
Speaker 1: we did thirty five to twenty. We walked out with

983
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:34,920
Speaker 1: there's your sign. Jacksonville. We played the Florida Theater. We

984
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,919
Speaker 1: used to play his place called Freebird Live. Same deal.

985
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:40,000
Speaker 1: Wouldn't give us more than three thousand dollars. I don't

986
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:43,399
Speaker 1: care the whoever is on the other end, I don't

987
00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:46,879
Speaker 1: care if he's bringing Eric Capton with him, I'm giving

988
00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:50,080
Speaker 1: him three thousand dollars. You know that kind of agent

989
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:54,719
Speaker 1: promoter thing. We we read the Florida Theater, which was

990
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:59,280
Speaker 1: a friend of Roy's dad, and we do six hundred

991
00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 1: people made thirteen dollars. You can see. But now, how

992
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:09,239
Speaker 1: do you continue that on? Because you need capital to

993
00:56:10,040 --> 00:56:13,040
Speaker 1: do these four walls or these these self promote because

994
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: a what happens is you have to pay for the advertising.

995
00:56:16,680 --> 00:56:19,000
Speaker 1: You're you're you're fronting this whole thing, and then you

996
00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:21,360
Speaker 1: get it all back on a settlement a couple of

997
00:56:21,440 --> 00:56:25,719
Speaker 1: days later. So we started picking our battles and our

998
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 1: tour so we would do too maybe the four of

999
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,800
Speaker 1: these four walls per tour. Then as the years started

1000
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:35,040
Speaker 1: to progress, by oh seven o eight, we were doing

1001
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:39,360
Speaker 1: se four walls because we reinvest the money into the business.

1002
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:43,200
Speaker 1: And then by two thousand nine, which is basically the

1003
00:56:43,239 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 1: last year with William Morris, we decided, you know, early

1004
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:50,120
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten was debate last year William Morris

1005
00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:52,000
Speaker 1: and I have no I have I have. I have

1006
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:54,319
Speaker 1: no hard feelings to William Morris except for the fact

1007
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:56,480
Speaker 1: that they overcharges for their acts on the crew. So

1008
00:56:56,719 --> 00:57:00,279
Speaker 1: fuck you William Morris, just for that. Okay, you can

1009
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:01,879
Speaker 1: take it right to the top for me to them,

1010
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:04,320
Speaker 1: to them, they over they try to go just because

1011
00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:07,320
Speaker 1: they're bitter about not taking a cap. That's just me talking.

1012
00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. I'll take that, you know, I don't. I see.

1013
00:57:12,160 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 1: We've had to we've had to do end a rounds

1014
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:18,200
Speaker 1: because it won't even bring our offers for the cruises

1015
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:20,680
Speaker 1: to their acts because they're just they're just a little

1016
00:57:20,680 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 1: bit they hold a grudge, no problem. Um. We ended

1017
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 1: up parting ways with William Morris am the couple, which

1018
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:34,160
Speaker 1: I thought until we started making doing cruises. Um, and

1019
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:36,600
Speaker 1: we basically went on our own. So at that point

1020
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: in time in America, I was unsigned. I had my

1021
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,600
Speaker 1: own label. We would do one artist, which was me,

1022
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:45,800
Speaker 1: and we had no we had no agent, we had

1023
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,040
Speaker 1: no nothing. We just did it all in house. And

1024
00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:51,880
Speaker 1: that was the vertical integration of the of the of

1025
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,960
Speaker 1: the company. And that's that's the rest is history. Okay,

1026
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:58,160
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of hats to be worn. Do

1027
00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:02,000
Speaker 1: you have a full time staff taking there's twenty people

1028
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,920
Speaker 1: in the office, between twenty and twenty two people depending

1029
00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:08,480
Speaker 1: on how busy we get. Um, that's their sole jobs

1030
00:58:08,560 --> 00:58:16,560
Speaker 1: to run everything. Joe Bonamassa and uh, that's been the

1031
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:19,800
Speaker 1: art department. There's an there's a social media department. There's

1032
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:24,600
Speaker 1: a marketing department. There's there's a merchandizing department. There's a

1033
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:29,400
Speaker 1: web store, there's everything. But it's also when you vertically

1034
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:34,480
Speaker 1: integrate your your model, you're you're not leaving these huge

1035
00:58:34,600 --> 00:58:37,880
Speaker 1: chunks of money on the table which you then can

1036
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:40,880
Speaker 1: use to reinvest in yourself. It's not like you just

1037
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:45,320
Speaker 1: it's like if you normal show you have a ten

1038
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:50,600
Speaker 1: percent agency. Okay, there's a ten percent kind of promoter fee.

1039
00:58:51,520 --> 00:58:55,040
Speaker 1: Then there's the show cost, which how how does a

1040
00:58:55,120 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: bag of lace potato ships become six it's you know,

1041
00:58:59,560 --> 00:59:02,920
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, you get when you when

1042
00:59:02,960 --> 00:59:05,040
Speaker 1: you promote your own shows in four wall, you get

1043
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:08,560
Speaker 1: to see exactly what everything costs. The building rental is

1044
00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:15,040
Speaker 1: six grand, the ushers are three, the popcorn people are

1045
00:59:15,040 --> 00:59:17,400
Speaker 1: are are five hundred bucks. And then there's a you know,

1046
00:59:17,720 --> 00:59:20,440
Speaker 1: so you get to see the macro of of what

1047
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:23,240
Speaker 1: you're trying to you know, of the real expenses. And

1048
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 1: then you look at a settlement sheet from a promoter

1049
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 1: like man, these are inflated, you know, and and and

1050
00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:32,880
Speaker 1: so you start saving money and you don't have you're

1051
00:59:32,880 --> 00:59:36,120
Speaker 1: not giving away off the top then having to pay

1052
00:59:36,160 --> 00:59:40,000
Speaker 1: your bills, so that actually twenty to that you're saving

1053
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 1: by doing your own four walls. Um uh, you know,

1054
00:59:45,520 --> 00:59:49,240
Speaker 1: you able to reinvest in yourself. And and it's it's

1055
00:59:49,240 --> 00:59:53,560
Speaker 1: called scaling a business. That's how it scales. And we

1056
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: we my manager and I we we've had many discussions

1057
00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:00,680
Speaker 1: about that. It's like, thank god we invested in especially

1058
01:00:00,720 --> 01:00:04,440
Speaker 1: now because we didn't sell our merchandise we didn't do

1059
01:00:04,480 --> 01:00:07,880
Speaker 1: one of those dreadful three sixty deals. We didn't. We

1060
01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:10,440
Speaker 1: didn't give it away for a big chunk, you know,

1061
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:12,480
Speaker 1: because when you give it away for a big chunk,

1062
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:17,080
Speaker 1: the chunk doesn't it's not big forever, you know. And

1063
01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:19,280
Speaker 1: then when you're you know, you're like, oh, man, I

1064
01:00:19,320 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 1: really could have used that that money to reinvest and

1065
01:00:22,680 --> 01:00:24,920
Speaker 1: you know, do something else. And it's the same with

1066
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:27,160
Speaker 1: the label. And it's I know, I'm long winded today,

1067
01:00:27,160 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. Okay, pre COVID, how

1068
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:39,480
Speaker 1: many gigs a year were you doing? Hun between hundred

1069
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,480
Speaker 1: and how many domestic it's been basically fifty fifty, so

1070
01:00:44,520 --> 01:00:47,880
Speaker 1: you're looking at probably call it fifty five per per

1071
01:00:48,960 --> 01:00:54,400
Speaker 1: per territory plus Australia thrown him. Okay, of those hundred

1072
01:00:54,440 --> 01:00:59,320
Speaker 1: and five eight, how many were four world? So no

1073
01:00:59,320 --> 01:01:00,960
Speaker 1: matter you go to a foreign country, you do it

1074
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:04,160
Speaker 1: there too. I do it, I do it there. UM

1075
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:08,120
Speaker 1: promoters will try to tell you that that um promoting

1076
01:01:08,120 --> 01:01:12,520
Speaker 1: a show is like splitting the atom in complexity and

1077
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:16,040
Speaker 1: and and it's not, it's just it's are you willing

1078
01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:18,760
Speaker 1: to now? The only times we will not four walls

1079
01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:21,680
Speaker 1: if we're doing festivals obviously if we do, if you know,

1080
01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:24,520
Speaker 1: if we do like north Sea Jazz or montro or

1081
01:01:24,640 --> 01:01:28,560
Speaker 1: we're not, that's it's end. But but as far as

1082
01:01:28,640 --> 01:01:32,240
Speaker 1: if there's a Joe b headline show, it's four walled

1083
01:01:32,400 --> 01:01:37,320
Speaker 1: everywhere we got. Okay, So just starting with domestically, how

1084
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:39,840
Speaker 1: often do you have a date that's in the red

1085
01:01:41,440 --> 01:01:47,640
Speaker 1: never and even how about when you started? I think

1086
01:01:47,680 --> 01:01:52,120
Speaker 1: once once or twice where we broke even we we

1087
01:01:52,120 --> 01:01:56,440
Speaker 1: we pushed and the venues you play now capacity tends

1088
01:01:56,520 --> 01:02:03,080
Speaker 1: to be um well, taking red rocks off the table,

1089
01:02:04,480 --> 01:02:10,040
Speaker 1: which is five thousand, Okay, I'm talking to an expert here,

1090
01:02:10,040 --> 01:02:12,400
Speaker 1: I should have done my research for I talked to you. Um,

1091
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:16,480
Speaker 1: we're we're in the twenty five to five range, depending

1092
01:02:16,600 --> 01:02:19,600
Speaker 1: on like we'll do cut Arenas in in in Europe,

1093
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 1: we'll do the Albert Hall in London, which is five thousand.

1094
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:28,080
Speaker 1: We'll play the the The Rhyme in which is twenty

1095
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:30,280
Speaker 1: three hundred, so it's in that range, and then we'll

1096
01:02:30,280 --> 01:02:32,240
Speaker 1: go down it like well, sometimes we'll do a Tuesday

1097
01:02:32,320 --> 01:02:35,400
Speaker 1: night account Basie Theater, which is people and it's rocking.

1098
01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:37,840
Speaker 1: We love it, you know, I get the meat balls.

1099
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:40,600
Speaker 1: From Buenos Sarah. It's beautiful experience. You know, I've been

1100
01:02:40,640 --> 01:02:43,520
Speaker 1: going there for years, So it just depends. Yeah, you know,

1101
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 1: there's a lot of philosophies which you may or may

1102
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:47,920
Speaker 1: not agree with. But a lot of people say, you know,

1103
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:50,280
Speaker 1: once you get the ball rolling, you don't want any

1104
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:52,560
Speaker 1: any empty seats. You don't want to play in a

1105
01:02:52,640 --> 01:02:55,600
Speaker 1: bigger venue. Do you think that's a factor? People don't

1106
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:57,600
Speaker 1: care taping ont have eyes in the back of their head.

1107
01:02:59,280 --> 01:03:03,280
Speaker 1: And the thing is, I'd rather scale into it then

1108
01:03:03,360 --> 01:03:09,040
Speaker 1: scale myself out of it. You know, it's manifest destiny. Um, yeah,

1109
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:12,680
Speaker 1: do you want every seat sold every time? Yes? But

1110
01:03:12,920 --> 01:03:17,400
Speaker 1: I watched bb King not what that wasn't his His

1111
01:03:17,400 --> 01:03:20,360
Speaker 1: his strategy. His his strategy was this is where we

1112
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:23,760
Speaker 1: play now on Tuesday night. Maybe we don't sell out,

1113
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:29,160
Speaker 1: but we're we're average eighty five too. I think our

1114
01:03:29,240 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 1: last tour, pre COVID was sold average. There's nights it's

1115
01:03:33,800 --> 01:03:38,720
Speaker 1: blown out, there's there's nights that it's eighty four. It's good,

1116
01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:43,680
Speaker 1: it feels fine in there. And the rest of the scent,

1117
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 1: you didn't sell his ego and and and because at

1118
01:03:48,720 --> 01:03:51,280
Speaker 1: the end of the day, not only you're entertaining people

1119
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:54,400
Speaker 1: first and foremost. That's the reason why you're there. Be

1120
01:03:55,040 --> 01:03:58,720
Speaker 1: you're keeping your machine going. And and and see you're

1121
01:03:58,720 --> 01:04:01,960
Speaker 1: employing thirty people on the road in the music business,

1122
01:04:02,080 --> 01:04:08,120
Speaker 1: they'll have families and wives and houses and kids. Okay,

1123
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:12,840
Speaker 1: over this, let's call it ten years. It's longer than that.

1124
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 1: But um, business going up, down, staying the same. I

1125
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:26,680
Speaker 1: think generally our EPIDA is earnings before interest tax. And

1126
01:04:26,880 --> 01:04:30,440
Speaker 1: suddenly I forgot the A. Yeah, I think it's a

1127
01:04:30,880 --> 01:04:35,680
Speaker 1: depreciate and appreciation depreciation. UM, I think we've kind of

1128
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:39,960
Speaker 1: we we went up after the initial explosion and then

1129
01:04:40,240 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 1: I call the explosion PBS when when public broadcasting, Thank

1130
01:04:45,360 --> 01:04:50,320
Speaker 1: you very much. UM. I'm eternally grateful for them because

1131
01:04:50,560 --> 01:04:53,320
Speaker 1: they started running our Albert Hall two thousand nine DVD

1132
01:04:53,440 --> 01:04:56,200
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven. And how did that come together?

1133
01:04:56,280 --> 01:04:59,800
Speaker 1: A little affiliate in Albany, because I was around there,

1134
01:05:00,240 --> 01:05:02,800
Speaker 1: said hey, listen, we like Joe's DVD. Would you make

1135
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:05,320
Speaker 1: and would you make an hour edit like it already

1136
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: been out? And we went and all in with the

1137
01:05:07,440 --> 01:05:10,160
Speaker 1: DVD and it was something Okay, it wasn't it wasn't

1138
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:12,560
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was we're gonna lose money

1139
01:05:14,040 --> 01:05:18,160
Speaker 1: in a time we couldn't afford to lose money, and

1140
01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:20,640
Speaker 1: they we made him an hour edit in in in

1141
01:05:20,800 --> 01:05:25,720
Speaker 1: public broadcasting, their internal numbers are a one to a five,

1142
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:29,960
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like good to bad, you know.

1143
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:33,439
Speaker 1: So if you like, it's on their in their pledge drives.

1144
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:35,200
Speaker 1: So when we put this thing out in all of me,

1145
01:05:35,640 --> 01:05:38,800
Speaker 1: they raised like dollars in the hour, which was like

1146
01:05:38,800 --> 01:05:41,720
Speaker 1: like it was like, oh my god, this is crazy.

1147
01:05:41,800 --> 01:05:43,720
Speaker 1: They did it again to see if it was a flute,

1148
01:05:43,920 --> 01:05:47,520
Speaker 1: did the same thing, then it then it Then it

1149
01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:51,960
Speaker 1: kind of made the rounds PBS corporate like the not

1150
01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:56,680
Speaker 1: just the affiliates, but the mothership. They decided to do

1151
01:05:56,720 --> 01:06:00,800
Speaker 1: it as a whole campaign and then went from twelve

1152
01:06:01,240 --> 01:06:04,440
Speaker 1: to three thousand pretty quick, and so it went up.

1153
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:07,840
Speaker 1: That was the explosion, and I think right now we

1154
01:06:07,840 --> 01:06:13,920
Speaker 1: we generally go up three to five percent a year. Um.

1155
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:16,920
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a push depending on the venue choices in

1156
01:06:17,040 --> 01:06:19,200
Speaker 1: the time of year we do it, but it's it's

1157
01:06:19,240 --> 01:06:22,040
Speaker 1: always on an uptick. There's always new fans no matter

1158
01:06:22,040 --> 01:06:24,920
Speaker 1: how popular you think you are. Okay, and I'm a

1159
01:06:25,080 --> 01:06:29,520
Speaker 1: d e or f less celebrity. You're really relatively You're

1160
01:06:29,560 --> 01:06:34,040
Speaker 1: still relatively unknown, and there's always room to grow. You know.

1161
01:06:34,120 --> 01:06:37,240
Speaker 1: It's like you whether you find the plateau or where

1162
01:06:37,280 --> 01:06:40,200
Speaker 1: you find the peak. And you know, the chances of

1163
01:06:40,240 --> 01:06:44,680
Speaker 1: me having a hit song are like seeing Aurora borealis

1164
01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:48,360
Speaker 1: during the day. Highly unlikely, and most likely it's the sun,

1165
01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:51,720
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it's to me the

1166
01:06:51,800 --> 01:06:56,440
Speaker 1: arena feeling notions. That's not gonna be me. Me. I'm

1167
01:06:56,440 --> 01:06:58,440
Speaker 1: going to be a theater act. I love being a

1168
01:06:58,480 --> 01:07:02,160
Speaker 1: theater act. Pay my bill. I live a very nice life,

1169
01:07:02,200 --> 01:07:07,000
Speaker 1: and I'm grateful. Most importantly, I'm grateful. What do you

1170
01:07:07,040 --> 01:07:11,280
Speaker 1: think is driving new attendance? I think what drives new

1171
01:07:11,400 --> 01:07:15,080
Speaker 1: new attendance these days, and I hate to say it

1172
01:07:15,120 --> 01:07:20,960
Speaker 1: is like Instagram and and social media, and you know, like, hey,

1173
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:23,200
Speaker 1: you know, it used to be word of mouth, you know,

1174
01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:26,240
Speaker 1: but now it's like you have to be an instagram ner,

1175
01:07:27,440 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 1: an influencer, you know. And I'm not sure if I

1176
01:07:32,640 --> 01:07:34,760
Speaker 1: like that or not. And I have a love of

1177
01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:40,280
Speaker 1: hate relationship with Instagram and social media because of the

1178
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:45,600
Speaker 1: the I think familiarity breeds contempt. If they know they

1179
01:07:45,600 --> 01:07:49,400
Speaker 1: can get to you, then then they try to poke

1180
01:07:49,480 --> 01:07:53,480
Speaker 1: the bear, and I should be better at not letting

1181
01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:55,400
Speaker 1: the bear get poked. But then there's just some stuff

1182
01:07:55,440 --> 01:07:57,600
Speaker 1: that you just go, I'm just not letting that go. No. No,

1183
01:07:57,840 --> 01:08:01,360
Speaker 1: I learned not to respond unless I know you or

1184
01:08:01,480 --> 01:08:05,040
Speaker 1: you have a name that I'm aware of. Problem is,

1185
01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:09,840
Speaker 1: ten percent of the public is certifiably insane, certifiably and

1186
01:08:09,880 --> 01:08:13,120
Speaker 1: they might say something reasonable. Whatever, you respond, and then

1187
01:08:13,120 --> 01:08:16,400
Speaker 1: it's open season. I've had a lot of bad experiences,

1188
01:08:17,040 --> 01:08:19,360
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, once you put your head above

1189
01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:22,360
Speaker 1: it's the nature of the game today. So on social media,

1190
01:08:22,439 --> 01:08:25,479
Speaker 1: to what degree is that your personal responsibility or does

1191
01:08:25,520 --> 01:08:27,960
Speaker 1: your team take care of it? Team take takes care

1192
01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:32,360
Speaker 1: of the Facebook. I run Twitter and I run Instagram,

1193
01:08:32,439 --> 01:08:35,760
Speaker 1: and sometimes I sometimes I don't read the I mean,

1194
01:08:36,040 --> 01:08:39,639
Speaker 1: here's the problem with with with social media. And I've

1195
01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:42,840
Speaker 1: gotten myself in trouble a few times by either coming

1196
01:08:42,880 --> 01:08:44,800
Speaker 1: off a little bit tone deaf. But I'm not. I'm

1197
01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:47,639
Speaker 1: not on the forefront I'm not. I'm not. I'm not

1198
01:08:47,720 --> 01:08:50,240
Speaker 1: on the forefront of it. I just if I go, hey,

1199
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:52,880
Speaker 1: here's a cool picture, you know, but don't post it

1200
01:08:52,920 --> 01:08:55,760
Speaker 1: on someday or when you know, it's like maybe I'm

1201
01:08:55,760 --> 01:08:58,360
Speaker 1: not paying attention to the news even though a news junkie,

1202
01:08:58,360 --> 01:09:00,760
Speaker 1: and I'm distracted, and then all of a sudden, you're

1203
01:09:00,800 --> 01:09:05,000
Speaker 1: worse than like like, I can't believe it. Okay, whatever,

1204
01:09:05,040 --> 01:09:07,120
Speaker 1: that's the loud minority talking to you. Most of the

1205
01:09:07,160 --> 01:09:11,120
Speaker 1: people don't really care or check. Um. The problem with

1206
01:09:11,120 --> 01:09:16,639
Speaker 1: with being a celebrity like yourself, um, in social media.

1207
01:09:16,720 --> 01:09:19,559
Speaker 1: If you have an opinion, now, Bob, you are in

1208
01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:22,680
Speaker 1: the opinion business. Believe me, I know if you have

1209
01:09:22,720 --> 01:09:27,439
Speaker 1: an opinion and you stick the landing. Okay, And I

1210
01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:30,320
Speaker 1: watched one of the one of the most entertaining things

1211
01:09:30,360 --> 01:09:32,639
Speaker 1: I ever watched, was your your It was a debate

1212
01:09:32,760 --> 01:09:37,320
Speaker 1: with Gene Simmons. Okay, but there was no right or

1213
01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:40,599
Speaker 1: wrong because both of you had an opinion and you're

1214
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:44,400
Speaker 1: willing to stick the landing. And the problem is now

1215
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:49,120
Speaker 1: you have to. It's like social media. To be really successful,

1216
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:52,759
Speaker 1: you have to be the most perfectly curated, crafted vanilla

1217
01:09:52,800 --> 01:09:56,320
Speaker 1: wafer of all time, who ray for everyone, who ray

1218
01:09:56,360 --> 01:10:01,320
Speaker 1: for everything. Everybody's right. There's nothing wrong except the things

1219
01:10:01,360 --> 01:10:04,200
Speaker 1: that are agreed upon by the masses to be wrong.

1220
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:07,880
Speaker 1: You know, if you have an opinion on music, if

1221
01:10:07,880 --> 01:10:12,240
Speaker 1: you have an opinion on anything, look out because the

1222
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:15,120
Speaker 1: arrows are gonna come back at you, and you know,

1223
01:10:15,240 --> 01:10:17,479
Speaker 1: and and and then it becomes a game of gotcha,

1224
01:10:17,560 --> 01:10:20,040
Speaker 1: and it's like that didn't sign on for that. Okay,

1225
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:24,479
Speaker 1: So since Instagram is driving new bonham maassa fans, what

1226
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:29,679
Speaker 1: works on Instagram? I'd say what works on Instagram sincerity

1227
01:10:30,240 --> 01:10:35,519
Speaker 1: and and it's the candid moments. It's it's the ones

1228
01:10:35,560 --> 01:10:37,960
Speaker 1: that the post that means something. It's not the ones

1229
01:10:38,040 --> 01:10:41,120
Speaker 1: that the you know, social media like people. They're like

1230
01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:43,519
Speaker 1: social media consultants. It's like, well, you know, you must

1231
01:10:43,560 --> 01:10:46,759
Speaker 1: post between one fifteen and one nineteen every day because

1232
01:10:46,800 --> 01:10:49,280
Speaker 1: that's the peak hours and people are, you know, having

1233
01:10:49,320 --> 01:10:51,639
Speaker 1: their salad at lunch and they're checking. I could care less,

1234
01:10:52,160 --> 01:10:55,240
Speaker 1: could care less. If it means something to me at

1235
01:10:55,240 --> 01:10:59,120
Speaker 1: the moment, I'm going to post it or not, you know,

1236
01:10:59,200 --> 01:11:03,839
Speaker 1: and let aley not. I just I find myself happier

1237
01:11:03,880 --> 01:11:08,200
Speaker 1: posting much less. And I don't need the dopamine shot.

1238
01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:11,439
Speaker 1: I don't need your peek. How many times were you

1239
01:11:11,520 --> 01:11:14,080
Speaker 1: posting and how much are you posting today? It was

1240
01:11:14,160 --> 01:11:16,320
Speaker 1: two or three times a day? You know, if I

1241
01:11:16,720 --> 01:11:19,800
Speaker 1: was you know, if we were doing something. Mostly it

1242
01:11:19,880 --> 01:11:21,640
Speaker 1: was just one time a day, and I try to

1243
01:11:21,640 --> 01:11:23,800
Speaker 1: do once a day and then, but there's there's days

1244
01:11:23,800 --> 01:11:27,040
Speaker 1: I don't do it anymore. Um. And there was a

1245
01:11:27,040 --> 01:11:28,680
Speaker 1: couple of weeks where I let I needed to get

1246
01:11:28,680 --> 01:11:30,880
Speaker 1: away and I let the I let I let the

1247
01:11:30,920 --> 01:11:33,439
Speaker 1: web master do it. And the fans didn't like that

1248
01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:37,719
Speaker 1: at all because they're like, who's this JB. Web Master.

1249
01:11:37,880 --> 01:11:39,920
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's Scott. He's a nice guy. Give him

1250
01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:42,639
Speaker 1: a break, you know. Finally said no, no, I'll take

1251
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:46,840
Speaker 1: it back, but on a contingency. And and I also

1252
01:11:47,920 --> 01:11:50,599
Speaker 1: there's there's a certain thing that you have to look

1253
01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:54,040
Speaker 1: after more than more than your followers, more than your career,

1254
01:11:54,080 --> 01:11:57,080
Speaker 1: more than anything. It's called your soul. And if you don't,

1255
01:11:57,120 --> 01:11:59,360
Speaker 1: if you don't protect that, you lose your soul. And

1256
01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:01,639
Speaker 1: that I see people going down those rabbit holes where

1257
01:12:01,640 --> 01:12:04,679
Speaker 1: you're just like, you can't fight everybody. It's like it's like,

1258
01:12:04,880 --> 01:12:07,639
Speaker 1: you know, reading the history books about my grandfather fought

1259
01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:10,280
Speaker 1: in Korea, and when the Chinese got involved, it was

1260
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:12,559
Speaker 1: one of those two soldiers one rifle kind of thing.

1261
01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:15,120
Speaker 1: They just keep coming. You're like, man, no, no, no no, no,

1262
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 1: none of this anymore, and and it was to me.

1263
01:12:20,160 --> 01:12:22,960
Speaker 1: I'm much happier posting less. And when I post, I

1264
01:12:22,960 --> 01:12:25,240
Speaker 1: don't look at the comments anymore. Just don't. So you

1265
01:12:25,280 --> 01:12:27,200
Speaker 1: guys want to punch yourselves out and get into big

1266
01:12:27,240 --> 01:12:30,280
Speaker 1: fights over really nothing that matters. A picture of a

1267
01:12:30,360 --> 01:12:33,000
Speaker 1: less Paul doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

1268
01:12:33,320 --> 01:12:35,479
Speaker 1: But if they want to get involved in that, that's

1269
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:39,760
Speaker 1: up to them. Let's talk about you personally relative to

1270
01:12:39,800 --> 01:12:45,960
Speaker 1: your career. Uh, Males tend to like to keep going up, okay,

1271
01:12:46,040 --> 01:12:48,840
Speaker 1: and you you get a unique thing, which is you

1272
01:12:48,880 --> 01:12:50,559
Speaker 1: get to be on stage. You get a hit which

1273
01:12:50,600 --> 01:12:53,000
Speaker 1: you can't get anywhere else in the world, which is

1274
01:12:53,120 --> 01:12:59,360
Speaker 1: very fulfilling. But at this point in time, despite yourself

1275
01:12:59,400 --> 01:13:03,559
Speaker 1: deprecating manner, are there certain goals, certain wants that are

1276
01:13:03,600 --> 01:13:07,600
Speaker 1: still driving you know, I'll tell you what bout. I

1277
01:13:07,920 --> 01:13:10,799
Speaker 1: can tell you this, and I think I'm coming closer.

1278
01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:14,040
Speaker 1: I'm not there yet. I have not made the definitive

1279
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:18,040
Speaker 1: Joe Bonamassa record yet. I think the one at Abbey

1280
01:13:18,120 --> 01:13:21,240
Speaker 1: Road is getting It's the first It's the first step

1281
01:13:21,360 --> 01:13:25,200
Speaker 1: in a long journey to where I have not made that.

1282
01:13:25,400 --> 01:13:28,360
Speaker 1: I've had good songs, and I've had songs that people

1283
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:32,920
Speaker 1: come to my concerts to see. That's that means that resonates.

1284
01:13:33,280 --> 01:13:35,400
Speaker 1: I have not made a ten song released at all.

1285
01:13:35,640 --> 01:13:39,240
Speaker 1: Ten of them are that like that. And it's not

1286
01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:41,080
Speaker 1: for lack of trying. It's not because I'm trying to

1287
01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:44,360
Speaker 1: get lazy. It's not. It's it's it's nothing other than

1288
01:13:44,400 --> 01:13:47,519
Speaker 1: the fact that a need to capture lightning in the

1289
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:52,200
Speaker 1: bottle ten times. And if I can do that, I'm cool.

1290
01:13:52,640 --> 01:13:57,080
Speaker 1: I'm cool with Let's just assume you do that, and

1291
01:13:57,600 --> 01:14:02,759
Speaker 1: I would presume your sales on albums is relatively the same.

1292
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:04,840
Speaker 1: So let's say you hit it out of the park

1293
01:14:04,880 --> 01:14:08,879
Speaker 1: and the reception is the same as the previous records.

1294
01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:15,519
Speaker 1: How will you handle that? Emotionally good question? Like I

1295
01:14:15,560 --> 01:14:19,080
Speaker 1: played a song called Self Inflicted Wounds every night and

1296
01:14:19,120 --> 01:14:21,719
Speaker 1: it goes over well, it's not it's not a standing

1297
01:14:21,720 --> 01:14:24,439
Speaker 1: oh song. But I played every night because I think

1298
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:26,680
Speaker 1: it's the best song I've written in ten years. And

1299
01:14:26,760 --> 01:14:30,479
Speaker 1: that's just for me. I love saying it. I think

1300
01:14:30,520 --> 01:14:33,160
Speaker 1: it's the best message and it's based on a true event.

1301
01:14:33,640 --> 01:14:37,479
Speaker 1: I I play it and and never discounts spite is

1302
01:14:37,479 --> 01:14:40,679
Speaker 1: a great motivator, you know. But I'm also I'm also

1303
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:43,519
Speaker 1: very cognizant of the fact that I need to give

1304
01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:46,960
Speaker 1: the folks in the crowd what they want, and I

1305
01:14:46,960 --> 01:14:50,559
Speaker 1: don't take anything personally because if if there's the nights

1306
01:14:50,600 --> 01:14:52,840
Speaker 1: that you think are great, man, this band is like

1307
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:56,120
Speaker 1: kicking ask and we're we all get off the stage

1308
01:14:56,120 --> 01:15:00,439
Speaker 1: and everybody's arms get huge, and we all pikes ourselves

1309
01:15:00,439 --> 01:15:04,240
Speaker 1: on the back, and then the fans, the fans have

1310
01:15:04,280 --> 01:15:07,400
Speaker 1: been there twenty times. You guys were off, and then

1311
01:15:07,439 --> 01:15:11,479
Speaker 1: the ones and the ones you think absolutely owe everybody

1312
01:15:11,479 --> 01:15:13,800
Speaker 1: their money back because we were it was amateur night.

1313
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:17,760
Speaker 1: They it was I don't know what you guys were doing. Uh,

1314
01:15:18,000 --> 01:15:23,360
Speaker 1: it was magic tonight. You go. Okay, And same same

1315
01:15:23,880 --> 01:15:28,000
Speaker 1: tangentially to to a concert a record ten songs that

1316
01:15:28,080 --> 01:15:29,920
Speaker 1: mean the world to me, that I think are great,

1317
01:15:30,280 --> 01:15:33,879
Speaker 1: that I think is the definitive Joe bonamassa record most likely,

1318
01:15:34,120 --> 01:15:36,280
Speaker 1: and I got my head around this most likely will

1319
01:15:36,360 --> 01:15:39,240
Speaker 1: be the least successful one. But at least I can

1320
01:15:39,280 --> 01:15:45,400
Speaker 1: say I made the statement. Okay, But those inside the

1321
01:15:45,439 --> 01:15:48,120
Speaker 1: business certainly are aware of your career. We live in

1322
01:15:48,120 --> 01:15:50,920
Speaker 1: an arrow where the biggest acts of less penetration than

1323
01:15:50,960 --> 01:15:55,160
Speaker 1: ever before. So you have created your own business, and

1324
01:15:55,200 --> 01:15:58,599
Speaker 1: generally speaking in terms of other genres, it doesn't tend

1325
01:15:58,600 --> 01:16:02,599
Speaker 1: to intersect. It's wort of its own silo. Do you

1326
01:16:03,760 --> 01:16:07,320
Speaker 1: how do you feel about getting more recognition, being more

1327
01:16:07,439 --> 01:16:12,280
Speaker 1: integrated with the so called mainstream, getting more acknowledgement. To

1328
01:16:12,360 --> 01:16:14,879
Speaker 1: what degree is that important to you? In the degree

1329
01:16:15,000 --> 01:16:17,800
Speaker 1: if it, if it requires more work on my end

1330
01:16:18,080 --> 01:16:21,240
Speaker 1: to be one of the cool kids, count me out, okay,

1331
01:16:21,280 --> 01:16:24,280
Speaker 1: because I already worked plenty, and everybody's been saying I

1332
01:16:24,280 --> 01:16:27,360
Speaker 1: need to take a year off. I have a hard time.

1333
01:16:28,439 --> 01:16:34,800
Speaker 1: I have a hard time being around mainstream anything I have.

1334
01:16:35,000 --> 01:16:37,400
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. It's a there's a

1335
01:16:37,479 --> 01:16:43,720
Speaker 1: visual reaction reaction to to it. I've always been the outsider.

1336
01:16:43,880 --> 01:16:46,200
Speaker 1: I've not I've not been an outcast, but I've been

1337
01:16:46,240 --> 01:16:48,960
Speaker 1: an outsider my whole life. And a few times that

1338
01:16:49,040 --> 01:16:52,479
Speaker 1: I flirt with the mainstream, it's like it's like it's

1339
01:16:52,479 --> 01:16:55,720
Speaker 1: like two north ends of a magnet. They tend to

1340
01:16:55,720 --> 01:17:00,200
Speaker 1: just do this, you know, And I don't feel at

1341
01:17:00,200 --> 01:17:05,200
Speaker 1: home or I don't feel at home around celebrity and

1342
01:17:05,200 --> 01:17:08,800
Speaker 1: and and red carpet. I never I've never walked the

1343
01:17:08,800 --> 01:17:11,599
Speaker 1: Red carpet in my life never will. The two times

1344
01:17:11,600 --> 01:17:16,320
Speaker 1: have been nominated for a Grammy didn't go because as

1345
01:17:16,360 --> 01:17:18,840
Speaker 1: soon as I heard that, Charlie Mussele White and Ben

1346
01:17:18,840 --> 01:17:21,240
Speaker 1: Harper were playing, and I go, guess who your winner is?

1347
01:17:22,840 --> 01:17:26,760
Speaker 1: You know? And I was right. And and the thing is,

1348
01:17:27,120 --> 01:17:29,840
Speaker 1: I've never been comfortable around that. And I'm not trying

1349
01:17:29,880 --> 01:17:32,520
Speaker 1: to say this in a facetious, like up my own assway.

1350
01:17:33,040 --> 01:17:38,960
Speaker 1: I just I luckily, at forty three years old, I've

1351
01:17:39,000 --> 01:17:42,439
Speaker 1: been around long enough. I've been successful enough to not

1352
01:17:42,600 --> 01:17:47,479
Speaker 1: do things that make me feel uncomfortable out of sheer going, Man,

1353
01:17:47,560 --> 01:17:50,599
Speaker 1: we really need this one. I bet I better get

1354
01:17:50,600 --> 01:17:53,960
Speaker 1: to that that that Grammy pre party and and you know,

1355
01:17:54,280 --> 01:17:58,799
Speaker 1: network and shake some hands. That sounds like a nightmare

1356
01:17:58,840 --> 01:18:00,960
Speaker 1: to me. Not that I don't like the people in

1357
01:18:01,000 --> 01:18:05,479
Speaker 1: the room, but doing that out of necessity seems so

1358
01:18:05,640 --> 01:18:11,400
Speaker 1: phony and so disingenuous and and and to myself of

1359
01:18:11,479 --> 01:18:13,640
Speaker 1: why I do this and why I got into the

1360
01:18:13,640 --> 01:18:17,599
Speaker 1: business to begin with that, I I just can't do it.

1361
01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:19,680
Speaker 1: It's talking about it, you can see me. It just

1362
01:18:19,880 --> 01:18:23,000
Speaker 1: makes me up tight and it's weird. And I don't

1363
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:25,960
Speaker 1: mean to I'm not de meeting anybody who who who

1364
01:18:26,120 --> 01:18:29,800
Speaker 1: goes into those situations and flourishes, because they're gonna be

1365
01:18:29,800 --> 01:18:31,800
Speaker 1: a lot more successful than I will. But I'm willing

1366
01:18:31,800 --> 01:18:38,320
Speaker 1: to sacrifice success for my soul. And since you're working

1367
01:18:38,360 --> 01:18:41,040
Speaker 1: all the time, how has this affected your personal relationships

1368
01:18:41,040 --> 01:18:45,320
Speaker 1: and love life? I'm never, I'm I've never I've never

1369
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:48,720
Speaker 1: been great at being the boyfriend. Never, not that I'm

1370
01:18:48,760 --> 01:18:52,519
Speaker 1: a bad boyfriend. I don't cheat, I don't whatever. I'm

1371
01:18:52,600 --> 01:18:54,880
Speaker 1: just like if you, I mean, if I gave you

1372
01:18:54,920 --> 01:18:58,840
Speaker 1: a tour of my house in California, you would walk

1373
01:18:58,880 --> 01:19:02,680
Speaker 1: in and go, this man is not married at all,

1374
01:19:02,880 --> 01:19:05,920
Speaker 1: work at all, these fender signs. Look at these amps. Now,

1375
01:19:05,960 --> 01:19:11,080
Speaker 1: it's well done. It's done like a museum. Um. And

1376
01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:15,400
Speaker 1: I've had some very wonderful women and very understanding women

1377
01:19:15,479 --> 01:19:19,840
Speaker 1: in my life. Unfortunately, it's just my consistency and my

1378
01:19:19,960 --> 01:19:24,599
Speaker 1: resolve eventually wears them down to where they don't resent me.

1379
01:19:24,640 --> 01:19:30,720
Speaker 1: But it just it doesn't work. So unfortunately, I've been

1380
01:19:30,960 --> 01:19:34,639
Speaker 1: very unsuccessful at that. But I never I never said

1381
01:19:34,680 --> 01:19:38,000
Speaker 1: I wanted, you know, kids and a family. I may

1382
01:19:38,080 --> 01:19:40,120
Speaker 1: want a dog one day, and I already have a

1383
01:19:40,200 --> 01:19:41,840
Speaker 1: name for the dog. And a breed of the dog

1384
01:19:41,920 --> 01:19:44,720
Speaker 1: that I want to rescue. Obviously I'll get a rescue dog.

1385
01:19:44,800 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 1: But but it other than that, I never had those goals.

1386
01:19:49,240 --> 01:19:51,880
Speaker 1: I never put that like, well, I really just just

1387
01:19:51,960 --> 01:19:55,160
Speaker 1: doing this until I can find the right woman and

1388
01:19:55,280 --> 01:19:58,679
Speaker 1: settle down and have me a bunch of kids, because

1389
01:19:59,080 --> 01:20:00,840
Speaker 1: how do you raise a kid when you are one?

1390
01:20:03,120 --> 01:20:04,519
Speaker 1: Let's say, say if you don't have kids or a

1391
01:20:04,600 --> 01:20:07,960
Speaker 1: child forever. Okay, let's get into the guitar collecting thing.

1392
01:20:08,479 --> 01:20:11,599
Speaker 1: How many how many guitars Joe? Now? I would say

1393
01:20:12,080 --> 01:20:15,200
Speaker 1: they're spread out over three locations. I would say approximately

1394
01:20:15,240 --> 01:20:19,040
Speaker 1: about four hundred and fifty. Okay, if you buy a

1395
01:20:19,080 --> 01:20:21,840
Speaker 1: new guitar, at what point do you get rid of

1396
01:20:21,840 --> 01:20:25,880
Speaker 1: a guitar at all? You know? You remember remember the

1397
01:20:26,280 --> 01:20:30,200
Speaker 1: CEO of ge Jack Welch, the late of course, Yeah,

1398
01:20:30,280 --> 01:20:32,559
Speaker 1: And he would always go on this is when CNBC

1399
01:20:32,760 --> 01:20:35,920
Speaker 1: was in the nineties. I used to watch it and um,

1400
01:20:36,040 --> 01:20:38,519
Speaker 1: he used to talk about this concept and he did

1401
01:20:38,520 --> 01:20:41,760
Speaker 1: it with people, okay, which is okay, that's these are

1402
01:20:41,760 --> 01:20:43,960
Speaker 1: people's livelihoods. He used to do it, but he used

1403
01:20:44,000 --> 01:20:46,160
Speaker 1: to go he would clear out the bottom ten percent

1404
01:20:46,200 --> 01:20:48,840
Speaker 1: of his employees every year the underperformers, the ones that

1405
01:20:48,840 --> 01:20:51,200
Speaker 1: that that that weren't that we're just kind of along

1406
01:20:51,240 --> 01:20:54,320
Speaker 1: for the ride or wherever wherever criteria. He attached to

1407
01:20:54,360 --> 01:20:57,880
Speaker 1: that every year, I look at the collection top down,

1408
01:20:58,439 --> 01:21:01,679
Speaker 1: and I haven't obviously we have an inventory and everything,

1409
01:21:01,880 --> 01:21:05,719
Speaker 1: and I clear out the bottom ten percent as because

1410
01:21:06,400 --> 01:21:10,719
Speaker 1: you only have so much room. B you're not playing

1411
01:21:10,760 --> 01:21:13,679
Speaker 1: these things. And see you probably were in the moment

1412
01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:15,080
Speaker 1: and you bought it and you thought it was cool.

1413
01:21:15,120 --> 01:21:18,120
Speaker 1: Because when the addictions raging, Luckily I don't have drugs

1414
01:21:18,160 --> 01:21:21,320
Speaker 1: and alcohol. I have guitars and amps, okay, which is

1415
01:21:21,360 --> 01:21:24,120
Speaker 1: to me a healthy addiction to a point. And when

1416
01:21:24,120 --> 01:21:26,040
Speaker 1: the addiction is raging on the road and you're in

1417
01:21:26,080 --> 01:21:27,880
Speaker 1: a store and you've got four or five things going

1418
01:21:27,920 --> 01:21:29,680
Speaker 1: on at the same time, you go, hey, what about this? Yeah,

1419
01:21:29,680 --> 01:21:32,120
Speaker 1: I'll take it. You don't think about you. I'll take

1420
01:21:32,160 --> 01:21:36,040
Speaker 1: it because it's the it's the rush, you're in finding mode,

1421
01:21:36,040 --> 01:21:40,919
Speaker 1: you're in you know, your vacuum it all up and

1422
01:21:41,000 --> 01:21:43,640
Speaker 1: so I I get rid of ten percent of the

1423
01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:48,360
Speaker 1: guitars um per year. Quietly, it's not like the Joe

1424
01:21:48,360 --> 01:21:54,120
Speaker 1: Bonamasa Annual Collection Reduction sale here on Instagram. Bye bye bye,

1425
01:21:54,280 --> 01:21:56,679
Speaker 1: you know Sunday Sunday Sunday is that nothing like that.

1426
01:21:57,240 --> 01:22:02,679
Speaker 1: It is really, ultimately um, just an exercise. And am

1427
01:22:02,680 --> 01:22:05,679
Speaker 1: I a hoarder or am I got control over this thing?

1428
01:22:06,360 --> 01:22:08,639
Speaker 1: And just to clear out the collection? And they're all

1429
01:22:08,680 --> 01:22:11,599
Speaker 1: good guitars. And people have bought guitars for me, like wow,

1430
01:22:11,640 --> 01:22:13,160
Speaker 1: I can't believe you got rid of it because it

1431
01:22:13,280 --> 01:22:16,639
Speaker 1: just wasn't the guitar for me and it didn't speak

1432
01:22:16,640 --> 01:22:19,280
Speaker 1: to me. There's things that I hold onto that people

1433
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:21,280
Speaker 1: I don't know why you keep it. It just means

1434
01:22:21,320 --> 01:22:25,719
Speaker 1: something to me. And the criteria is different for everyone. Okay,

1435
01:22:25,760 --> 01:22:27,599
Speaker 1: let's assume you do want to get rid of guitars.

1436
01:22:27,800 --> 01:22:30,639
Speaker 1: How do you lay them off? I got about four

1437
01:22:30,720 --> 01:22:34,800
Speaker 1: or five people that want stuff, and very it's very

1438
01:22:34,880 --> 01:22:38,439
Speaker 1: rarely in the public um. And I know the kind

1439
01:22:38,439 --> 01:22:41,960
Speaker 1: of guitars that people look for, and I just call him, Okay,

1440
01:22:42,000 --> 01:22:44,200
Speaker 1: do you want this? Here's if there's any issues. I

1441
01:22:44,240 --> 01:22:47,160
Speaker 1: don't really buy stuff with issues, but if there's any issues,

1442
01:22:47,160 --> 01:22:49,080
Speaker 1: I just disclose them. I give them a price and

1443
01:22:49,120 --> 01:22:51,000
Speaker 1: they like it or they don't, you know, so it's

1444
01:22:51,120 --> 01:22:54,439
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal generally. Generally speaking, you make

1445
01:22:54,479 --> 01:22:58,559
Speaker 1: money trading guitars, lose money, break even, don't care. I

1446
01:22:58,600 --> 01:23:02,960
Speaker 1: always call I was when I buy. Remember I'm the

1447
01:23:03,000 --> 01:23:07,240
Speaker 1: son of a guitar dealer. I buy not wholesale, but

1448
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:10,920
Speaker 1: not retail. I buy in the brackish area where I

1449
01:23:11,040 --> 01:23:13,760
Speaker 1: just like I could listen, did like like we're talking

1450
01:23:13,800 --> 01:23:17,640
Speaker 1: about guitars that are anywhere from five thousand dollars to

1451
01:23:18,520 --> 01:23:24,160
Speaker 1: four thousand dollars. Okay, you're you're talking about stuff. Like

1452
01:23:24,320 --> 01:23:27,760
Speaker 1: I said, I just want to dignified exit strategy. There's

1453
01:23:27,760 --> 01:23:30,559
Speaker 1: no reason to buy a guitar to lose money. I

1454
01:23:30,680 --> 01:23:33,439
Speaker 1: just like to barely if I can break even. You know,

1455
01:23:33,520 --> 01:23:36,719
Speaker 1: if you come out a little bit ahead, great, um.

1456
01:23:36,760 --> 01:23:38,559
Speaker 1: But I don't do it for a living, and I don't.

1457
01:23:38,600 --> 01:23:42,000
Speaker 1: I don't buy with the notion I will never ever

1458
01:23:42,120 --> 01:23:44,280
Speaker 1: find The people offer me stuff all the time, original

1459
01:23:44,320 --> 01:23:46,400
Speaker 1: owners and stuff like that. Some people want to give

1460
01:23:46,400 --> 01:23:48,840
Speaker 1: it to you, like, let's not even go down that road.

1461
01:23:49,200 --> 01:23:51,639
Speaker 1: I'll pay you fair because I don't want to take

1462
01:23:51,680 --> 01:23:54,519
Speaker 1: advantage of people because of my stature, not only as

1463
01:23:54,520 --> 01:23:57,759
Speaker 1: a collector but as a musician. And I've I've corrected

1464
01:23:57,800 --> 01:24:00,880
Speaker 1: people when they've been super undervalued on things many times

1465
01:24:00,880 --> 01:24:02,920
Speaker 1: and like, I'm not gonna pay you that because they

1466
01:24:02,920 --> 01:24:04,800
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna try to get it for less. I'm

1467
01:24:04,840 --> 01:24:08,519
Speaker 1: gonna pay you more because I have a conscious and

1468
01:24:08,840 --> 01:24:10,600
Speaker 1: I want to be able to look at anything in

1469
01:24:10,600 --> 01:24:14,280
Speaker 1: my collection and go, remember the story. I buy stories,

1470
01:24:14,360 --> 01:24:18,240
Speaker 1: not instruments. And that little old lady who got three

1471
01:24:18,280 --> 01:24:20,719
Speaker 1: thousand dollars for a guitar when she was asking a thousand,

1472
01:24:21,280 --> 01:24:23,600
Speaker 1: that's the story I'm gonna tell because she was she

1473
01:24:23,800 --> 01:24:26,280
Speaker 1: just was like, you know what, thank you for the honesty,

1474
01:24:26,320 --> 01:24:28,840
Speaker 1: and I go, You're welcome. I would hope that would

1475
01:24:29,040 --> 01:24:31,639
Speaker 1: be the same thing if somebody was, you know, if

1476
01:24:31,680 --> 01:24:33,680
Speaker 1: I was doing if I was if I showed up

1477
01:24:33,720 --> 01:24:35,840
Speaker 1: with a with a with a painted egg get an

1478
01:24:35,880 --> 01:24:39,280
Speaker 1: antique dealer going hey, I give me fifty bucks for this,

1479
01:24:39,439 --> 01:24:41,120
Speaker 1: I hope somebody would say, like, you know, this is

1480
01:24:41,160 --> 01:24:44,160
Speaker 1: a faberge. You know what I mean. It's like you

1481
01:24:44,280 --> 01:24:47,519
Speaker 1: just kind of invest in, you know, your belief in people. Okay,

1482
01:24:47,560 --> 01:24:51,960
Speaker 1: so you get rid of how do you replenish? That's

1483
01:24:51,960 --> 01:24:55,240
Speaker 1: not the problem. That's not the problem. Finding this stuff

1484
01:24:55,320 --> 01:24:58,679
Speaker 1: is not the problem. Um, I'm a big electro magnet

1485
01:24:58,720 --> 01:25:01,160
Speaker 1: for guitars. People off me stuff all the time. And

1486
01:25:01,240 --> 01:25:03,479
Speaker 1: that's not just guitar dealers. Most of the stuff I

1487
01:25:03,600 --> 01:25:06,240
Speaker 1: try to buy is from original owners and from the source.

1488
01:25:07,080 --> 01:25:10,479
Speaker 1: And and that's the hunt, because when you have four

1489
01:25:10,520 --> 01:25:13,160
Speaker 1: and fifty of them, who cares? You don't need another?

1490
01:25:14,120 --> 01:25:17,880
Speaker 1: It's it's like, oh, like I just found uh you know,

1491
01:25:18,600 --> 01:25:21,720
Speaker 1: I just found like a once in a lifetime um

1492
01:25:21,920 --> 01:25:24,080
Speaker 1: Fender Esquire from a friend of mine who works for

1493
01:25:24,120 --> 01:25:26,559
Speaker 1: Guitar Center, and he bought it and and it's got

1494
01:25:26,560 --> 01:25:28,920
Speaker 1: a picture of a woman in a short skirt playing

1495
01:25:29,439 --> 01:25:33,000
Speaker 1: playing this sunburst Fender Esquire from nine nine. And you're like,

1496
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:35,519
Speaker 1: oh my god, that is like you can live two

1497
01:25:35,680 --> 01:25:38,200
Speaker 1: collecting lifetimes and never seen anything like that. That's what

1498
01:25:38,320 --> 01:25:41,000
Speaker 1: I go after. It's the ones in the lifetime stuff

1499
01:25:41,320 --> 01:25:44,280
Speaker 1: that you if you're not in the circle. If you're not,

1500
01:25:44,600 --> 01:25:46,439
Speaker 1: don't keep your finger on the pulse. That's what you're

1501
01:25:46,439 --> 01:25:49,280
Speaker 1: gonna miss out on. Did you go to the Me

1502
01:25:49,600 --> 01:25:53,200
Speaker 1: exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum which is now you do?

1503
01:25:53,280 --> 01:25:55,800
Speaker 1: You're saying, no, I missed it. I missed I was

1504
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:58,519
Speaker 1: on tour, I was making the record, and I know

1505
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:00,559
Speaker 1: it went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,

1506
01:26:01,240 --> 01:26:03,320
Speaker 1: But you got you gotta see. You know they have

1507
01:26:03,400 --> 01:26:07,200
Speaker 1: the original you know, Frankenstein guitar from Van Halen, which

1508
01:26:07,240 --> 01:26:09,839
Speaker 1: has been well documented. When you see it up close,

1509
01:26:10,320 --> 01:26:12,160
Speaker 1: you would not take it outside of your bedroom. It

1510
01:26:12,240 --> 01:26:14,800
Speaker 1: looked like, you know, it would fall apart so soon

1511
01:26:14,840 --> 01:26:18,960
Speaker 1: as you took it out stage. And uh, certainly some

1512
01:26:19,400 --> 01:26:22,559
Speaker 1: the Keith Richard stuff. There's a lot of great stuff.

1513
01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:28,240
Speaker 1: But in terms of what you're looking for in a sound,

1514
01:26:28,760 --> 01:26:31,599
Speaker 1: is it more about the model just I'm talking about

1515
01:26:31,640 --> 01:26:34,639
Speaker 1: the at the end of the day. Is it more

1516
01:26:34,640 --> 01:26:37,479
Speaker 1: about the model number or reality? No matter what the

1517
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:40,320
Speaker 1: model number is, they all sound different. Here's the thing

1518
01:26:41,479 --> 01:26:46,000
Speaker 1: what people don't realize in terms of gear is everybody

1519
01:26:46,040 --> 01:26:48,920
Speaker 1: wanted a fifty nine Less Paul. Why because Jeff Back

1520
01:26:48,960 --> 01:26:51,760
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Page play one. Eric Clapton used one in

1521
01:26:51,840 --> 01:26:56,280
Speaker 1: John Mayo on the Blues Breakers and cream Um. Keith

1522
01:26:56,360 --> 01:27:00,040
Speaker 1: Richards had one, you know when they played uh you know,

1523
01:27:00,120 --> 01:27:03,320
Speaker 1: shin dig You know, all of a sudden, everyone in

1524
01:27:03,400 --> 01:27:07,240
Speaker 1: fifty nine Less Paul ain't gonna write the songs for you.

1525
01:27:07,240 --> 01:27:11,880
Speaker 1: You're not gonna sound like Jeff Beck if you got one, Okay, Um,

1526
01:27:12,000 --> 01:27:13,840
Speaker 1: You're not gonna You're not gonna come up with. I

1527
01:27:13,920 --> 01:27:16,600
Speaker 1: feel free if you happen to have one on the

1528
01:27:16,880 --> 01:27:20,439
Speaker 1: you know, on a stand. So they were tools. I

1529
01:27:20,600 --> 01:27:23,040
Speaker 1: use the guitars as tools. I also like being a

1530
01:27:23,080 --> 01:27:27,639
Speaker 1: custodian of history and a history buff. I love history,

1531
01:27:27,760 --> 01:27:31,360
Speaker 1: you know, preserving American history. You know that all the

1532
01:27:31,400 --> 01:27:33,960
Speaker 1: stuff that I collect was made in America. Every screw

1533
01:27:34,120 --> 01:27:37,640
Speaker 1: and bolt and nut and speaker and string and capacitor

1534
01:27:37,720 --> 01:27:41,760
Speaker 1: in pot it's all us made, all manufactured here, and

1535
01:27:41,760 --> 01:27:45,559
Speaker 1: it's a documentation of a time which this country made

1536
01:27:45,600 --> 01:27:48,720
Speaker 1: everything for itself that will never get back. It's the

1537
01:27:48,760 --> 01:27:51,600
Speaker 1: world is too big. It's there's two inner you know,

1538
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:55,960
Speaker 1: you know, it's just too intertwined now to where the

1539
01:27:56,000 --> 01:28:00,559
Speaker 1: potentiometers and your Gibson guitar most likely now are made

1540
01:28:00,560 --> 01:28:02,720
Speaker 1: in China or outsource to China. Buy the company that

1541
01:28:02,760 --> 01:28:05,320
Speaker 1: Gibson buys them from. And get this, No, it's no

1542
01:28:05,360 --> 01:28:07,280
Speaker 1: fault of Gibson's. It's just what they have. And they've

1543
01:28:07,280 --> 01:28:11,320
Speaker 1: been doing business with CTS pots since the forties. So

1544
01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:16,200
Speaker 1: all of that, you know, is what goes into being

1545
01:28:16,200 --> 01:28:18,800
Speaker 1: a collector. Now, Like if in terms you asked me

1546
01:28:18,840 --> 01:28:22,000
Speaker 1: about my love life, if I'm on a date, and

1547
01:28:22,080 --> 01:28:26,479
Speaker 1: she goes, I see you collect guitars. Um, I'm like, yeah,

1548
01:28:26,479 --> 01:28:28,479
Speaker 1: I'm a big collector, and then like you you know,

1549
01:28:28,680 --> 01:28:31,000
Speaker 1: you know I really like And then if she asked me,

1550
01:28:31,040 --> 01:28:37,479
Speaker 1: like why do you need all those dates over? Why

1551
01:28:37,520 --> 01:28:39,400
Speaker 1: why do you need why do you need why? Why

1552
01:28:39,439 --> 01:28:42,599
Speaker 1: do you need all this? If you have to ask

1553
01:28:42,640 --> 01:28:45,040
Speaker 1: me that you don't get the collecting thing, it's either

1554
01:28:45,080 --> 01:28:47,280
Speaker 1: you get it or you don't. And it's okay if

1555
01:28:47,320 --> 01:28:49,679
Speaker 1: you don't. But I like to be surrounded by history.

1556
01:28:49,720 --> 01:28:51,439
Speaker 1: I like to be surrounded by things that I love

1557
01:28:51,520 --> 01:28:54,400
Speaker 1: and and play and cherish. And I have stories and

1558
01:28:54,720 --> 01:28:58,439
Speaker 1: I'm a story collector that happens to masquerade as an

1559
01:28:58,479 --> 01:29:02,400
Speaker 1: instrument collector. Of the four and fifty, how many do

1560
01:29:02,479 --> 01:29:09,000
Speaker 1: you play within twelve months? Maybe forty? About there's about

1561
01:29:09,080 --> 01:29:13,360
Speaker 1: forty road guitars and rotation. Those road guitars also double

1562
01:29:13,400 --> 01:29:15,800
Speaker 1: his studio instruments. These are the ones that are set

1563
01:29:15,880 --> 01:29:19,400
Speaker 1: up to play. There's the ones like like the prevailing

1564
01:29:19,479 --> 01:29:22,200
Speaker 1: narrative with collectors, you want to as original as possible.

1565
01:29:22,240 --> 01:29:25,080
Speaker 1: You want the original frets, you want the original everything.

1566
01:29:25,280 --> 01:29:27,320
Speaker 1: And I have tons of that stuff that's never been

1567
01:29:27,400 --> 01:29:32,480
Speaker 1: touched molested even looked at. It's like the Nigel Toughnesal conversation.

1568
01:29:32,520 --> 01:29:33,720
Speaker 1: You know, It's like, I don't even look at it

1569
01:29:34,120 --> 01:29:37,479
Speaker 1: meant perfectly preserved tons of I never play it. Why

1570
01:29:37,520 --> 01:29:40,719
Speaker 1: because it doesn't deserve the beat down. It's survived sixty

1571
01:29:40,760 --> 01:29:42,599
Speaker 1: five years? Why do I have to beat it down?

1572
01:29:43,120 --> 01:29:45,960
Speaker 1: But I also have a fleeting guitars that are set

1573
01:29:46,040 --> 01:29:50,760
Speaker 1: up for playing, and and I play about forty of

1574
01:29:50,800 --> 01:29:58,360
Speaker 1: them every year consistently. And how many amps? Okay, so

1575
01:29:58,720 --> 01:30:02,880
Speaker 1: you Gibson a refender, totally fender with them with the

1576
01:30:02,920 --> 01:30:05,840
Speaker 1: amps most of my am Okay, Well I'll stop first

1577
01:30:05,840 --> 01:30:09,639
Speaker 1: talking guitars. Um. I I serve both masses. I'm equal

1578
01:30:09,720 --> 01:30:13,439
Speaker 1: about two hundred each. UM I love, but I do

1579
01:30:13,560 --> 01:30:17,479
Speaker 1: love solid bodies. I only collect solid bodies and a

1580
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:24,000
Speaker 1: very few arch tops. UM. I like solid body fenders

1581
01:30:24,040 --> 01:30:27,720
Speaker 1: made from nineteen fifty to about nineteen sixty four. I

1582
01:30:27,760 --> 01:30:31,799
Speaker 1: love solid body Gibson's that were made from about nineteen

1583
01:30:31,840 --> 01:30:37,920
Speaker 1: fifty two through about nineteen sixty five. That's about it, um.

1584
01:30:38,000 --> 01:30:41,639
Speaker 1: And it's all just different variations and colors and and

1585
01:30:41,640 --> 01:30:44,960
Speaker 1: and conditions of that. Okay. So let's say I had

1586
01:30:45,000 --> 01:30:49,920
Speaker 1: three guitars. I had a Jaguar, jazz Master, and a Stratocaster.

1587
01:30:50,040 --> 01:30:52,800
Speaker 1: Which one do you pick? And why? Okay, if you're

1588
01:30:52,920 --> 01:30:55,800
Speaker 1: talking about in terms of a canoe and a river,

1589
01:30:56,120 --> 01:30:58,559
Speaker 1: you take the jazz Master and the Jaguar. If you

1590
01:30:58,560 --> 01:31:02,280
Speaker 1: want to play real guitar, take this trap. Okay, I

1591
01:31:02,320 --> 01:31:04,760
Speaker 1: gotta go a little bit deeper there. I'm just making

1592
01:31:04,800 --> 01:31:08,439
Speaker 1: a bad joke. Um, I take the strap because I'm

1593
01:31:08,439 --> 01:31:12,200
Speaker 1: comfortable on his strap. Noki Edwards is great, great on

1594
01:31:12,200 --> 01:31:16,400
Speaker 1: a jazz Master. Um. John Fascanti changed the world with

1595
01:31:16,600 --> 01:31:19,920
Speaker 1: a Jaguar. Um. I'm I'm not a fan of those

1596
01:31:20,040 --> 01:31:22,800
Speaker 1: kind of serve guitars because it's just there's something because

1597
01:31:22,800 --> 01:31:27,240
Speaker 1: I'm a lead player. Um, they don't feel right when

1598
01:31:27,280 --> 01:31:31,720
Speaker 1: I play lead. UM strato caster to me is more

1599
01:31:31,760 --> 01:31:35,559
Speaker 1: of a tool that I can use. That that is, well,

1600
01:31:35,640 --> 01:31:37,479
Speaker 1: Leah didn't invent it for me, but but but it

1601
01:31:37,479 --> 01:31:42,360
Speaker 1: suits my style better. Okay, I'm gonna get click bait

1602
01:31:42,439 --> 01:31:44,960
Speaker 1: it on that one. I'm gonna get killed. But but

1603
01:31:45,080 --> 01:31:48,960
Speaker 1: your Fender amps, you're a tube guy, right, Always a tube.

1604
01:31:48,960 --> 01:31:52,200
Speaker 1: But never discount a solid state amp, especially early solid

1605
01:31:52,280 --> 01:31:57,639
Speaker 1: state like um Vox super beatles sound great. Rick and Bocker.

1606
01:31:57,720 --> 01:32:02,519
Speaker 1: Transnics sound great. Some early silvertone solid states sound great,

1607
01:32:03,080 --> 01:32:06,760
Speaker 1: um generally. But the weird thing is like we're the

1608
01:32:06,880 --> 01:32:11,479
Speaker 1: last industry that uses this technology. I mean, like maybe

1609
01:32:11,479 --> 01:32:16,400
Speaker 1: the Hi fi stuff, like they use tubes, but we

1610
01:32:16,520 --> 01:32:20,760
Speaker 1: used quarter inch cables, okay, and we'll be using quarter

1611
01:32:20,800 --> 01:32:23,519
Speaker 1: inch cable as long as we're playing electric guitar. Apple

1612
01:32:23,600 --> 01:32:26,639
Speaker 1: will not even keep the same headphone input for more

1613
01:32:26,640 --> 01:32:28,800
Speaker 1: than six months, you know what I mean. It's like

1614
01:32:28,880 --> 01:32:30,599
Speaker 1: it's like it's like every time you look at it,

1615
01:32:30,600 --> 01:32:32,320
Speaker 1: it's like I don't have the right adapter. I don't

1616
01:32:32,320 --> 01:32:34,200
Speaker 1: have to write plug. You know. They change the plugs.

1617
01:32:34,200 --> 01:32:38,439
Speaker 1: And we use quarter inch cables like old telephone you know,

1618
01:32:38,920 --> 01:32:43,839
Speaker 1: operator headphone jacks. They're called phono jack's, you know, and

1619
01:32:43,840 --> 01:32:47,440
Speaker 1: and and switch craft and all the it's ald timey stuff,

1620
01:32:47,520 --> 01:32:51,040
Speaker 1: you know. So we're kind of a steam powered car

1621
01:32:51,120 --> 01:32:54,519
Speaker 1: in the middle of a digital ocean. And how do

1622
01:32:54,560 --> 01:33:00,920
Speaker 1: you feel about the English company Marshall Orange, etcetera. Uh,

1623
01:33:01,120 --> 01:33:04,400
Speaker 1: James James Hendricks did pretty good with marshals Um, so

1624
01:33:04,520 --> 01:33:07,519
Speaker 1: did Slash and so did you know everybody? I used

1625
01:33:07,520 --> 01:33:11,760
Speaker 1: to use Marshalls a lot um Orange again, Tony Iaomi,

1626
01:33:12,160 --> 01:33:15,320
Speaker 1: Jimmy Page. There's always a Matt Amp on stage with him,

1627
01:33:15,360 --> 01:33:19,519
Speaker 1: which was an Orange product. Um and you know Vox.

1628
01:33:20,080 --> 01:33:22,880
Speaker 1: The kids from Liverpool did great with them, you know,

1629
01:33:23,479 --> 01:33:27,479
Speaker 1: you know Mike Campbell, Tom Petty Vox, you know uh Hank, Marvin,

1630
01:33:27,560 --> 01:33:31,400
Speaker 1: the Shadows use Fox um and you know. So again,

1631
01:33:31,600 --> 01:33:35,720
Speaker 1: it's all about the toolkit in which you require to

1632
01:33:35,800 --> 01:33:38,960
Speaker 1: get the sound in your head and your heart. And

1633
01:33:39,160 --> 01:33:42,680
Speaker 1: some people prefer brighter. I prefer darker guitar sound. But

1634
01:33:42,720 --> 01:33:45,160
Speaker 1: it's just what I feel in my heart, not my head.

1635
01:33:46,040 --> 01:33:49,760
Speaker 1: How about pedals and other effects? The Edge does great

1636
01:33:49,800 --> 01:33:56,040
Speaker 1: with him. Um. I think the reliance a little bit

1637
01:33:56,560 --> 01:33:59,320
Speaker 1: nowadays is a little bit too much on the stomp

1638
01:33:59,400 --> 01:34:03,839
Speaker 1: box and not enough on the on the tactile playing

1639
01:34:03,840 --> 01:34:07,880
Speaker 1: elements where the box does the rites the part. Now

1640
01:34:07,880 --> 01:34:10,040
Speaker 1: there's a there's an argument to say that a lot

1641
01:34:10,120 --> 01:34:12,720
Speaker 1: of great songs are written that way. Happy accidents you

1642
01:34:12,840 --> 01:34:15,439
Speaker 1: put on two pedals at once, or or you know

1643
01:34:16,080 --> 01:34:19,320
Speaker 1: Trevor Rabin like Owner of a Lonely Heart that solos

1644
01:34:19,400 --> 01:34:21,360
Speaker 1: with the rack freaked out and all the things went

1645
01:34:21,400 --> 01:34:23,040
Speaker 1: on at the same time and like that, Wait, don't

1646
01:34:23,400 --> 01:34:25,280
Speaker 1: you know Trevor Horners like, don't touch it, just do

1647
01:34:25,400 --> 01:34:28,040
Speaker 1: this all so you get the happy accidents. So you

1648
01:34:28,040 --> 01:34:30,480
Speaker 1: have to have it around to have the happy accidents,

1649
01:34:30,520 --> 01:34:33,479
Speaker 1: but also to the great players can just walk up

1650
01:34:33,520 --> 01:34:37,080
Speaker 1: to an amp and a cable and they and you go,

1651
01:34:37,120 --> 01:34:39,680
Speaker 1: oh that's Mike Campbell or oh that's the Edge, or

1652
01:34:39,720 --> 01:34:43,479
Speaker 1: oh it's Jimmy Hendricks or whatever. And I use pedals

1653
01:34:43,520 --> 01:34:47,200
Speaker 1: to augment the playing. And I use pedals historically, and

1654
01:34:47,439 --> 01:34:50,639
Speaker 1: I've said some weird controversial things about pedals in the past,

1655
01:34:50,680 --> 01:34:52,800
Speaker 1: but that was a different me in a different time pace.

1656
01:34:53,400 --> 01:34:56,160
Speaker 1: You know the time and place and a headspace. But

1657
01:34:57,280 --> 01:35:00,439
Speaker 1: you know, if you rely too much on on on

1658
01:35:01,720 --> 01:35:05,360
Speaker 1: Tristan Knobs, the music is gonna go by and you're

1659
01:35:05,360 --> 01:35:07,680
Speaker 1: not gonna you're not gonna get the most out of

1660
01:35:07,680 --> 01:35:10,479
Speaker 1: the music. You know. Um, But if you're just in

1661
01:35:10,479 --> 01:35:12,320
Speaker 1: the moment and playing with the band, you're gonna enjoy

1662
01:35:12,320 --> 01:35:14,879
Speaker 1: the experience a lot more and you can just be freed, minxed,

1663
01:35:15,280 --> 01:35:18,599
Speaker 1: turn up and go at least my attitude. Okay, let's

1664
01:35:18,640 --> 01:35:21,320
Speaker 1: assume you're invited to a dinner party, not a small one,

1665
01:35:21,439 --> 01:35:24,840
Speaker 1: but one way. There are multiple conversation. Okay, eight or

1666
01:35:24,880 --> 01:35:29,400
Speaker 1: twelve people, and we're not talking about the subjects we're

1667
01:35:29,400 --> 01:35:33,280
Speaker 1: talking about today, you're gonna fit in converse about other things?

1668
01:35:33,280 --> 01:35:37,040
Speaker 1: Are you're gonna tune out? You'd be surprised, how how

1669
01:35:37,080 --> 01:35:41,400
Speaker 1: how little I know about a lot of subjects. No,

1670
01:35:41,520 --> 01:35:44,080
Speaker 1: I'm not saying, but are you comfortable? Is that a

1671
01:35:44,120 --> 01:35:46,519
Speaker 1: good night to be talking a little bit about a

1672
01:35:46,520 --> 01:35:48,559
Speaker 1: lot of subjects? Yeah? Well you say, I'd rather I'd

1673
01:35:48,600 --> 01:35:51,920
Speaker 1: rather be anywhere but here. Yeah. I I don't I

1674
01:35:52,040 --> 01:35:56,200
Speaker 1: like talking about Like I'm fascinated with journalism, fascinated I'd

1675
01:35:56,240 --> 01:36:01,360
Speaker 1: probably be a journalist in another life. And I'm fascinated

1676
01:36:01,479 --> 01:36:07,880
Speaker 1: with with um, people that dedicate themselves to public service. Um,

1677
01:36:07,920 --> 01:36:12,280
Speaker 1: but not politics. I I you know, to me, it's like,

1678
01:36:12,439 --> 01:36:14,400
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's the people that are in the

1679
01:36:14,439 --> 01:36:17,800
Speaker 1: State department that that are a political they have been

1680
01:36:17,920 --> 01:36:21,080
Speaker 1: those jobs for for you know, fifty years under the

1681
01:36:21,160 --> 01:36:25,599
Speaker 1: attache to the Swedish ambassadors. Like it's like it's a

1682
01:36:25,640 --> 01:36:27,760
Speaker 1: fascinating life to me, you know what I mean, Like

1683
01:36:27,800 --> 01:36:30,439
Speaker 1: just the just what you're dealing with, it's so different

1684
01:36:30,479 --> 01:36:33,680
Speaker 1: than what I do. And I'm fascinating with history and

1685
01:36:33,760 --> 01:36:37,160
Speaker 1: news and and again like I said everything about politics,

1686
01:36:37,200 --> 01:36:40,000
Speaker 1: because that that that is just a toxic pool of

1687
01:36:40,200 --> 01:36:42,880
Speaker 1: nobody wins on that one, especially if we discussed it

1688
01:36:42,880 --> 01:36:45,160
Speaker 1: at a dinner party or publicly. You know, and I've

1689
01:36:45,200 --> 01:36:49,280
Speaker 1: seen good friends defriend each other not only on Facebook

1690
01:36:49,320 --> 01:36:52,479
Speaker 1: but in real life over a post. You're like, no,

1691
01:36:53,360 --> 01:36:58,040
Speaker 1: that's how it works. You can agree to disagree. Okay, Well,

1692
01:36:58,120 --> 01:37:00,599
Speaker 1: we've certainly hit a nerve here. We could talk all day.

1693
01:37:00,640 --> 01:37:02,280
Speaker 1: There are a lot of things that you were saying.

1694
01:37:02,479 --> 01:37:05,440
Speaker 1: I would like to expand, but we'll do that sometime

1695
01:37:05,520 --> 01:37:08,519
Speaker 1: off the podcast. Joe, I want to thank you so

1696
01:37:08,640 --> 01:37:11,439
Speaker 1: much for doing this. I loved hearing the story, especially

1697
01:37:11,479 --> 01:37:15,879
Speaker 1: since you're unique business and uh you're collecting for those

1698
01:37:16,040 --> 01:37:18,439
Speaker 1: who may have forgotten. For the top of the show,

1699
01:37:18,560 --> 01:37:23,200
Speaker 1: this Sunday, The Joe will be doing a live show,

1700
01:37:23,200 --> 01:37:26,719
Speaker 1: which will also be available in case you aren't available

1701
01:37:26,760 --> 01:37:29,920
Speaker 1: yourself for the following week. Joe, thanks so much for

1702
01:37:29,960 --> 01:37:32,360
Speaker 1: doing and I'm a big fan when you when you

1703
01:37:32,400 --> 01:37:33,960
Speaker 1: reach out and say hey, you want to be of course,

1704
01:37:34,200 --> 01:37:38,599
Speaker 1: thank you and thank you for doing it. Until next time.

1705
01:37:38,720 --> 01:37:39,960
Speaker 1: This is Bob left SAX