WEBVTT - Joe bonamassa 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:19.079 Why Guess Today because guitarists extraordinary? Joe Bonamas, Joe, thank 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.439 you for having me, Bob. This is like a real honor. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.720 You know, I've been a fan of your work for 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:29.640 twenty years, you know, and the fact that like I'm 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.960 on your radar is it's it's it's a real it's 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.760 a real treat. You know. I even set you an 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.800 email saying, hey, thanks for the kind words about my song. 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.280 You know, you don't get that every day, not around 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.919 here at least, I don't get positive feedback like that 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.440 every day. So, Joe, you're doing a live stream in 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:49.360 a couple of days. Tell me how that came to be. Well, 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.760 you know, we all we've just been sitting around for 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:55.600 five months and we're bored, and you know, and now 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.400 is the thing. It's like, well, how do you promote 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.880 a record in the traditional avenues of promoting the record 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:05.520 are not available to you like we would we would 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.000 start playing songs traditionally off a new album a month 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:13.400 two months before a tease, three or four songs, and 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.240 everybody kind of oh, you know, can't wait for October. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.360 Well we haven't toured since March, and we decided to 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:21.840 do this pay per view at the Rhyme and and 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.120 we're gonna debut the record, you know, start to finish 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.880 in order, which we've never done before. And it's a 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:30.959 way to promote the record. It's also a way to 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.679 raise some money for charity. Um, because I've been I've 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.279 been doing this thing, uh for the last few months 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.800 called fueling Musicians, And it's basically because I've been very 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.240 fortunate my career and I can weather the storm and 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.880 you know, hopefully come out the other side doing okay. Um. 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:50.760 But a lot of my friends in the music business, 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.320 especially in the blues business, are really struggling to find 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.320 ways to pay their bills until we're allowed to come back. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.600 So it was a win win on both sides. We 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.760 get to promote the record, raise some money for a 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.600 good cause, and hopefully, you know, make some people happy 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.639 in a time where we need that. Tell us more 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:14.120 about the philanthropy, the charitable end of the show. Well, 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.240 the whole thing about it is We've had this thing 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.840 called Keeping the Blues Alive Foundations. You know, it's a 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.920 nonprofit for about seven or eight years, and you know, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.400 through our cruise and you know, just just raising money 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.800 in the private sector. We were able to you know, 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.280 come up with about six hundred thousand dollars in which 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.680 we were you know, given away to schools and music programs. 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.840 Since then, we've raised over a million dollars because were 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.919 five thousand has coming the last few months and we've 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.200 been given it away to musicians. So when you buy 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.480 the hundred dollar package, um of you get your you know, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.920 you get your face, cardboard face in a seat, you know, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.120 and stuff like that. That's really to me. You know, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:01.880 like like a portion of that money is going to 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.400 go directly to musicians in need, and a lot of 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.119 them are represented. Ten of them at least are represented, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:09.200 you know in the after show, like people like Tired 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.640 Bryant and all of our friends from you know, Keeping 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.000 the Blues Alive, pass cruises and whatever. We've helped people, 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.960 and you know, again, it's like philanthropy. If you're lucky 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.200 enough to be able to do it, Now is the time. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.360 Now is the time to step up and make a difference. Okay, 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.760 keeping the Blues alive. From your viewpoint, what is the 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.800 state of the blues and can blues survive? And come back. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.640 You know, they've been writing this article since the sixties. 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.160 Is Blues dead? You know? How how do you kill 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.160 off something that never was? You know, like it's one 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.440 of those things where like, you know, is the Blues dead? 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:47.880 Is the blues still relevant? Is the blues this is? 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.200 It's like, you know what, here's the thing keeping the 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.520 blues alive. The blues is how you make it. You know, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.560 every ten years there's a Gary Clark Jr. That comes 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.280 along and and gives it a B twelve shot in 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.040 the butt, and all of a sudden is the new 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.920 blues boom question mark? And then and then somebody you 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.440 know that it kind of fades and rides the wave 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.400 and then and then you know, something else comes along, 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.440 and then somebody else like you know, you know, uh, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.760 Chris stone Ingram kingfish Ingram. Well, he'll make a definitive 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.520 record that changes his life, you know, and then they'll 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.280 be right in the same thing about him in five 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.600 or ten years that they wrote about me in oh nine, 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.520 and they wrote about Gary Clark Jr. In two thousand, 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.120 you know, like two thousand. To me, at the end 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.120 of the day, Um, it's not a question of is 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.920 the Blues dead. What's the status of the blues. It's 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.320 just who's gonna who's gonna give it the B twelve 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.240 shot that comes along every decade. And you know my 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.919 turn was in O nine in ten and and you 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.320 know Gary's was five six years ago, or you know, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.039 three years ago, and it'll be somebody else's to take 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.000 in five years, you know. So that's that's what I. Okay, 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:02.800 we'll get back there, but let's stay with the live show. 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.440 So the live show is Sunday the twenty at one pm. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.160 How did you decide on one pm? That's uh, four 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.159 pm East coast, one pm West coast. We need sell 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.719 packages in Guam. Apparently I'm big and Guam, you know. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.880 So the whole thing is is we decide it's three 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.320 pm Central, so before percent, you know, four pm on 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.400 the East coast, Uh, you know, you know, one one 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.120 pm on the West coast. Plus Europe, it'll be like 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.839 just after dinner, eight o'clock, nine o'clock. You know, we 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.320 have a lot of fans in like Moscow. St. Petersburg 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.440 will be ten eleven o'clock. And then also it would 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.800 be like wake up to Joe Bonamassa and friends, in 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.039 Australia and you know New Zealand and Hawaii and all 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.400 that stuff, and and so we decided to kind of 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.080 try to just play the whole globe. What would be 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:54.080 the best time to play this gig where everybody has 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.160 a good chance to watching it as it goes down. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.680 Now it will be on it will be on the UH, 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.080 it will be on the interwebs and on our our 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:06.200 our our stream for seven days, so you can watch 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.520 it anytime after you you know, if you buy it, 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:09.760 you can you don't have to watch it as it 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:11.600 goes down. You can watch it the next day at 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.680 your convenience. But we've just figured, you know, three pm 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:19.000 Central would be a good starting point. We're just guessing. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:20.880 We're making this up as we go along about you know, 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.479 That's why I'm asking, we're informing everybody the whole live 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.080 performance world is in transition. How do you decide on 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:33.680 the rheman selfishly? It's a block from a house, okay, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:35.800 and to what degree do they have infrastructure? To what 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.240 degree do you have to bring in your own UH equipment? Well, 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.200 ever since this thing started, um, you know, you walk 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.960 by the Rhyman and there's there's TV trucks, you know, 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.040 um out there almost daily, you know, so they've been 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.560 live streaming, people have been doing special events there. Um, 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.479 it's a very special place for me because it means 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.080 the world that I get to play there. Um, you know, 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.359 I have posters on my wall that' say you know, 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.040 you know the next three nights Joe Bonamassa live at 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:05.160 the Rhemans. This was inen and that we did one 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:09.200 last year and and it's a beautiful place. It's it's 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.400 something that I never thought I would achieve in my career. Going, man, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.080 I could. I literally can walk to work and it's 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.679 the Rhyman Auditorium. And I know a lot of people 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.280 in this town, a lot of people that don't live here, going, man, 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.560 if I could just play the Rhyman one time, it 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.760 would be fine, you know. So it's a special venue 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.520 to me. Um. It's also a great venue, has great acoustics. 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.680 So even though there's no no people, but you start 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:34.640 putting the room mix in it and you know, I 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:38.040 call it the Frampton comes Alive effect. It's like that 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.200 big reverb thing. It's nice and so it's gonna make 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.240 for a good live concert. And um, you know, the 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.040 band will look good on stage. We were dapper folks. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.320 Need let's just say we have a virus at this 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.840 time and you're doing this live show. What are you doing? 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.440 What precautions are you taking so that the people actually 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:57.680 in the band and the building and the crew are 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.480 not getting infected. So we bay basically we're all tested 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.440 a couple of days ago. Happy to report everybody is 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:12.000 COVID free. We will rehearse with that in mind, meaning 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.280 that we're starting to get into the bubble, and then 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.080 on we're tested again. On the we really go into 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.760 the bubble band and crew, and we don't really come 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:28.800 out until like you know, five o'clock on September twenty. Now, 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:30.400 if there's a if there's a problem, we have to 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.160 deal with it, um. But we're taking as many precautions 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.920 as not only the rhyming requires, but as we require 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.880 as just human beings, um to make sure that that 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.520 that our people are safe, because that's really tantamount to 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.680 what we're doing. There's no gig worth somebody's health. There's 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.120 no gig worth somebody's life, obviously, But what we're doing 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.640 is we're without it being like without really just putting 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:02.000 isome you know, isometric chambers around Reese Weinen's and and 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:07.040 and you know myself. We're basically, you know, um uh 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.760 you know, we're basically doing as much as we can 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.000 to prevent everybody, you know, from being at risk. I 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:16.920 don't even know if is I so metric the right now? 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.480 It's but I wasn't gonna bust you onf no, no, no, 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:21.439 But I was like, what is what did I just say? 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:26.239 I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, remember those exercise from the sixties. 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.720 But then I think of Carson hyperbolic? That is that? 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:34.800 Is that the right? Is it? With its hyperbolic chambers? Sorry, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.400 I've been producing a record my brains mush pop. But 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.680 thank you for That's okay, that's okay. I was gonna 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:44.960 let it slide, but it was I thinking, oh god, okay. 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.480 So one interesting thing. If somebody goes to your page 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.199 and they want to go to this show or watch 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.840 this show, they're different levels of buying, which you also referenced. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.719 How did you come up with that concept and how 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.560 did you come up with the specific price points for 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.840 this show? Well, we we basically looked at other models 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.760 what people were doing. Um, now there's some it's it's 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.680 like it's like it's like when you buy vinyl, vinyl 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:14.680 is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? Is a vinyl? No 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.040 people pay more for the for the was it the 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.000 five grand vinyl and stuff like that. So some people 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.240 want to watch in HD. Some people have a huge 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:24.080 rig at their house. They have the mac they have 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.640 the Macintosh power ramps and the and the super High Deaf, 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.120 which I'm not sure how I look in super high deaf, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.160 just saying okay, some people don't need to be shot 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.920 in super high Deaf. I probably am one of those folks, 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:40.120 like you're like, whoa geez bombases it's been a rough 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:44.760 forty three, So I mean based on the tears are 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:49.079 based on the definition. And then obviously obviously what we're 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.559 talking about is is you know, like the hundred dollar 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.960 packages is a donation to the charity. You know, you 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.320 also get a you know, you get a record credit, 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.960 a DVD credit, so like they'll be seventy or whatever. 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.120 People we sell this thing too is they're gonna be 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.440 you know, credited on the DVD and you know, so 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:11.880 they get to look at themselves eventually in All Music 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.480 Guide and be like, hey, look at me. I was 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:18.480 credited on Joe bonamass Alive and you know the COVID 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.920 sessions at the Rhyman whatever we're gonna call this thing, 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.560 and and you know, it's just trying to engage the 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.679 fans and make them feel vested while also you know, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.559 donating to charity as well. How long you lived in Nashville. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:33.599 I had this place three years. I still have the 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.079 place in California. By the way, I I I'm very 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.480 lucky in my career. I have three theme parks that 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.920 are guitar based. I live. I have a place in California, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.319 New York and and here. But I've been working here 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.480 out of here so long, it just made sense to 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:47.240 buy a place that you know, it's supposed to just 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.000 stay at a hotel for a month, you know, while 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.680 you're making a record or writing. Okay, people, what studio 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:57.240 did you recorded? We just got done. Um I just 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:00.120 produced a record for Eric Gales the great Erica as 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:05.160 a guitar right and um I um. We worked at 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.120 Sound Emporium. So I either work at Sound Emporium or 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:12.440 I work at Ocean Way, and they're great studios. We've 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.400 done records at Blackbird. You know, so you're kind of 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.600 spoiled for choice in this town. And also you're spoiled 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:20.880 for choice as far as a musician. You know, like 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.679 the level of musicians here in any genre any way 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.560 you want to look at it, or if it's not here, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.640 it's not anywhere. I mean, they're all they're they're all 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.800 congregating in Nashville, especially now it's cheaper to live in 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.559 l a bro Uh. But what it's what's it like 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.400 being a blues player in a country town. I think 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.320 it's cool because you stand out, you know, do do 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:51.240 you ever get called for sessions? I get called to 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.679 do guest spots, like you know, they they call me 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.040 because they want the little the little the little yellow 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:01.520 sticker on on the CD featuring special guests so and so, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:03.840 so and so and so and so. So they don't 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.160 call me to be like, you know, like like a 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:11.120 Brent Mason or somebody like that. Um, they call me 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.760 to to to overplay over changes. You know, they're like, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.240 wait a minute, we need some blues rock overplaying Carbon Amassa, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.280 you know. And that's it. But I don't really put 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.200 myself out there, nor do I really fancy myself as 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.800 session guitar player, because I don't feel that. I believe 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.240 what makes me good as an artist would make me 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.120 a bad session player. And if I became a session player, 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:39.560 it would dilute my what I am as an artist. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.840 And and so for me, that's that was a conscious decision. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.920 Years ago. You're like, oh, what makes you great as 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:50.800 an artist? I'm a bowling the China shop. I stand 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.400 up there, I play louder, and I make people notice me, 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.959 and that's what makes me good as an artist. Listen, 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:05.160 I'm a blues rock artist with a strange last name, 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.480 a very funny speaking voice, and people say I sound 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.240 like Kermit the Frog, especially the kind of microphone that 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:15.760 I use. Um, which is what kind of microphones? And 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.319 I don't know I use. I use a telephone in 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:20.200 and live. But but when I speak, I sound like 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:21.920 Kermit the Frog. When I try to sound like Paul 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:26.200 Rodgers when I sing, I fail in both both categories. 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.560 And I don't have a discernible hit song. So that 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.080 so that in the music because the deck is stacked 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:36.720 against me, but because I have this chip on both shoulders, 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.640 and when I play and when I sing and when 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.480 I do something, I try to move the needle. And 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.400 that's what makes me good as an artist. And and and 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.120 and I step up there and I just do what 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.760 I do un apologetically. That's what's that's what's gotten me 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.040 noticed over the years. And a few decent songs which 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.680 came first You're bull in a China chop style, or 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.000 you realizing that worked and you empty up. Um. I 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.000 knew it worked when I was eleven years old. I 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.560 walked up there, I was called up to play. Oh god, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.480 I was called up to play with a cold shop 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.200 blues band in Hamilton's, New York at a place called Nardies. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.040 And it was the Hamilton's Blues Festival and it rained 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.440 all day, so they moved it inside. Luckily. Unluckily for 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.160 the promoter, was like a hundred fifty people showed up 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.680 for the entire blues festival, included the headliner, James Cotton, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.520 the late great James Cotton, And he watched me play 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.600 with the opening act and he invited me to up. 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:38.560 He invited me up to play with his band, and 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.280 he says, man, you know how to get people's attention, 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.400 don't you. And it always stuck with me and I said, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.720 I just don't know anywhere else. It was like I 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.280 was a shy kid. I'm still a shy kid, but 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.200 you give me a guitar and a namp and I 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.880 know what to do, especially electric guitar, because that's really 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.760 where I've always found my confidence. And I found the 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.280 other character meeting. The character is the guy in the suit. 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.000 That's the confident Bona Massa. Not to speak to myself 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.640 with the third person, but that's what I'm doing. And 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.360 the shy kid is the nerd kid with the guitar collection, 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.440 with the glasses and the hat that you see on 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:18.120 the zoom call. And ultimately it's two different people, but 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.880 it's all the same person. It comes from an authentic place. 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.440 And I don't really I don't want to be the 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.480 guy who dresses for the gig when he goes to 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.480 Walgreens to pick up a toothbrush, you know. And I 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:33.840 don't want to be the oh shucks. I just I'm 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.840 just here to just here to participate guy either. So 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.880 I'm in the middle of the road. Okay, through your eyes, 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.840 who's the best rock gutars, best blues guitarists of all time? 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:56.960 UM paid to say it, but I will if you're 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:01.640 talking about a guy who's reinvented himself and then in 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.240 to me the top of the heat for five decades 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:10.600 in a row. I gotta say, Jeff Beck, I'm with you, Okay. 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.760 People don't realize. And he plays without a pick. I 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:15.280 want to talk to him and said, you never miss 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:17.560 a note, and he was humbled about that's not his reputation. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:22.520 But when he plays, it's astounding. It's astounding. You say 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.480 he reinvented himself, Uh, what exactly do you mean by that? 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.800 So starting the sixties, he comes out he's just out 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.000 of the yardbirds, got a chip on his shoulder's gonna go. 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.280 I'm gonna show them. And then he makes Truth and 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:39.440 Beco Lah almost in the same year, recruits his kid 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:44.760 from wherever, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Mickey Waller, Nicky Hopkins, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.199 and they go in and they're like, we're gonna make 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.560 a heavier Beano record, which, by the way, tomorrow I 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.080 get to interview John Mayo. How cool is that? Right? 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.080 And then he makes two those kind of records. The 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.840 band breaks up and they and they cancel on Woodstock. 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.479 Next thing you know, he's he's in the studio with 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.879 Bobby tench and he doesn't sound the same as he 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.080 did four years or three years before. Okay, next thing, 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.600 you know, blow by Blow wired all those records. All 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.480 of a sudden, the musos like him. Then he goes 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.800 through there and back and then meet Simon Phillips, and 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.840 then he makes Guitar Shop, then he makes who Else 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.520 and Neal. Brush with the Blues changed the game. Okay, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.159 stop there, because the only problem with Brush with the 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.639 Blues is not enough people have heard it well. The 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:36.960 only there's two problems with Brush with the Blues. The 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.320 two problems with Brush with the Blues not to slide anybody, 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:43.000 because we've all been influenced, is if you listen to 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.399 Ray Gomez, who used to play with Stanley Clark and 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.399 Rita Franklin. If you listen to a song called sweet Life, 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.720 which predates Brush with the Blues about fifteen years, and 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:58.760 then Brush with the Blues he something chicken or the Egg. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.560 I'm not saying anything. I'm just suggesting you listen to 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.800 Ray Gomes as well. But we've all been influenced. The 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.440 problem Brush with the Blues is you go, oh my god, 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.800 here's a guy who at that point in his career 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:13.919 could have just said whatever, I'm Jeff Beck and you're not. 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.360 But keeps going and going and doubling down and then 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.120 you know, um was it the last record he did 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.280 with um Loudhailer or one of those records where people 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.000 kind of looked at me like, well, what's he doing. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.440 It's like he's experimenting and he's never he never rests 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:32.240 on his laurels. And that's why I think he's the 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.320 best of all time. Hendrix was the biggest game changer 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.680 because it just it just went it just went mad, 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.600 you know. But without buddy guy, no Hendrix, you know 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.800 what I mean. So it's like it's all it's all interrelated, 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:53.320 and it's not it's not something that you you can go, well, well, 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.240 you know who's the best of all time, because it's arguable, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.000 there's it's there's taste, there's perspective. To me, the most 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:04.280 immaculate conception blues guitar player of all time Albert King. 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.960 Nobody sounded like him before and everybody copied him after. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.439 There's just no there's no like well, big Bill Bruns, 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.320 he sounded like Albery. No, he did not. Albert bent 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.240 a certain way he phrased a certain way. He was 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.240 also a drummer. His name is Albert Nelson and he 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.479 played on Jimmy Reed records as a drummer. So, okay, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:28.000 I know you're a big guitar collector, but you go 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.520 that deep? Are you a student of the game. Are 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:32.960 you someone who's wrapped up in history and knows all 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.959 the credits? No, I'm not a musicologist like my friend 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:42.960 Jimmy Vavino. Um, my friend Paul Stanley. These are these 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:48.160 are Stanley of Kisses A is a big musicologist. Paul Stanley. 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.040 Will you don't want to play rock and roll Jeopardy 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:57.720 with Paul Stanley? He will school you on everything, soul records, 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:03.800 blues records, rock records. You you you just you just 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.679 just listen and learn, okay. And you know, there's a 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.600 lot of those kind of people that that I try 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:12.600 to I get into things that I like and I 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.480 go down the rabbit holes. But there's so much you 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.240 know that that you can it to me. Sometimes it 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.040 becomes a distraction because you're just going, you know, is 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.200 that is that you know who's playing on this James 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:26.639 Brown record? You know, it's like like I don't know, 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:29.560 You're trying to identify just but you can't enjoy. At 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:31.480 some point, you just want to put it on and enjoy, 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.359 you know, as a as a fan. Are you friends 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.720 with all these players at this point? You know? One 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.119 of the weirdest things. One of the weirdest things is 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:47.720 having your heroes text you. You know, You're like, wait 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:49.960 a minute, it's Warren Haynes. You know what I mean? 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:54.280 You know that's that's you know, it's just whatever, and 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.639 and and you just go. I never thought any of 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.639 my life would turn out this way. I hoped that 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:02.679 I would be able to make a living playing guitar. 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:08.000 I had hoped I would be able to just have 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:12.600 fun and enjoy being around guitars. And thank god I 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.040 never had to get a real job, because I think 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.879 I would fail miserably in the in the in the 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.240 in the private sector. You know what I mean, I'm 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.720 like what, I'm selling cars, you know, or I'm I'm 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:25.960 I'm God forbid him. In an office, I would be 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.959 fired at it, almost said, will I'm a loose cannon. 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.920 I have I wear my heart on my sleeve and 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:38.879 I'm a character which is not conducive to normal operations, 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:41.840 and I would be fired and and I would just 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.760 be like running a comic book shop with guitars on 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:47.920 the walls. You know. Okay, we all know a lot 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:50.639 of musicians. And what I always say is if they 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:52.720 weren't a musician, they could not work in the real 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.160 world because they couldn't even show up in the seven 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:59.119 eleven on time. So the question becomes you, to what 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:02.199 degree are you disciplined? If I say, hey, you know 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:04.159 we're gonna be somewhere too, You're gonna be there too. 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.480 You're gonna be there three five of ten after I'll 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:11.240 be there at two. I pride myself and being on time, 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.359 and I hate running late, and I hate putting people out. 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:19.240 It's a it's a it's a it's a Roman Catholic 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:24.520 guilt that's instilled in you from baptism. Okay, you never 0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:28.080 put people out. I'm an upstate New York Italian who 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.960 went who was raised Roman Catholic, and you never you 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.120 never keep people waiting. You always rather be earlier than late, 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:40.520 and you'd always over over deliver and under promise. Those 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:43.800 are those are tenants of my life. And when it 0:23:43.840 --> 0:23:47.399 comes to Catholicism, you're still a believer. No, I haven't 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:54.439 been for a while. What what changed there? Um? It 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.399 was an incident when I was a kid where the 0:23:57.440 --> 0:23:59.959 priest ran off with the neighbor's wife and took them. 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.000 I don't know if that's cliche at this point, but 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:08.240 it seemed like like and these people idolize this guy, 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:11.399 and it broke that rule. He broke that rule. He 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.680 broke that rule. He kind of like just chiseled off 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:17.800 some of them commandment things, and and then uh, there 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:19.800 was that, and there's just a few other things where 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:22.720 I just you know, as you go down rabbit holes 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:25.720 of science, you go down rabbit holes of of of things. Now. 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.399 Do I believe in the tenets of religion? Yes? Do 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:30.480 I believe in being a good person? Yes? Do I 0:24:30.520 --> 0:24:34.439 believe in giving than receiving? Yes? Do I believe in 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:37.439 not stealing? Do I believe in all the things at 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:40.160 the tank commments teach you when you're at religious going 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:44.360 absolutely except for that pesky when it says I'm your 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:47.199 one God and there's no other God but I that 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:52.440 I don't believe because because that's that's like it's specious reasoning. 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.800 It's like saying this, this this poster has prevented Barrett 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:58.240 or this lap steal that you see here in the 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:02.000 photo has prevented Barrett X in my my condo in Nashville, 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:04.840 in the sense that that there hasn't been any bear 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:07.679 attacks since this thing has been sitting here. But is 0:25:07.680 --> 0:25:11.400 it really preventing them? Okay, so you're from upstate New York. 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:15.680 We're exactly Utica, New York. Not to be confused with Ithaca, 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:18.200 of course for that. But you know, I know the difference. 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:21.040 People are not New York savvy. May not. People go like, 0:25:21.240 --> 0:25:24.440 you're from Ithaca. That's Cornell Universe. Utica, it's from Cornell University, 0:25:24.440 --> 0:25:27.159 And I'm like, no, it's not. That's our that's our 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:31.800 Ivy League brethren in the South. Okay, we're Utica. We 0:25:31.800 --> 0:25:37.840 were military industrial complex. We were what we are. I mean, um, 0:25:38.240 --> 0:25:41.040 blue collar proud. You still have a used of a 0:25:41.040 --> 0:25:44.520 place there. No, No, I haven't lived there for twenty 0:25:44.560 --> 0:25:47.679 two years. Okay. And then Genesee Beer there was a 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:52.399 Unica Beer, wasn't there. I believed Utica Club which is 0:25:52.400 --> 0:25:56.600 now saranac Um. The Utica Club Genese I believe was 0:25:56.640 --> 0:26:00.400 from the Batavia, Rochester it was, you know, but see, 0:26:01.560 --> 0:26:03.280 I love the fact that I grew up in a 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:06.600 working man's town. And one of the things about Upstate 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:09.199 New York, especially that part of Upstate New York, is 0:26:09.520 --> 0:26:12.840 we are recession proof, and we are we are salad 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:16.120 year proof, if you know what I mean. The boom 0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:21.840 never reaches us, The bust never reaches us. It the 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:25.000 when the co War ended and the last of the 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:30.920 factories closed. Basically, economically, the area flatlined and it and 0:26:31.119 --> 0:26:36.119 too huge gains in the stock market through huge recessions. 0:26:36.359 --> 0:26:39.960 It didn't change if you take home three and fifty 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:43.560 dollars after taxes in Utica, New York in eighty you 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:47.080 were living large. In nine you were living large in 0:26:47.119 --> 0:26:50.760 two thousand. When I left, you were living large. That's 0:26:50.800 --> 0:26:53.800 what that's that area in a nutshell, and there's nothing 0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:57.440 wrong with it, but it's just because of how isolated 0:26:57.480 --> 0:27:02.960 it is, and it never grew past the industrial age 0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:06.040 and the and the military industrial complex. And that's that's 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:08.959 It's true. But about a lot of areas in the country. 0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:11.280 In Ohio, Michigan, you know, it's like the rust belt. 0:27:11.280 --> 0:27:20.159 It's rust belt. How many kids in the family. My 0:27:20.320 --> 0:27:22.800 sister is four years younger than me. To the day, 0:27:23.840 --> 0:27:26.359 to the day that says something interesting about your parents 0:27:26.359 --> 0:27:29.520 birth control, just like it was consistency. Yeah, she's she's 0:27:29.560 --> 0:27:33.920 technically May nine. I'm May eight, but we're hours apart. Okay, 0:27:33.960 --> 0:27:37.600 And what is she up to these days? My sister 0:27:37.760 --> 0:27:40.880 is smarter, She got the looks, she got, the brains, 0:27:41.640 --> 0:27:47.320 she got the she's just superior to me in every way. Um. 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:51.480 And she has two beautiful children and a wonderful husband, Michael. 0:27:51.560 --> 0:27:54.240 And her name is Lindsay and uh and and the 0:27:54.880 --> 0:27:58.600 two kids, Gibson and Waverley, And they live in San Francisco. 0:27:58.680 --> 0:28:01.880 They've been living there for about ten years. And she's 0:28:01.920 --> 0:28:05.760 doing great and has a master's degree in business. And 0:28:06.119 --> 0:28:09.159 you know, she just she's superior to her brother in 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:13.760 every way except playing. Okay, So how many How long 0:28:13.880 --> 0:28:18.320 was your family in the Utica area up until about 0:28:18.440 --> 0:28:22.000 two years ago? No, the opposite. Your parents? Were they 0:28:22.040 --> 0:28:25.240 born in that area? Did they moved? They were born? Okay, 0:28:25.359 --> 0:28:29.480 and it's all over. Your parents ran a music store? 0:28:29.720 --> 0:28:34.000 Was that their mode of providing food and shelter when 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:36.240 you were born? My mom worked from the State of 0:28:36.240 --> 0:28:39.200 New York for the State of New York. Um. From 0:28:39.240 --> 0:28:43.720 basically high school after she graduated high school. Still when 0:28:43.760 --> 0:28:47.800 she retired, different jobs. She worked for Universities um Department 0:28:47.800 --> 0:28:50.160 of Labor, but she it was it was a state 0:28:50.280 --> 0:28:53.200 state job with great benefits and and you know, healthcare, 0:28:53.280 --> 0:28:56.640 which provides My father did various things through his life 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:58.680 and he's both still alive and they live in Sonoma, 0:28:58.720 --> 0:29:00.920 California now and I got the Son of the Year 0:29:00.920 --> 0:29:04.080 plaque for that, by the way, anyway, that's just another story. 0:29:04.440 --> 0:29:10.200 But basically, you know, when I was born in nineteen 0:29:10.200 --> 0:29:13.200 seventy seven, and when my parents were born in nineteen 0:29:13.240 --> 0:29:16.400 fifty four, and when their parents were born, it was 0:29:16.480 --> 0:29:20.520 the prevailing narrative was you you're born in this community, 0:29:20.600 --> 0:29:22.880 and you stay in this community, and it was just 0:29:22.920 --> 0:29:25.360 the cycle of life. Now, this is not unique to 0:29:25.440 --> 0:29:28.160 upstate New York. This is not unique to California or 0:29:28.160 --> 0:29:31.280 any It was basically, and a lot of my classmates 0:29:31.360 --> 0:29:35.880 still lived there from my class of because if you're 0:29:35.920 --> 0:29:38.080 born in New Yorkville, New York or New York Mills, 0:29:38.840 --> 0:29:42.360 chances are you marry your high school sweetheart or somebody 0:29:42.320 --> 0:29:44.920 you met in college, and then you settle and have 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:46.880 kids in New York Mills, and then your kids go 0:29:46.960 --> 0:29:49.440 to New York Mills Junior Senior High School and their kids, 0:29:49.520 --> 0:29:51.320 and a lot of times you have the same teachers 0:29:51.360 --> 0:29:53.800 that have been there thirty five years. It's a story 0:29:53.880 --> 0:29:57.760 that's repeated so many times in America. And that was 0:29:57.880 --> 0:30:01.280 the We were the first generator, and I think Generation 0:30:01.520 --> 0:30:05.800 X to ever kind of like bust out and say 0:30:06.240 --> 0:30:08.200 maybe I don't want to live here my whole life. 0:30:08.760 --> 0:30:10.920 Maybe I want to do something, Maybe I want to travel, 0:30:11.080 --> 0:30:14.640 maybe I want to see something or experience something different. 0:30:14.640 --> 0:30:17.680 And we were one of the first people, first generations, 0:30:17.680 --> 0:30:22.160 to really take a chance and and kind of buck 0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:25.400 the system, as they say in the in the sense 0:30:25.440 --> 0:30:28.400 that we were like I'm moving to New York, Okay, 0:30:28.480 --> 0:30:31.120 good luck. And my my mom freaked out and I said, well, 0:30:31.960 --> 0:30:34.440 because your your room is always there, and the offer 0:30:34.520 --> 0:30:36.920 was still stands. You know, there's always a room for you. 0:30:36.960 --> 0:30:39.960 If this thing goes bust, I'm like, okay, thanks. My 0:30:40.040 --> 0:30:42.880 mother is the opposite. I left Tolim at seventeen. Don't 0:30:42.880 --> 0:30:45.440 come back. She literally said, you talk on the phone, 0:30:45.440 --> 0:30:47.440 but don't come back and live in my house. But 0:30:47.840 --> 0:30:50.800 she turned my bedroom into an office. But at what 0:30:50.880 --> 0:30:55.640 point did your father open a store selling guitars. This 0:30:55.680 --> 0:31:00.240 is about Okay, so this was this is not how 0:31:00.280 --> 0:31:02.560 you grew up with a guitar shop. No. I grew 0:31:02.640 --> 0:31:05.720 up my mid to late teens. I was around a 0:31:05.720 --> 0:31:08.280 guitar shop. My dad had two different shops. He he 0:31:08.360 --> 0:31:11.240 opened up for about seven years, close for about six years, 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:16.360 and then opened up again. And it was fun being 0:31:16.400 --> 0:31:19.240 in a guitar shop. Doing guitar shows. I met a 0:31:19.240 --> 0:31:21.840 lot of characters that I still know, Like like if 0:31:21.840 --> 0:31:25.880 you took the best Hollywood scriptwriters, like like like the 0:31:25.920 --> 0:31:29.360 out guys, you know, like like you get Stephen King, 0:31:29.480 --> 0:31:33.720 and you know Tim Robbins and and and and and 0:31:33.840 --> 0:31:37.080 you know somebody else like like just like you know 0:31:37.440 --> 0:31:40.720 the Coen Brothers and something like that. Okay, and you go, 0:31:41.040 --> 0:31:42.840 Here's what I need you to do. I need you 0:31:42.880 --> 0:31:45.800 to come up with a cast of twenty people that 0:31:46.000 --> 0:31:50.280 are as eccentric as they are driven, as they are crazy, 0:31:50.640 --> 0:31:54.680 as they are weird as they eccentric. They couldn't come 0:31:54.760 --> 0:31:57.240 up with the characters that show up on a yearly 0:31:57.320 --> 0:32:02.440 basis to the Dallas Guitar Show. Okay, Okay, this is 0:32:02.480 --> 0:32:04.920 the only place in the world where sweatpants and a 0:32:05.000 --> 0:32:08.760 Fannie pack full of hundred dollar bills is socially acceptable. 0:32:09.800 --> 0:32:12.360 So this is the world I'm thrust into. And these 0:32:12.400 --> 0:32:16.640 guys are shrewd. They're buying, they're selling, they want, they 0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:19.480 they're collecting, or they're not, or they say they are. 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:24.640 The New York Guitar Show, you know, the first time 0:32:24.640 --> 0:32:28.080 as a church and you know, um, twenty three Street, 0:32:28.120 --> 0:32:30.280 and you're like, on, how many sins are being committed 0:32:30.280 --> 0:32:33.680 in this room right now? You know that shall not steal, 0:32:34.160 --> 0:32:36.320 you know, being the biggest one of them, you know, 0:32:36.920 --> 0:32:41.920 and uh, you know, so all of that like kind 0:32:41.920 --> 0:32:44.120 of permeated as I was starting my career. I was 0:32:44.160 --> 0:32:46.440 signed to E and My Records at that point, and 0:32:46.480 --> 0:32:49.040 then we were we had a band um that was 0:32:49.040 --> 0:32:52.000 called Bloodline that was kind of an A O. R oriented, 0:32:52.200 --> 0:32:54.880 you know, Southern rock band at the same time as 0:32:54.880 --> 0:32:59.440 The Archangels and Cry of Love and Brother Kane, and 0:32:59.600 --> 0:33:02.800 I was helping my dad. I was living at home, 0:33:03.280 --> 0:33:05.200 and then finally I just said, you know, I need 0:33:05.200 --> 0:33:08.880 to I just need to go and and take a 0:33:08.960 --> 0:33:11.960 chance on Joe Bonham Moss. I dropped smoking, drop all 0:33:12.040 --> 0:33:15.840 that nonsense and take a chance. And I've had lucky. 0:33:15.880 --> 0:33:18.080 I've had the same manager for thirty years. Who's gone 0:33:18.080 --> 0:33:21.040 with me on that on that journey. Okay, let's break 0:33:21.080 --> 0:33:23.920 some of this down though. So when do you first 0:33:24.040 --> 0:33:28.560 pick up a guitar? When I was four and there 0:33:28.640 --> 0:33:30.720 was just a guitar line around, how did that happen? 0:33:31.160 --> 0:33:34.440 Dad played professionally. Um, he would do weekend gigs. So 0:33:34.520 --> 0:33:38.479 he was playing Dan Fogelberd songs, Crosby Stills in Nash songs, 0:33:38.560 --> 0:33:43.000 Neil Young songs in a duo setting at the ground Round, 0:33:43.120 --> 0:33:46.520 which was like a chain of steak houses that that 0:33:47.200 --> 0:33:49.880 instead of serving bread as the appetizer or the free 0:33:49.880 --> 0:33:54.000 appetiser was it was peanuts. So they were you know, 0:33:54.040 --> 0:33:56.800 you get a hamburger and then he would play, you know, 0:33:57.480 --> 0:34:00.160 and you know, he made some good money and and 0:34:00.160 --> 0:34:02.200 and and I was extra money because he worked in 0:34:03.040 --> 0:34:05.320 a factory at the time. You worked in a factory 0:34:05.360 --> 0:34:08.960 in Utica that made suits. It's called Joseph and Feiss, 0:34:09.000 --> 0:34:11.080 And they would they would make these suit coats. And 0:34:11.120 --> 0:34:13.040 my mom would work for the state and she dad 0:34:13.040 --> 0:34:16.520 would play. And we had an oldsmobile and in a 0:34:16.520 --> 0:34:20.680 little house on Campbell aff and but Dad always had 0:34:20.719 --> 0:34:23.319 a guitar, so I wanted to follow in his footsteps, 0:34:23.719 --> 0:34:25.680 and I was like, oh, I love this guitar. And 0:34:25.719 --> 0:34:28.600 then he would play Eric Clapton records like just One 0:34:28.719 --> 0:34:33.080 Night from and you'd see that black strap with the 0:34:33.120 --> 0:34:36.480 worn out neck, and then like it. Once I got hooked, 0:34:36.760 --> 0:34:39.839 Stevie ray Vaughan came out a year later. Um, then 0:34:39.880 --> 0:34:41.759 he would take me down the rabbit. If you like 0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:44.520 Steve Rayvonne, you need to hear Robin Trauer. I feel 0:34:44.520 --> 0:34:46.919 like Robin Trout. You like hear Hendrix And then it's 0:34:46.960 --> 0:34:51.120 just my whole world exploded. Okay, she you picked up 0:34:51.200 --> 0:34:55.000 his guitar. How did you learn how to play? He 0:34:55.040 --> 0:34:58.560 would teach me things. He would teach me the fundamentals, 0:34:58.560 --> 0:35:03.319 like chords and a few rudimentary pentatonic scales. And then 0:35:03.400 --> 0:35:08.239 I had this knack to hear something and then play 0:35:08.280 --> 0:35:12.040 it off a record. So I would hear it, I 0:35:12.040 --> 0:35:14.839 would play it and mimic it. So by the time 0:35:14.880 --> 0:35:18.000 I was six, I'd really gotten serious about it and 0:35:18.120 --> 0:35:19.680 was like, you know, I'm actually pretty good at this. 0:35:20.800 --> 0:35:23.239 I can actually hear something in like Voodoo Child. I 0:35:23.239 --> 0:35:25.880 can actually pick it out the notes and then mimic 0:35:25.920 --> 0:35:28.920 the sound, at least in my mind, you know. And 0:35:28.960 --> 0:35:32.080 I know Jimmy Hendrix, but I knew I had a 0:35:32.080 --> 0:35:36.719 propensity or proclivity depending on the positive negative context. You're 0:35:36.719 --> 0:35:39.560 whipping out the big so okay, but what I'm saying 0:35:39.560 --> 0:35:41.880 it is like you know, positive negative sums it's positive 0:35:41.960 --> 0:35:45.960 something it's negative. Is I knew I had a I 0:35:46.040 --> 0:35:49.040 had some sort of gift for it. But I also 0:35:49.120 --> 0:35:52.920 had a good work ethic, and that was instilled by 0:35:52.960 --> 0:35:55.719 my parents, Like they always used the preaching, if you're 0:35:55.719 --> 0:35:59.799 not gonna work for it, then what's the point. It's 0:35:59.840 --> 0:36:01.840 not gonna come to you. Nobody's gonna give you anything. 0:36:02.120 --> 0:36:06.040 Nobody's given the Bonham Mass is anything. We're working for anything, 0:36:06.080 --> 0:36:10.520 you know. And and that's been my story for forty years. 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:12.879 And I've been playing guitar thirty nine years. And it's 0:36:12.920 --> 0:36:16.279 just like, okay, so you're six years old and you 0:36:16.360 --> 0:36:20.680 go to school for another twelve years. Are you you 0:36:20.760 --> 0:36:23.080 have friends or you're so deep in the guitar thing? 0:36:23.080 --> 0:36:25.320 Where do you fit in the social structure of the school. 0:36:26.360 --> 0:36:31.680 Few friends, um never never never never never on the 0:36:32.120 --> 0:36:37.200 never a hip kid, And I kept the guitar playing 0:36:37.200 --> 0:36:39.719 to myself because I didn't want I didn't want any 0:36:39.760 --> 0:36:43.399 trouble I wanted. I didn't like being made fun of. Um. 0:36:43.520 --> 0:36:45.040 I was made fun of a lot when I was 0:36:45.080 --> 0:36:46.840 a kid. That's why I have such an issue with 0:36:46.880 --> 0:36:51.319 bullying now. UM not to say that, like, don't feel 0:36:51.320 --> 0:36:53.239 sorry for me, because I can give as good as 0:36:53.239 --> 0:36:55.080 I get. The problem with social media is like you're 0:36:55.120 --> 0:36:57.760 kind of doing it with one hand time behind your back. Anyway, 0:36:57.800 --> 0:37:02.600 I digress. Um, So I don't want to be made 0:37:02.600 --> 0:37:04.279 fun of. I don't want to be bullied. I wat 0:37:04.560 --> 0:37:07.360 nonsense and want that trouble myf I just like I 0:37:07.400 --> 0:37:11.120 would do my work, go to school, get off the bus, 0:37:11.200 --> 0:37:16.080 go home, whatever homework we had, get through it, play 0:37:16.160 --> 0:37:18.600 the guitar the rest of the night. That was really 0:37:18.640 --> 0:37:21.279 the whole, the long and short of every single day. 0:37:21.360 --> 0:37:24.480 I didn't play sports. Um. I played. My parents kind 0:37:24.520 --> 0:37:26.680 of said, hey, the kid needs some exercise, getting a 0:37:26.680 --> 0:37:29.319 little pudgy, Let's get him into some soccer. He can 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:33.399 run around. Um. And I never signed up for any 0:37:33.400 --> 0:37:35.399 of the school activities. It was a one track mine 0:37:35.800 --> 0:37:41.720 and I was completely anonymous musically until the third grade 0:37:42.440 --> 0:37:45.560 and what happened then. That's when the third and fourth 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:49.200 grade at New York Mills Elementary School, they had these 0:37:49.280 --> 0:37:54.840 cheap Japanese Cordoba guitars, like these class guitars. They like 0:37:54.840 --> 0:37:57.320 twenty of them. There's a lot of them. Were just rotting, 0:37:57.480 --> 0:38:03.200 you know what I mean, crappy strings and whatever. And 0:38:03.280 --> 0:38:06.600 so my my one of my few friends, knew I played, 0:38:07.400 --> 0:38:10.560 and the music teacher goes, um, hey, does anybody know 0:38:10.560 --> 0:38:13.080 how to play guitar? And then of course my friend 0:38:13.239 --> 0:38:15.560 just sells me out. Joe knows how to play. And 0:38:15.560 --> 0:38:17.960 I was always a shy kid, never participated in the 0:38:18.040 --> 0:38:20.200 in the anything, you know. I just would answer questions 0:38:20.239 --> 0:38:23.640 if I was called upon, because Joe play is really good. 0:38:24.080 --> 0:38:28.080 And she's like, does he So I just learned Rude 0:38:28.120 --> 0:38:30.600 Mood by Stevie ray Vaughan, which is this very fast 0:38:30.600 --> 0:38:34.080 shuffle do do do? Do you know? I was proud 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:38.640 of it. I learned it, and she's so I get 0:38:38.719 --> 0:38:40.640 up there and I'm like, oh god, this is terrible. 0:38:40.680 --> 0:38:43.840 I sit in the chair and I get the guitar, 0:38:43.880 --> 0:38:45.799 I tune it up and it's like, you know, there's 0:38:45.880 --> 0:38:48.160 laughter because you know, it's like this that awkward moments 0:38:48.160 --> 0:38:49.880 out of a movie. You know, it's like it's like 0:38:49.920 --> 0:38:52.640 you're tuning up. It's like that dead silence. It seems 0:38:52.680 --> 0:38:55.560 like an hour, but it's like thirty seconds. And then 0:38:55.800 --> 0:38:57.279 she goes, are you gonna play anything for us? And 0:38:57.320 --> 0:39:00.160 I just start into it right and I keep the 0:39:00.760 --> 0:39:03.839 kids go nuts because they never expected it coming out 0:39:03.840 --> 0:39:06.600 of me. And I see her run out of the 0:39:06.640 --> 0:39:11.759 room and she goes and gets to high school music 0:39:11.760 --> 0:39:14.480 teacher because it's all the schools are connected, and the 0:39:14.520 --> 0:39:16.960 principal and what did I do to my said this 0:39:17.000 --> 0:39:22.319 is this is insane? Right, So afterwards they're like, when 0:39:22.320 --> 0:39:24.520 did you learn how to? I go, I play all that, 0:39:24.600 --> 0:39:26.520 and then I think they called my parents and said, 0:39:26.719 --> 0:39:28.799 do you know he plays guitar really well? I was like, oh, yeah, 0:39:28.800 --> 0:39:31.840 he's been playing for years. So that was the first 0:39:31.880 --> 0:39:35.239 time I publicly went out as a guitar player. And 0:39:35.280 --> 0:39:37.600 I was like, you know, that applause is a good 0:39:37.640 --> 0:39:40.360 deflection from the from the from the stuff that they're 0:39:40.400 --> 0:39:42.640 they're aiming at me, And I go, hm, I could 0:39:42.760 --> 0:39:45.000 now use this as a shield as a weapon at 0:39:45.000 --> 0:39:47.279 the same time, and I was like, mmm, not a 0:39:47.280 --> 0:39:49.960 bad way of looking at things. Bonamassa And then I 0:39:50.000 --> 0:39:53.040 started playing setting, you know, sitting at my dad's do 0:39:53.120 --> 0:39:55.279 around eight or nine. And then I had my first 0:39:55.280 --> 0:39:58.359 professional gig when I was a love it And that 0:39:58.560 --> 0:40:04.360 was first professional gig was at a place called the Metro, 0:40:04.680 --> 0:40:08.120 which was a converted bank in Utica, New York. We 0:40:08.200 --> 0:40:11.719 charged five dollars. There was an article in the newspaper, 0:40:12.200 --> 0:40:14.600 and my grandfather collected money at the door and we 0:40:14.640 --> 0:40:17.600 made three thousand dollars at night. And and I go, 0:40:17.719 --> 0:40:19.560 that's not this is this is this is? I get 0:40:19.560 --> 0:40:21.839 the new I said. The deal was all the money 0:40:21.840 --> 0:40:23.959 has to go into bank, except I wanted a Super 0:40:24.000 --> 0:40:26.399 Nintendo and some new pickups from my guitar, at which 0:40:26.440 --> 0:40:31.880 they my parents acquiesced and let me buy. And okay, 0:40:31.920 --> 0:40:35.160 that's a big success. It could only be downhill from there. 0:40:35.239 --> 0:40:37.399 What happens well, by the way, after I got done 0:40:37.400 --> 0:40:39.160 paying the band, which was about a thousand bucks, say 0:40:39.160 --> 0:40:42.440 about two thousand net to an eleven year, I Mr 0:40:42.480 --> 0:40:47.279 Burns at that point and and I and I go, 0:40:47.920 --> 0:40:50.240 then we started doing this, and we started drawing a crowd, 0:40:50.360 --> 0:40:53.200 and I was known as this kid from upstate, New York. 0:40:53.200 --> 0:40:55.399 And then there was there was like about a year 0:40:55.400 --> 0:40:57.160 and a half later, there was a rumor there was 0:40:57.200 --> 0:40:59.720 a there was a kid. But this is pre social 0:40:59.719 --> 0:41:02.800 media yet, so it's all just it's all just rumor. 0:41:02.880 --> 0:41:07.239 And and a few newspaper articles at this point. Then 0:41:07.239 --> 0:41:09.279 there was a rumor there was a kid in Jacksonville, 0:41:09.280 --> 0:41:12.920 Florida who played slide, you know, who was about a 0:41:13.000 --> 0:41:14.719 year or two younger than me. I'm like, wow, there's 0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:17.000 another one. And then there was another one. And then 0:41:17.040 --> 0:41:19.720 there was a kid named Eric Gals And then and 0:41:19.719 --> 0:41:22.000 and well you know that, you know that the kid 0:41:22.040 --> 0:41:25.640 in Jacksonville, you know, eleven year old playing slide like 0:41:25.680 --> 0:41:30.640 an adult, was Derek Trucks. And kid from Memphis who 0:41:30.719 --> 0:41:33.200 who's playing with his brothers and got a deal with 0:41:33.280 --> 0:41:35.879 Electric Oh my god, I got a major deal. It's 0:41:36.040 --> 0:41:40.239 Eric Kales. And here we are now thirty years later, 0:41:41.040 --> 0:41:44.840 laughing at this notion of like these we were the 0:41:44.880 --> 0:41:47.400 Mickey Mouse Club of blues guitar players, you know, like 0:41:47.480 --> 0:41:50.800 we were we were like this, these young kids that 0:41:50.840 --> 0:41:56.760 are popping up regionally. But without the without the invention 0:41:56.800 --> 0:41:59.760 of social media, nobody knew about us. Only the people 0:41:59.800 --> 0:42:02.520 in our areas, you know. So there was there was 0:42:02.600 --> 0:42:05.320 Joe in the North, and Derek in the South, and 0:42:05.320 --> 0:42:07.600 and and Eric in Memphis. And there was a kid 0:42:07.760 --> 0:42:11.719 from Australia, Nathan Cavalaria. I never forget his name. He's 0:42:11.719 --> 0:42:13.920 a fellow Italian. He was a kid who was twelve 0:42:13.960 --> 0:42:17.680 years old ripping up the guitar. So there was these 0:42:17.800 --> 0:42:21.000 prodigies or I don't consider myself a project with these 0:42:21.000 --> 0:42:24.800 people that were the kids are well advanced in guitar 0:42:25.760 --> 0:42:28.120 um popping up all around the same time. This was 0:42:28.120 --> 0:42:32.120 the early nineties. Okay, as we all know, they're making 0:42:32.160 --> 0:42:34.520 new people every day and the rest of us get older. 0:42:34.600 --> 0:42:38.440 At some point, you're no longer the young phenomenon. Where 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:42.160 does that leave you? You know, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who's 0:42:42.200 --> 0:42:43.960 also I need to put in that category because he 0:42:44.000 --> 0:42:46.480 was sixteen and he had a major label deal and 0:42:46.480 --> 0:42:49.040 he's had hits on the radio. Johnny Lane was fourteen 0:42:49.120 --> 0:42:52.960 or fifteen, but there were a few years later. There 0:42:53.000 --> 0:42:54.680 was like there was a two and a half year gap. 0:42:56.000 --> 0:43:00.279 And because Kenny came out in the ninety six and 0:43:00.320 --> 0:43:04.360 same thing with John Lane. And uh so, you know, 0:43:04.520 --> 0:43:07.200 like I was having this conversation with Kenny Waan Shephard 0:43:08.640 --> 0:43:10.960 and we're sitting there like going, I go, first of all, 0:43:11.000 --> 0:43:13.120 do you realize that both of us are older than 0:43:13.160 --> 0:43:17.360 Stevie Ravon when he died by seven years, you know, 0:43:17.480 --> 0:43:20.960 which is crazy that we're now older than our hero 0:43:21.600 --> 0:43:27.160 that really wrote the roadmap between him, Robert Cray, Eric Johnson, 0:43:27.840 --> 0:43:32.080 um Satriani Vye, those were the those were the guys 0:43:32.080 --> 0:43:34.640 that wrote the book the Roadmap for me in the eighties, 0:43:34.680 --> 0:43:39.359 Gary Moore and Early Nice. And I said, and then 0:43:39.480 --> 0:43:42.200 do you realize that we're not the kids anymore? And 0:43:42.560 --> 0:43:46.400 we both just had this moment like yeeks, you know, 0:43:46.520 --> 0:43:49.120 like like because we've always looked at as the kids, 0:43:49.960 --> 0:43:52.520 you know, it's like, oh, there's the younger generation Johnny 0:43:52.560 --> 0:43:56.279 and Kenny and Joe and Derek, and we all got 0:43:56.400 --> 0:43:59.040 four in the first number. Okay, I think I think 0:43:59.080 --> 0:44:02.200 Derek just turned already. We all got a four and 0:44:02.239 --> 0:44:05.000 maybe John's thirty dynamic he's close, you know what I mean. 0:44:05.000 --> 0:44:07.760 So it's like it's it's one of those things where 0:44:08.000 --> 0:44:10.880 it's it's a it's a generational shift. I mean, like 0:44:11.160 --> 0:44:13.359 you can't you can prevent a lot of things in 0:44:13.400 --> 0:44:16.680 your life. Lapping the sun every three d and sixty 0:44:16.680 --> 0:44:18.799 five or three hundred sixty six days is not one 0:44:18.840 --> 0:44:24.080 of them. Time going you get old. Okay, So you 0:44:24.400 --> 0:44:27.279 have the band signed Bloodline signed to E M I. 0:44:27.360 --> 0:44:31.160 How does that come together? We had a I was 0:44:31.200 --> 0:44:34.120 on a television show called Real Life with Jane Pauli, 0:44:34.200 --> 0:44:41.040 which was the predated Dateline NBC. My manager um uh 0:44:41.200 --> 0:44:44.360 Roy Wiseman and his father, Elliott Wiseman. They had a 0:44:44.360 --> 0:44:47.360 company called Premier Artist Services and they managed Frank Sinatra 0:44:47.480 --> 0:44:51.360 and Dean Martin and lizmllion most of all of the 0:44:51.440 --> 0:44:57.280 rat Pack, really Um and they went to the record companies. 0:44:57.320 --> 0:45:01.400 We've taken meetings with Colombia and E M I and whoever, 0:45:02.440 --> 0:45:04.560 and they're all saying the same thing. It's like, what 0:45:04.800 --> 0:45:06.799 it's like, he's good, but what do we do with it? 0:45:07.160 --> 0:45:09.760 He's an instrumental guitar player who likes to play blues. 0:45:10.120 --> 0:45:12.319 It's not a he's not an artist, he's a he's 0:45:12.320 --> 0:45:15.880 a well, I'm really at that point was the the 0:45:15.920 --> 0:45:19.680 equivalent of the polar Bear riding a unicycle, juggling bowling 0:45:19.760 --> 0:45:22.000 pins at the p T Barnum. You know, I came 0:45:22.000 --> 0:45:24.120 out and did my thing, made the crowd go nuts, 0:45:24.239 --> 0:45:27.040 and then left. I didn't have a song, couldn't sing, 0:45:27.560 --> 0:45:31.400 I didn't really have an act, and so the idea 0:45:31.440 --> 0:45:34.479 of putting this band together, Um, I had met Barry 0:45:34.480 --> 0:45:39.680 Oakley Jr. And Whalen Kreeger at this Leo Fender tribute concert. Um, 0:45:39.920 --> 0:45:42.560 they recommended we call this guy Aaron Davis, who happened 0:45:42.560 --> 0:45:44.920 to be the son of Miles Davis. Next thing, you know, 0:45:44.960 --> 0:45:47.759 we got all these sons of famous musicians and a 0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:50.440 keyboard player that was working with my solo band at 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:53.600 the time, Luca Gretty. There's a really good keyboard player, 0:45:53.760 --> 0:45:59.160 very nice man, and and we were really, um, we're 0:45:59.239 --> 0:46:00.919 kind of put together. Other than I and my goes, 0:46:01.800 --> 0:46:04.719 Charles Cobbin goes, there could be something there, you know, 0:46:05.680 --> 0:46:08.279 you know, big New York meeting Smith and Wilenski and 0:46:08.400 --> 0:46:10.080 never forget it, you know what I mean? It was 0:46:10.120 --> 0:46:14.160 it was classic music biz like pre It was the 0:46:14.200 --> 0:46:16.440 way you wanted to be, you know. It was expense 0:46:16.480 --> 0:46:22.200 accounts and car services and Manhattan, Smith and Wilenski Lobster 0:46:22.239 --> 0:46:26.080 tales are eighteen pounds or some world record ship. Anyway, 0:46:26.120 --> 0:46:28.919 it was. It was just classic they and they signed 0:46:28.960 --> 0:46:31.600 us to a development deal and we were writing with 0:46:31.680 --> 0:46:36.040 people like Warren Haines um Mark Hudson from the Hudson Brothers, 0:46:36.040 --> 0:46:37.879 but he wrote a lot of hits with aerosmith at 0:46:37.880 --> 0:46:40.880 the time, Richie super who was an arrowsmith, but he 0:46:40.960 --> 0:46:44.160 was working, you know, with Desmond Child and and all 0:46:44.200 --> 0:46:46.759 of a sudden we get enough tunes to make a 0:46:46.800 --> 0:46:50.080 record in Memphis with Joe Hardy at Arden Studios and 0:46:51.239 --> 0:46:55.160 our band. We were dysfunctional kids with egos, me included, 0:46:55.920 --> 0:46:58.560 and we didn't really see the forest from the trees, 0:46:58.600 --> 0:47:00.680 and we didn't realize how good we had it, and 0:47:00.719 --> 0:47:03.920 we screwed it up. We did. We screwed it up, 0:47:04.520 --> 0:47:07.319 and luckily for me, I screwed it up at an 0:47:07.400 --> 0:47:12.080 age where it wasn't fatal to my career. I learned 0:47:12.080 --> 0:47:15.279 the lessons of the music business and how hard it 0:47:15.360 --> 0:47:18.040 is to achieve a major label deal at the time 0:47:18.760 --> 0:47:21.280 early on, and I never took it for granted ever again. 0:47:21.840 --> 0:47:23.680 And that was a lesson I learned when I was 0:47:23.760 --> 0:47:27.879 sixteen years old. And and thank god it didn't I had. 0:47:28.080 --> 0:47:31.560 I had an opportunity for a rebirth and a second 0:47:31.600 --> 0:47:34.279 act and a second chance at my career where some 0:47:34.400 --> 0:47:36.480 of the people that were later in there, you know, 0:47:36.560 --> 0:47:39.160 and some people just bailed on the business, and some 0:47:39.200 --> 0:47:43.880 people made bad choices. It's not this is not news, 0:47:44.320 --> 0:47:47.200 and this is not new to the music business. Fair 0:47:47.280 --> 0:47:49.680 success is terrible and it and it plagues a lot 0:47:49.680 --> 0:47:52.839 of people. Okay, so how do you hook up with 0:47:52.920 --> 0:47:56.800 your manager? Called us on the phone. We were listed. 0:47:58.400 --> 0:48:00.480 We were the only two bottom mosses in the in 0:48:00.520 --> 0:48:02.960 the in the Utica phone book. One was my dad's 0:48:03.000 --> 0:48:06.400 brother and one was us. They called his brother first 0:48:06.840 --> 0:48:08.680 and then they called us. Are you are you from? 0:48:08.719 --> 0:48:12.759 Are you lem Bonamassa? And are you um? Are you 0:48:12.880 --> 0:48:15.319 Joe's dad? And they're like yeah. And by the way, 0:48:15.520 --> 0:48:19.400 as soon as that thing aired um on national television 0:48:19.480 --> 0:48:26.160 Jane Pauli Sunday Night, National Television pre Netflix, we had 0:48:26.200 --> 0:48:32.320 heard from every major label. Mercury, we had heard from Colombia, 0:48:32.880 --> 0:48:37.080 E M I Capital, um god, I think it was 0:48:37.239 --> 0:48:40.880 the Crystalists called next thing. You know, we have lawyers 0:48:40.960 --> 0:48:47.000 driving up. Okay, um, what's his name? David Sodenberg? Right, 0:48:47.239 --> 0:48:50.880 Big music music and sorry and I'm like, we're in 0:48:50.920 --> 0:48:54.200 a nine square foot ranch house, okay. And my mom 0:48:54.200 --> 0:48:57.760 would put out these nice bagels and these are power 0:48:57.800 --> 0:49:00.319 players coming up to the house, one of which was 0:49:00.800 --> 0:49:05.160 Um Roy Wiseman and Um and his girlfriend now wife 0:49:05.160 --> 0:49:07.879 of thirty years, Debbie, and we just had a meeting 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:09.920 and we really got on his people. And he was 0:49:09.960 --> 0:49:12.880 ten years older than me, and his father was you know, 0:49:13.160 --> 0:49:16.440 now he's in his eighties, but the patriarch of this 0:49:16.640 --> 0:49:19.200 music business family. And we just got on his folks. 0:49:19.239 --> 0:49:21.239 And that's how many people do you know has had 0:49:21.239 --> 0:49:24.200 the same management thirty years? Very few? So what was 0:49:24.280 --> 0:49:27.279 his pitch back then? Pitch was along. It was a 0:49:27.320 --> 0:49:30.759 long play versus a quick cell. And we were smart 0:49:30.880 --> 0:49:34.920 enough as people to to realize that one of the 0:49:35.040 --> 0:49:39.040 things you're famous for is you and your manager do 0:49:39.120 --> 0:49:42.879 it all by yourself, which no one else does. How 0:49:42.880 --> 0:49:44.319 did they come up and how did the two of 0:49:44.320 --> 0:49:47.239 you come up with that game plan? The vertical integration 0:49:47.520 --> 0:49:52.160 started when the music business decided to push me out, 0:49:53.239 --> 0:49:56.360 Meaning I had a deal with Epic Records when I 0:49:56.400 --> 0:49:59.760 was a kid. Um, when I was the first solo 0:50:00.239 --> 0:50:05.200 Michael Caplan sign me will Always be Grateful. Harvey leads Uh, 0:50:05.400 --> 0:50:08.840 Steve Barnett, Um and Tommy Motola was still running the 0:50:08.880 --> 0:50:16.640 company Sony and basically our record comes out in August 0:50:16.760 --> 0:50:19.640 twenty years ago, exactly twenty years ago, because my reissue 0:50:19.680 --> 0:50:21.840 just came out comes out in August. By October, I 0:50:21.880 --> 0:50:26.720 was gone because the company had posted their first quarterly 0:50:26.800 --> 0:50:30.520 loss under Tommy Matola's leadership, just as the business was 0:50:30.600 --> 0:50:35.360 kind of changing and whatever. And so I found myself 0:50:35.400 --> 0:50:38.319 back to square one. After working so hard to get 0:50:38.320 --> 0:50:43.760 a deal. Back at my parents house, we went um. 0:50:43.880 --> 0:50:48.160 We we approached people like Alligator Records, Tone Cool, which 0:50:48.200 --> 0:50:51.319 was Susan Tadeshi's record label at the time, and they 0:50:51.320 --> 0:50:55.439 were signing Blues Axe and nobody would take us. Nobody 0:50:55.480 --> 0:50:58.080 would take us. Roy's brother had a little label that 0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:01.640 was doing compilations. We put our second record on that. Finally, 0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:05.960 by the time two thousand two runs around rolls around, 0:51:06.920 --> 0:51:11.000 we are now listless, you know, we have we have 0:51:11.480 --> 0:51:14.759 we have no direction. My my agent, who are now 0:51:14.800 --> 0:51:20.719 friends with Bet she actually probably regrets dropping me. Um 0:51:21.719 --> 0:51:24.680 who was the agent, Oh, I'm not even it was Monterey. 0:51:26.840 --> 0:51:29.799 I'm out, I'm I'm I don't have an agent. I 0:51:29.880 --> 0:51:36.359 got not a okay, not a except Roy. We then 0:51:36.400 --> 0:51:38.160 decided to pull our money and we make this record 0:51:38.200 --> 0:51:42.040 called Blues Deluxe, and Roy's brother Eric, who was running 0:51:42.160 --> 0:51:46.000 U Distribution company down in Florida, gets the records in 0:51:46.040 --> 0:51:50.200 the stores basically force feeds you know, um, you know, 0:51:50.280 --> 0:51:52.440 F F y E and stuff like that. No sales 0:51:52.480 --> 0:51:54.880 records and we didn't know anything about return reserves and 0:51:54.920 --> 0:51:58.839 all that stuff that fun part of the record business. Um. 0:51:59.239 --> 0:52:02.520 And he ended up deciding to go it alone, and 0:52:02.560 --> 0:52:06.000 we sold more records of that Blues Deluxe record than 0:52:06.000 --> 0:52:10.480 we'd ever you know, basically done in the past and 0:52:10.560 --> 0:52:15.000 made way more like wait, wait, since you're an unknown quantity, 0:52:15.400 --> 0:52:17.719 how did you just sell the records? Because of the 0:52:17.760 --> 0:52:22.440 generosity of people like BB King and Paul Rodgers and 0:52:22.520 --> 0:52:26.279 Bad Company and George Sara are good and I know 0:52:26.360 --> 0:52:31.800 I'm missing somebody, buddy guy. And one of the few 0:52:31.880 --> 0:52:34.040 things that I did take away from the experience at 0:52:34.040 --> 0:52:38.759 Monterey was relationships with people like that, and they would 0:52:38.800 --> 0:52:42.359 let me open up, especially BB King. So I would 0:52:42.360 --> 0:52:44.640 go out there and I would have this like truncated 0:52:44.640 --> 0:52:47.279 set that would just play to that audience and we 0:52:47.320 --> 0:52:51.000 would crush it, crush it at the merch stand two 0:52:51.400 --> 0:52:55.640 CDs and a half hour right signing Boom boom. We 0:52:55.680 --> 0:52:58.800 would crush at Peter Frampton whose I was, I'm forgetting sorry, Peter, 0:52:59.160 --> 0:53:04.400 Peter Frampton, huge for me, Peter Franz another another Nashville resident. Yes, 0:53:04.920 --> 0:53:08.520 and a good friend and and a legend. And the 0:53:09.600 --> 0:53:14.920 thing was, we sold that record because we had no 0:53:15.000 --> 0:53:17.120 other choice. And then all of a sudden, we we'd 0:53:17.120 --> 0:53:19.959 see our sound scans going up boom boom, boom, boom boom. 0:53:20.080 --> 0:53:23.920 Then William Morris takes us on as a client and 0:53:23.960 --> 0:53:25.839 we start getting more opening acts, and then we're kind 0:53:25.880 --> 0:53:32.160 of doing headline clubs and and and and opening acts. 0:53:32.160 --> 0:53:34.800 And the opening acts were the you don't get any money, 0:53:34.800 --> 0:53:37.200 but the merch was great, so it was it was working. 0:53:38.239 --> 0:53:42.640 Two thousand five. Um, we got tired of the of 0:53:42.680 --> 0:53:45.239 the offers that in the types of venues that we're 0:53:45.239 --> 0:53:47.560 going Listen, Joe Bonasa just the blues act. He only 0:53:47.600 --> 0:53:50.120 is gonna play like dirty clubs, and you know, it'd 0:53:50.160 --> 0:53:52.400 be like one night to be Guar and then me 0:53:53.160 --> 0:53:55.799 and then and then it would be like you know, 0:53:55.920 --> 0:53:59.120 you know, you know, just you could you could put 0:53:59.160 --> 0:54:01.600 whatever whoever, you know, So it was like these clubs, 0:54:01.640 --> 0:54:05.960 do you know, they just hose him down and and 0:54:05.960 --> 0:54:08.040 and they just replaced you know, you're just a widget. 0:54:08.880 --> 0:54:10.840 And what I realized is that my audience didn't like 0:54:10.880 --> 0:54:14.080 go into those kind of places. They weren't kids. They 0:54:14.080 --> 0:54:16.319 wanted to sit down, they wanted to chair, they wanted 0:54:16.320 --> 0:54:18.640 to theater because they saw me in the theater opening 0:54:18.680 --> 0:54:22.280 up for Baby King or Peter Frampton or whoever Farrell Good. 0:54:23.280 --> 0:54:26.040 So we decided to do our first four Walls in 0:54:26.080 --> 0:54:28.759 two thousand five, and we did one of For those 0:54:28.760 --> 0:54:31.160 who don't know, four walls, you basically rent the room 0:54:31.160 --> 0:54:33.799 and you do everything yourself. Yes, yes, it's a you're 0:54:33.840 --> 0:54:37.360 you're the promoter. And we did our first two. We 0:54:37.360 --> 0:54:40.279 did Jacksonville, Florida, and we did Fort Wyne, Indiana. Do 0:54:40.280 --> 0:54:42.680 you remember how big those buildings were. We did the 0:54:42.680 --> 0:54:45.600 Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne. I know, I remember the cap, 0:54:45.640 --> 0:54:47.960 I remember what we sold. And well, well that's what 0:54:48.000 --> 0:54:51.359 I want to hear. Okay. We were playing this place 0:54:51.360 --> 0:54:54.200 called Pierre's in Fort wayn Indiana. They would give this 0:54:54.320 --> 0:54:58.359 four thousand dollars to draw approximately people and we would 0:54:58.400 --> 0:55:01.480 do good in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Okay, but it was 0:55:01.520 --> 0:55:04.040 a big club and we got four thousand dollars. Taking 0:55:04.120 --> 0:55:06.759 or leave it. Okay, we took it. We played the 0:55:06.800 --> 0:55:11.600 Embassy Theater holds I've sold it out many times. Okay, 0:55:11.800 --> 0:55:15.640 first time I played, I draw the same people. We 0:55:15.680 --> 0:55:19.000 went from a twelve dollar ticket price to a thirty 0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:21.560 five dollar front row in a twenty in the balcony. 0:55:21.600 --> 0:55:23.719 Balcony wasn't open because we didn't sell that many, but 0:55:23.800 --> 0:55:27.719 we did thirty five to twenty. We walked out with 0:55:31.800 --> 0:55:34.920 there's your sign. Jacksonville. We played the Florida Theater. We 0:55:35.000 --> 0:55:37.919 used to play his place called Freebird Live. Same deal. 0:55:37.960 --> 0:55:40.000 Wouldn't give us more than three thousand dollars. I don't 0:55:40.000 --> 0:55:43.399 care the whoever is on the other end, I don't 0:55:43.440 --> 0:55:46.879 care if he's bringing Eric Capton with him, I'm giving 0:55:46.960 --> 0:55:50.080 him three thousand dollars. You know that kind of agent 0:55:50.719 --> 0:55:54.719 promoter thing. We we read the Florida Theater, which was 0:55:55.040 --> 0:55:59.280 a friend of Roy's dad, and we do six hundred 0:55:59.280 --> 0:56:05.200 people made thirteen dollars. You can see. But now, how 0:56:05.239 --> 0:56:09.239 do you continue that on? Because you need capital to 0:56:10.040 --> 0:56:13.040 do these four walls or these these self promote because 0:56:13.239 --> 0:56:16.640 a what happens is you have to pay for the advertising. 0:56:16.680 --> 0:56:19.000 You're you're you're fronting this whole thing, and then you 0:56:19.040 --> 0:56:21.360 get it all back on a settlement a couple of 0:56:21.440 --> 0:56:25.719 days later. So we started picking our battles and our 0:56:25.760 --> 0:56:28.799 tour so we would do too maybe the four of 0:56:28.880 --> 0:56:31.800 these four walls per tour. Then as the years started 0:56:31.800 --> 0:56:35.040 to progress, by oh seven o eight, we were doing 0:56:35.560 --> 0:56:39.360 se four walls because we reinvest the money into the business. 0:56:40.280 --> 0:56:43.200 And then by two thousand nine, which is basically the 0:56:43.239 --> 0:56:47.520 last year with William Morris, we decided, you know, early 0:56:47.560 --> 0:56:50.120 two thousand and ten was debate last year William Morris 0:56:50.160 --> 0:56:52.000 and I have no I have I have. I have 0:56:52.080 --> 0:56:54.319 no hard feelings to William Morris except for the fact 0:56:54.360 --> 0:56:56.480 that they overcharges for their acts on the crew. So 0:56:56.719 --> 0:57:00.279 fuck you William Morris, just for that. Okay, you can 0:57:00.280 --> 0:57:01.879 take it right to the top for me to them, 0:57:01.960 --> 0:57:04.320 to them, they over they try to go just because 0:57:04.320 --> 0:57:07.320 they're bitter about not taking a cap. That's just me talking. 0:57:07.719 --> 0:57:11.800 Doesn't matter. I'll take that, you know, I don't. I see. 0:57:12.160 --> 0:57:14.120 We've had to we've had to do end a rounds 0:57:16.040 --> 0:57:18.200 because it won't even bring our offers for the cruises 0:57:18.240 --> 0:57:20.680 to their acts because they're just they're just a little 0:57:20.680 --> 0:57:27.880 bit they hold a grudge, no problem. Um. We ended 0:57:27.960 --> 0:57:30.400 up parting ways with William Morris am the couple, which 0:57:30.440 --> 0:57:34.160 I thought until we started making doing cruises. Um, and 0:57:34.320 --> 0:57:36.600 we basically went on our own. So at that point 0:57:36.640 --> 0:57:39.000 in time in America, I was unsigned. I had my 0:57:39.040 --> 0:57:41.600 own label. We would do one artist, which was me, 0:57:42.000 --> 0:57:45.800 and we had no we had no agent, we had 0:57:45.840 --> 0:57:48.040 no nothing. We just did it all in house. And 0:57:48.080 --> 0:57:51.880 that was the vertical integration of the of the of 0:57:52.120 --> 0:57:54.960 the company. And that's that's the rest is history. Okay, 0:57:55.000 --> 0:57:58.160 So there's a lot of hats to be worn. Do 0:57:58.200 --> 0:58:02.000 you have a full time staff taking there's twenty people 0:58:02.000 --> 0:58:04.920 in the office, between twenty and twenty two people depending 0:58:04.920 --> 0:58:08.480 on how busy we get. Um, that's their sole jobs 0:58:08.560 --> 0:58:16.560 to run everything. Joe Bonamassa and uh, that's been the 0:58:16.680 --> 0:58:19.800 art department. There's an there's a social media department. There's 0:58:19.800 --> 0:58:24.600 a marketing department. There's there's a merchandizing department. There's a 0:58:24.640 --> 0:58:29.400 web store, there's everything. But it's also when you vertically 0:58:29.440 --> 0:58:34.480 integrate your your model, you're you're not leaving these huge 0:58:34.600 --> 0:58:37.880 chunks of money on the table which you then can 0:58:38.080 --> 0:58:40.880 use to reinvest in yourself. It's not like you just 0:58:41.600 --> 0:58:45.320 it's like if you normal show you have a ten 0:58:45.360 --> 0:58:50.600 percent agency. Okay, there's a ten percent kind of promoter fee. 0:58:51.520 --> 0:58:55.040 Then there's the show cost, which how how does a 0:58:55.120 --> 0:58:59.520 bag of lace potato ships become six it's you know, 0:58:59.560 --> 0:59:02.920 you know what I mean, you get when you when 0:59:02.960 --> 0:59:05.040 you promote your own shows in four wall, you get 0:59:05.120 --> 0:59:08.560 to see exactly what everything costs. The building rental is 0:59:08.600 --> 0:59:15.040 six grand, the ushers are three, the popcorn people are 0:59:15.040 --> 0:59:17.400 are are five hundred bucks. And then there's a you know, 0:59:17.720 --> 0:59:20.440 so you get to see the macro of of what 0:59:20.520 --> 0:59:23.240 you're trying to you know, of the real expenses. And 0:59:23.240 --> 0:59:26.480 then you look at a settlement sheet from a promoter 0:59:26.640 --> 0:59:30.000 like man, these are inflated, you know, and and and 0:59:30.320 --> 0:59:32.880 so you start saving money and you don't have you're 0:59:32.880 --> 0:59:36.120 not giving away off the top then having to pay 0:59:36.160 --> 0:59:40.000 your bills, so that actually twenty to that you're saving 0:59:40.000 --> 0:59:45.080 by doing your own four walls. Um uh, you know, 0:59:45.520 --> 0:59:49.240 you able to reinvest in yourself. And and it's it's 0:59:49.240 --> 0:59:53.560 called scaling a business. That's how it scales. And we 0:59:53.560 --> 0:59:56.840 we my manager and I we we've had many discussions 0:59:56.880 --> 1:00:00.680 about that. It's like, thank god we invested in especially 1:00:00.720 --> 1:00:04.440 now because we didn't sell our merchandise we didn't do 1:00:04.480 --> 1:00:07.880 one of those dreadful three sixty deals. We didn't. We 1:00:07.920 --> 1:00:10.440 didn't give it away for a big chunk, you know, 1:00:10.480 --> 1:00:12.480 because when you give it away for a big chunk, 1:00:12.960 --> 1:00:17.080 the chunk doesn't it's not big forever, you know. And 1:00:17.120 --> 1:00:19.280 then when you're you know, you're like, oh, man, I 1:00:19.320 --> 1:00:22.400 really could have used that that money to reinvest and 1:00:22.680 --> 1:00:24.920 you know, do something else. And it's the same with 1:00:25.000 --> 1:00:27.160 the label. And it's I know, I'm long winded today, 1:00:27.160 --> 1:00:35.160 but it is what it is. Okay, pre COVID, how 1:00:35.160 --> 1:00:39.480 many gigs a year were you doing? Hun between hundred 1:00:40.520 --> 1:00:44.480 and how many domestic it's been basically fifty fifty, so 1:00:44.520 --> 1:00:47.880 you're looking at probably call it fifty five per per 1:00:48.960 --> 1:00:54.400 per territory plus Australia thrown him. Okay, of those hundred 1:00:54.440 --> 1:00:59.320 and five eight, how many were four world? So no 1:00:59.320 --> 1:01:00.960 matter you go to a foreign country, you do it 1:01:01.000 --> 1:01:04.160 there too. I do it, I do it there. UM 1:01:04.320 --> 1:01:08.120 promoters will try to tell you that that um promoting 1:01:08.120 --> 1:01:12.520 a show is like splitting the atom in complexity and 1:01:12.520 --> 1:01:16.040 and and it's not, it's just it's are you willing 1:01:16.120 --> 1:01:18.760 to now? The only times we will not four walls 1:01:18.760 --> 1:01:21.680 if we're doing festivals obviously if we do, if you know, 1:01:21.720 --> 1:01:24.520 if we do like north Sea Jazz or montro or 1:01:24.640 --> 1:01:28.560 we're not, that's it's end. But but as far as 1:01:28.640 --> 1:01:32.240 if there's a Joe b headline show, it's four walled 1:01:32.400 --> 1:01:37.320 everywhere we got. Okay, So just starting with domestically, how 1:01:37.360 --> 1:01:39.840 often do you have a date that's in the red 1:01:41.440 --> 1:01:47.640 never and even how about when you started? I think 1:01:47.680 --> 1:01:52.120 once once or twice where we broke even we we 1:01:52.120 --> 1:01:56.440 we pushed and the venues you play now capacity tends 1:01:56.520 --> 1:02:03.080 to be um well, taking red rocks off the table, 1:02:04.480 --> 1:02:10.040 which is five thousand, Okay, I'm talking to an expert here, 1:02:10.040 --> 1:02:12.400 I should have done my research for I talked to you. Um, 1:02:12.560 --> 1:02:16.480 we're we're in the twenty five to five range, depending 1:02:16.600 --> 1:02:19.600 on like we'll do cut Arenas in in in Europe, 1:02:19.600 --> 1:02:22.760 we'll do the Albert Hall in London, which is five thousand. 1:02:23.320 --> 1:02:28.080 We'll play the the The Rhyme in which is twenty 1:02:28.160 --> 1:02:30.280 three hundred, so it's in that range, and then we'll 1:02:30.280 --> 1:02:32.240 go down it like well, sometimes we'll do a Tuesday 1:02:32.320 --> 1:02:35.400 night account Basie Theater, which is people and it's rocking. 1:02:35.600 --> 1:02:37.840 We love it, you know, I get the meat balls. 1:02:37.840 --> 1:02:40.600 From Buenos Sarah. It's beautiful experience. You know, I've been 1:02:40.640 --> 1:02:43.520 going there for years, So it just depends. Yeah, you know, 1:02:43.600 --> 1:02:45.640 there's a lot of philosophies which you may or may 1:02:45.680 --> 1:02:47.920 not agree with. But a lot of people say, you know, 1:02:48.000 --> 1:02:50.280 once you get the ball rolling, you don't want any 1:02:50.400 --> 1:02:52.560 any empty seats. You don't want to play in a 1:02:52.640 --> 1:02:55.600 bigger venue. Do you think that's a factor? People don't 1:02:55.640 --> 1:02:57.600 care taping ont have eyes in the back of their head. 1:02:59.280 --> 1:03:03.280 And the thing is, I'd rather scale into it then 1:03:03.360 --> 1:03:09.040 scale myself out of it. You know, it's manifest destiny. Um, yeah, 1:03:09.120 --> 1:03:12.680 do you want every seat sold every time? Yes? But 1:03:12.920 --> 1:03:17.400 I watched bb King not what that wasn't his His 1:03:17.400 --> 1:03:20.360 his strategy. His his strategy was this is where we 1:03:20.400 --> 1:03:23.760 play now on Tuesday night. Maybe we don't sell out, 1:03:23.880 --> 1:03:29.160 but we're we're average eighty five too. I think our 1:03:29.240 --> 1:03:33.800 last tour, pre COVID was sold average. There's nights it's 1:03:33.800 --> 1:03:38.720 blown out, there's there's nights that it's eighty four. It's good, 1:03:39.000 --> 1:03:43.680 it feels fine in there. And the rest of the scent, 1:03:43.800 --> 1:03:48.720 you didn't sell his ego and and and because at 1:03:48.720 --> 1:03:51.280 the end of the day, not only you're entertaining people 1:03:51.720 --> 1:03:54.400 first and foremost. That's the reason why you're there. Be 1:03:55.040 --> 1:03:58.720 you're keeping your machine going. And and and see you're 1:03:58.720 --> 1:04:01.960 employing thirty people on the road in the music business, 1:04:02.080 --> 1:04:08.120 they'll have families and wives and houses and kids. Okay, 1:04:08.120 --> 1:04:12.840 over this, let's call it ten years. It's longer than that. 1:04:13.000 --> 1:04:18.600 But um, business going up, down, staying the same. I 1:04:18.640 --> 1:04:26.680 think generally our EPIDA is earnings before interest tax. And 1:04:26.880 --> 1:04:30.440 suddenly I forgot the A. Yeah, I think it's a 1:04:30.880 --> 1:04:35.680 depreciate and appreciation depreciation. UM, I think we've kind of 1:04:35.880 --> 1:04:39.960 we we went up after the initial explosion and then 1:04:40.240 --> 1:04:45.320 I call the explosion PBS when when public broadcasting, Thank 1:04:45.360 --> 1:04:50.320 you very much. UM. I'm eternally grateful for them because 1:04:50.560 --> 1:04:53.320 they started running our Albert Hall two thousand nine DVD 1:04:53.440 --> 1:04:56.200 in two thousand eleven. And how did that come together? 1:04:56.280 --> 1:04:59.800 A little affiliate in Albany, because I was around there, 1:05:00.240 --> 1:05:02.800 said hey, listen, we like Joe's DVD. Would you make 1:05:02.840 --> 1:05:05.320 and would you make an hour edit like it already 1:05:05.360 --> 1:05:07.360 been out? And we went and all in with the 1:05:07.440 --> 1:05:10.160 DVD and it was something Okay, it wasn't it wasn't 1:05:10.440 --> 1:05:12.560 you know, it was it was we're gonna lose money 1:05:14.040 --> 1:05:18.160 in a time we couldn't afford to lose money, and 1:05:18.240 --> 1:05:20.640 they we made him an hour edit in in in 1:05:20.800 --> 1:05:25.720 public broadcasting, their internal numbers are a one to a five, 1:05:26.840 --> 1:05:29.960 you know, and it's like good to bad, you know. 1:05:30.440 --> 1:05:33.439 So if you like, it's on their in their pledge drives. 1:05:33.480 --> 1:05:35.200 So when we put this thing out in all of me, 1:05:35.640 --> 1:05:38.800 they raised like dollars in the hour, which was like 1:05:38.800 --> 1:05:41.720 like it was like, oh my god, this is crazy. 1:05:41.800 --> 1:05:43.720 They did it again to see if it was a flute, 1:05:43.920 --> 1:05:47.520 did the same thing, then it then it Then it 1:05:47.680 --> 1:05:51.960 kind of made the rounds PBS corporate like the not 1:05:52.080 --> 1:05:56.680 just the affiliates, but the mothership. They decided to do 1:05:56.720 --> 1:06:00.800 it as a whole campaign and then went from twelve 1:06:01.240 --> 1:06:04.440 to three thousand pretty quick, and so it went up. 1:06:05.280 --> 1:06:07.840 That was the explosion, and I think right now we 1:06:07.840 --> 1:06:13.920 we generally go up three to five percent a year. Um. 1:06:14.040 --> 1:06:16.920 Sometimes it's a push depending on the venue choices in 1:06:17.040 --> 1:06:19.200 the time of year we do it, but it's it's 1:06:19.240 --> 1:06:22.040 always on an uptick. There's always new fans no matter 1:06:22.040 --> 1:06:24.920 how popular you think you are. Okay, and I'm a 1:06:25.080 --> 1:06:29.520 d e or f less celebrity. You're really relatively You're 1:06:29.560 --> 1:06:34.040 still relatively unknown, and there's always room to grow. You know. 1:06:34.120 --> 1:06:37.240 It's like you whether you find the plateau or where 1:06:37.280 --> 1:06:40.200 you find the peak. And you know, the chances of 1:06:40.240 --> 1:06:44.680 me having a hit song are like seeing Aurora borealis 1:06:44.760 --> 1:06:48.360 during the day. Highly unlikely, and most likely it's the sun, 1:06:48.800 --> 1:06:51.720 you know what I mean. So it's to me the 1:06:51.800 --> 1:06:56.440 arena feeling notions. That's not gonna be me. Me. I'm 1:06:56.440 --> 1:06:58.440 going to be a theater act. I love being a 1:06:58.480 --> 1:07:02.160 theater act. Pay my bill. I live a very nice life, 1:07:02.200 --> 1:07:07.000 and I'm grateful. Most importantly, I'm grateful. What do you 1:07:07.040 --> 1:07:11.280 think is driving new attendance? I think what drives new 1:07:11.400 --> 1:07:15.080 new attendance these days, and I hate to say it 1:07:15.120 --> 1:07:20.960 is like Instagram and and social media, and you know, like, hey, 1:07:21.200 --> 1:07:23.200 you know, it used to be word of mouth, you know, 1:07:23.280 --> 1:07:26.240 but now it's like you have to be an instagram ner, 1:07:27.440 --> 1:07:32.560 an influencer, you know. And I'm not sure if I 1:07:32.640 --> 1:07:34.760 like that or not. And I have a love of 1:07:34.800 --> 1:07:40.280 hate relationship with Instagram and social media because of the 1:07:40.280 --> 1:07:45.600 the I think familiarity breeds contempt. If they know they 1:07:45.600 --> 1:07:49.400 can get to you, then then they try to poke 1:07:49.480 --> 1:07:53.480 the bear, and I should be better at not letting 1:07:53.480 --> 1:07:55.400 the bear get poked. But then there's just some stuff 1:07:55.440 --> 1:07:57.600 that you just go, I'm just not letting that go. No. No, 1:07:57.840 --> 1:08:01.360 I learned not to respond unless I know you or 1:08:01.480 --> 1:08:05.040 you have a name that I'm aware of. Problem is, 1:08:05.160 --> 1:08:09.840 ten percent of the public is certifiably insane, certifiably and 1:08:09.880 --> 1:08:13.120 they might say something reasonable. Whatever, you respond, and then 1:08:13.120 --> 1:08:16.400 it's open season. I've had a lot of bad experiences, 1:08:17.040 --> 1:08:19.360 but uh, you know, once you put your head above 1:08:19.400 --> 1:08:22.360 it's the nature of the game today. So on social media, 1:08:22.439 --> 1:08:25.479 to what degree is that your personal responsibility or does 1:08:25.520 --> 1:08:27.960 your team take care of it? Team take takes care 1:08:27.960 --> 1:08:32.360 of the Facebook. I run Twitter and I run Instagram, 1:08:32.439 --> 1:08:35.760 and sometimes I sometimes I don't read the I mean, 1:08:36.040 --> 1:08:39.639 here's the problem with with with social media. And I've 1:08:39.640 --> 1:08:42.840 gotten myself in trouble a few times by either coming 1:08:42.880 --> 1:08:44.800 off a little bit tone deaf. But I'm not. I'm 1:08:44.840 --> 1:08:47.639 not on the forefront I'm not. I'm not. I'm not 1:08:47.720 --> 1:08:50.240 on the forefront of it. I just if I go, hey, 1:08:50.280 --> 1:08:52.880 here's a cool picture, you know, but don't post it 1:08:52.920 --> 1:08:55.760 on someday or when you know, it's like maybe I'm 1:08:55.760 --> 1:08:58.360 not paying attention to the news even though a news junkie, 1:08:58.360 --> 1:09:00.760 and I'm distracted, and then all of a sudden, you're 1:09:00.800 --> 1:09:05.000 worse than like like, I can't believe it. Okay, whatever, 1:09:05.040 --> 1:09:07.120 that's the loud minority talking to you. Most of the 1:09:07.160 --> 1:09:11.120 people don't really care or check. Um. The problem with 1:09:11.120 --> 1:09:16.639 with being a celebrity like yourself, um, in social media. 1:09:16.720 --> 1:09:19.559 If you have an opinion, now, Bob, you are in 1:09:19.600 --> 1:09:22.680 the opinion business. Believe me, I know if you have 1:09:22.720 --> 1:09:27.439 an opinion and you stick the landing. Okay, And I 1:09:27.520 --> 1:09:30.320 watched one of the one of the most entertaining things 1:09:30.360 --> 1:09:32.639 I ever watched, was your your It was a debate 1:09:32.760 --> 1:09:37.320 with Gene Simmons. Okay, but there was no right or 1:09:37.360 --> 1:09:40.599 wrong because both of you had an opinion and you're 1:09:40.600 --> 1:09:44.400 willing to stick the landing. And the problem is now 1:09:45.200 --> 1:09:49.120 you have to. It's like social media. To be really successful, 1:09:49.200 --> 1:09:52.759 you have to be the most perfectly curated, crafted vanilla 1:09:52.800 --> 1:09:56.320 wafer of all time, who ray for everyone, who ray 1:09:56.360 --> 1:10:01.320 for everything. Everybody's right. There's nothing wrong except the things 1:10:01.360 --> 1:10:04.200 that are agreed upon by the masses to be wrong. 1:10:05.520 --> 1:10:07.880 You know, if you have an opinion on music, if 1:10:07.880 --> 1:10:12.240 you have an opinion on anything, look out because the 1:10:12.320 --> 1:10:15.120 arrows are gonna come back at you, and you know, 1:10:15.240 --> 1:10:17.479 and and and then it becomes a game of gotcha, 1:10:17.560 --> 1:10:20.040 and it's like that didn't sign on for that. Okay, 1:10:20.040 --> 1:10:24.479 So since Instagram is driving new bonham maassa fans, what 1:10:24.560 --> 1:10:29.679 works on Instagram? I'd say what works on Instagram sincerity 1:10:30.240 --> 1:10:35.519 and and it's the candid moments. It's it's the ones 1:10:35.560 --> 1:10:37.960 that the post that means something. It's not the ones 1:10:38.040 --> 1:10:41.120 that the you know, social media like people. They're like 1:10:41.360 --> 1:10:43.519 social media consultants. It's like, well, you know, you must 1:10:43.560 --> 1:10:46.759 post between one fifteen and one nineteen every day because 1:10:46.800 --> 1:10:49.280 that's the peak hours and people are, you know, having 1:10:49.320 --> 1:10:51.639 their salad at lunch and they're checking. I could care less, 1:10:52.160 --> 1:10:55.240 could care less. If it means something to me at 1:10:55.240 --> 1:10:59.120 the moment, I'm going to post it or not, you know, 1:10:59.200 --> 1:11:03.839 and let aley not. I just I find myself happier 1:11:03.880 --> 1:11:08.200 posting much less. And I don't need the dopamine shot. 1:11:08.400 --> 1:11:11.439 I don't need your peek. How many times were you 1:11:11.520 --> 1:11:14.080 posting and how much are you posting today? It was 1:11:14.160 --> 1:11:16.320 two or three times a day? You know, if I 1:11:16.720 --> 1:11:19.800 was you know, if we were doing something. Mostly it 1:11:19.880 --> 1:11:21.640 was just one time a day, and I try to 1:11:21.640 --> 1:11:23.800 do once a day and then, but there's there's days 1:11:23.800 --> 1:11:27.040 I don't do it anymore. Um. And there was a 1:11:27.040 --> 1:11:28.680 couple of weeks where I let I needed to get 1:11:28.680 --> 1:11:30.880 away and I let the I let I let the 1:11:30.920 --> 1:11:33.439 web master do it. And the fans didn't like that 1:11:33.520 --> 1:11:37.719 at all because they're like, who's this JB. Web Master. 1:11:37.880 --> 1:11:39.920 I'm like, that's Scott. He's a nice guy. Give him 1:11:39.960 --> 1:11:42.639 a break, you know. Finally said no, no, I'll take 1:11:42.680 --> 1:11:46.840 it back, but on a contingency. And and I also 1:11:47.920 --> 1:11:50.599 there's there's a certain thing that you have to look 1:11:50.640 --> 1:11:54.040 after more than more than your followers, more than your career, 1:11:54.080 --> 1:11:57.080 more than anything. It's called your soul. And if you don't, 1:11:57.120 --> 1:11:59.360 if you don't protect that, you lose your soul. And 1:11:59.400 --> 1:12:01.639 that I see people going down those rabbit holes where 1:12:01.640 --> 1:12:04.679 you're just like, you can't fight everybody. It's like it's like, 1:12:04.880 --> 1:12:07.639 you know, reading the history books about my grandfather fought 1:12:07.680 --> 1:12:10.280 in Korea, and when the Chinese got involved, it was 1:12:10.320 --> 1:12:12.559 one of those two soldiers one rifle kind of thing. 1:12:12.640 --> 1:12:15.120 They just keep coming. You're like, man, no, no, no no, no, 1:12:14.920 --> 1:12:19.840 none of this anymore, and and it was to me. 1:12:20.160 --> 1:12:22.960 I'm much happier posting less. And when I post, I 1:12:22.960 --> 1:12:25.240 don't look at the comments anymore. Just don't. So you 1:12:25.280 --> 1:12:27.200 guys want to punch yourselves out and get into big 1:12:27.240 --> 1:12:30.280 fights over really nothing that matters. A picture of a 1:12:30.360 --> 1:12:33.000 less Paul doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. 1:12:33.320 --> 1:12:35.479 But if they want to get involved in that, that's 1:12:35.560 --> 1:12:39.760 up to them. Let's talk about you personally relative to 1:12:39.800 --> 1:12:45.960 your career. Uh, Males tend to like to keep going up, okay, 1:12:46.040 --> 1:12:48.840 and you you get a unique thing, which is you 1:12:48.880 --> 1:12:50.559 get to be on stage. You get a hit which 1:12:50.600 --> 1:12:53.000 you can't get anywhere else in the world, which is 1:12:53.120 --> 1:12:59.360 very fulfilling. But at this point in time, despite yourself 1:12:59.400 --> 1:13:03.559 deprecating manner, are there certain goals, certain wants that are 1:13:03.600 --> 1:13:07.600 still driving you know, I'll tell you what bout. I 1:13:07.920 --> 1:13:10.799 can tell you this, and I think I'm coming closer. 1:13:10.800 --> 1:13:14.040 I'm not there yet. I have not made the definitive 1:13:14.080 --> 1:13:18.040 Joe Bonamassa record yet. I think the one at Abbey 1:13:18.120 --> 1:13:21.240 Road is getting It's the first It's the first step 1:13:21.360 --> 1:13:25.200 in a long journey to where I have not made that. 1:13:25.400 --> 1:13:28.360 I've had good songs, and I've had songs that people 1:13:28.439 --> 1:13:32.920 come to my concerts to see. That's that means that resonates. 1:13:33.280 --> 1:13:35.400 I have not made a ten song released at all. 1:13:35.640 --> 1:13:39.240 Ten of them are that like that. And it's not 1:13:39.320 --> 1:13:41.080 for lack of trying. It's not because I'm trying to 1:13:41.120 --> 1:13:44.360 get lazy. It's not. It's it's it's nothing other than 1:13:44.400 --> 1:13:47.519 the fact that a need to capture lightning in the 1:13:47.520 --> 1:13:52.200 bottle ten times. And if I can do that, I'm cool. 1:13:52.640 --> 1:13:57.080 I'm cool with Let's just assume you do that, and 1:13:57.600 --> 1:14:02.759 I would presume your sales on albums is relatively the same. 1:14:03.160 --> 1:14:04.840 So let's say you hit it out of the park 1:14:04.880 --> 1:14:08.879 and the reception is the same as the previous records. 1:14:09.520 --> 1:14:15.519 How will you handle that? Emotionally good question? Like I 1:14:15.560 --> 1:14:19.080 played a song called Self Inflicted Wounds every night and 1:14:19.120 --> 1:14:21.719 it goes over well, it's not it's not a standing 1:14:21.720 --> 1:14:24.439 oh song. But I played every night because I think 1:14:24.439 --> 1:14:26.680 it's the best song I've written in ten years. And 1:14:26.760 --> 1:14:30.479 that's just for me. I love saying it. I think 1:14:30.520 --> 1:14:33.160 it's the best message and it's based on a true event. 1:14:33.640 --> 1:14:37.479 I I play it and and never discounts spite is 1:14:37.479 --> 1:14:40.679 a great motivator, you know. But I'm also I'm also 1:14:40.840 --> 1:14:43.519 very cognizant of the fact that I need to give 1:14:43.560 --> 1:14:46.960 the folks in the crowd what they want, and I 1:14:46.960 --> 1:14:50.559 don't take anything personally because if if there's the nights 1:14:50.600 --> 1:14:52.840 that you think are great, man, this band is like 1:14:53.000 --> 1:14:56.120 kicking ask and we're we all get off the stage 1:14:56.120 --> 1:15:00.439 and everybody's arms get huge, and we all pikes ourselves 1:15:00.439 --> 1:15:04.240 on the back, and then the fans, the fans have 1:15:04.280 --> 1:15:07.400 been there twenty times. You guys were off, and then 1:15:07.439 --> 1:15:11.479 the ones and the ones you think absolutely owe everybody 1:15:11.479 --> 1:15:13.800 their money back because we were it was amateur night. 1:15:14.800 --> 1:15:17.760 They it was I don't know what you guys were doing. Uh, 1:15:18.000 --> 1:15:23.360 it was magic tonight. You go. Okay, And same same 1:15:23.880 --> 1:15:28.000 tangentially to to a concert a record ten songs that 1:15:28.080 --> 1:15:29.920 mean the world to me, that I think are great, 1:15:30.280 --> 1:15:33.879 that I think is the definitive Joe bonamassa record most likely, 1:15:34.120 --> 1:15:36.280 and I got my head around this most likely will 1:15:36.360 --> 1:15:39.240 be the least successful one. But at least I can 1:15:39.280 --> 1:15:45.400 say I made the statement. Okay, But those inside the 1:15:45.439 --> 1:15:48.120 business certainly are aware of your career. We live in 1:15:48.120 --> 1:15:50.920 an arrow where the biggest acts of less penetration than 1:15:50.960 --> 1:15:55.160 ever before. So you have created your own business, and 1:15:55.200 --> 1:15:58.599 generally speaking in terms of other genres, it doesn't tend 1:15:58.600 --> 1:16:02.599 to intersect. It's wort of its own silo. Do you 1:16:03.760 --> 1:16:07.320 how do you feel about getting more recognition, being more 1:16:07.439 --> 1:16:12.280 integrated with the so called mainstream, getting more acknowledgement. To 1:16:12.360 --> 1:16:14.879 what degree is that important to you? In the degree 1:16:15.000 --> 1:16:17.800 if it, if it requires more work on my end 1:16:18.080 --> 1:16:21.240 to be one of the cool kids, count me out, okay, 1:16:21.280 --> 1:16:24.280 because I already worked plenty, and everybody's been saying I 1:16:24.280 --> 1:16:27.360 need to take a year off. I have a hard time. 1:16:28.439 --> 1:16:34.800 I have a hard time being around mainstream anything I have. 1:16:35.000 --> 1:16:37.400 I don't know what it is. It's a there's a 1:16:37.479 --> 1:16:43.720 visual reaction reaction to to it. I've always been the outsider. 1:16:43.880 --> 1:16:46.200 I've not I've not been an outcast, but I've been 1:16:46.240 --> 1:16:48.960 an outsider my whole life. And a few times that 1:16:49.040 --> 1:16:52.479 I flirt with the mainstream, it's like it's like it's 1:16:52.479 --> 1:16:55.720 like two north ends of a magnet. They tend to 1:16:55.720 --> 1:17:00.200 just do this, you know, And I don't feel at 1:17:00.200 --> 1:17:05.200 home or I don't feel at home around celebrity and 1:17:05.200 --> 1:17:08.800 and and red carpet. I never I've never walked the 1:17:08.800 --> 1:17:11.599 Red carpet in my life never will. The two times 1:17:11.600 --> 1:17:16.320 have been nominated for a Grammy didn't go because as 1:17:16.360 --> 1:17:18.840 soon as I heard that, Charlie Mussele White and Ben 1:17:18.840 --> 1:17:21.240 Harper were playing, and I go, guess who your winner is? 1:17:22.840 --> 1:17:26.760 You know? And I was right. And and the thing is, 1:17:27.120 --> 1:17:29.840 I've never been comfortable around that. And I'm not trying 1:17:29.880 --> 1:17:32.520 to say this in a facetious, like up my own assway. 1:17:33.040 --> 1:17:38.960 I just I luckily, at forty three years old, I've 1:17:39.000 --> 1:17:42.439 been around long enough. I've been successful enough to not 1:17:42.600 --> 1:17:47.479 do things that make me feel uncomfortable out of sheer going, Man, 1:17:47.560 --> 1:17:50.599 we really need this one. I bet I better get 1:17:50.600 --> 1:17:53.960 to that that that Grammy pre party and and you know, 1:17:54.280 --> 1:17:58.799 network and shake some hands. That sounds like a nightmare 1:17:58.840 --> 1:18:00.960 to me. Not that I don't like the people in 1:18:01.000 --> 1:18:05.479 the room, but doing that out of necessity seems so 1:18:05.640 --> 1:18:11.400 phony and so disingenuous and and and to myself of 1:18:11.479 --> 1:18:13.640 why I do this and why I got into the 1:18:13.640 --> 1:18:17.599 business to begin with that, I I just can't do it. 1:18:17.600 --> 1:18:19.680 It's talking about it, you can see me. It just 1:18:19.880 --> 1:18:23.000 makes me up tight and it's weird. And I don't 1:18:23.000 --> 1:18:25.960 mean to I'm not de meeting anybody who who who 1:18:26.120 --> 1:18:29.800 goes into those situations and flourishes, because they're gonna be 1:18:29.800 --> 1:18:31.800 a lot more successful than I will. But I'm willing 1:18:31.800 --> 1:18:38.320 to sacrifice success for my soul. And since you're working 1:18:38.360 --> 1:18:41.040 all the time, how has this affected your personal relationships 1:18:41.040 --> 1:18:45.320 and love life? I'm never, I'm I've never I've never 1:18:45.400 --> 1:18:48.720 been great at being the boyfriend. Never, not that I'm 1:18:48.760 --> 1:18:52.519 a bad boyfriend. I don't cheat, I don't whatever. I'm 1:18:52.600 --> 1:18:54.880 just like if you, I mean, if I gave you 1:18:54.920 --> 1:18:58.840 a tour of my house in California, you would walk 1:18:58.880 --> 1:19:02.680 in and go, this man is not married at all, 1:19:02.880 --> 1:19:05.920 work at all, these fender signs. Look at these amps. Now, 1:19:05.960 --> 1:19:11.080 it's well done. It's done like a museum. Um. And 1:19:11.120 --> 1:19:15.400 I've had some very wonderful women and very understanding women 1:19:15.479 --> 1:19:19.840 in my life. Unfortunately, it's just my consistency and my 1:19:19.960 --> 1:19:24.599 resolve eventually wears them down to where they don't resent me. 1:19:24.640 --> 1:19:30.720 But it just it doesn't work. So unfortunately, I've been 1:19:30.960 --> 1:19:34.639 very unsuccessful at that. But I never I never said 1:19:34.680 --> 1:19:38.000 I wanted, you know, kids and a family. I may 1:19:38.080 --> 1:19:40.120 want a dog one day, and I already have a 1:19:40.200 --> 1:19:41.840 name for the dog. And a breed of the dog 1:19:41.920 --> 1:19:44.720 that I want to rescue. Obviously I'll get a rescue dog. 1:19:44.800 --> 1:19:49.160 But but it other than that, I never had those goals. 1:19:49.240 --> 1:19:51.880 I never put that like, well, I really just just 1:19:51.960 --> 1:19:55.160 doing this until I can find the right woman and 1:19:55.280 --> 1:19:58.679 settle down and have me a bunch of kids, because 1:19:59.080 --> 1:20:00.840 how do you raise a kid when you are one? 1:20:03.120 --> 1:20:04.519 Let's say, say if you don't have kids or a 1:20:04.600 --> 1:20:07.960 child forever. Okay, let's get into the guitar collecting thing. 1:20:08.479 --> 1:20:11.599 How many how many guitars Joe? Now? I would say 1:20:12.080 --> 1:20:15.200 they're spread out over three locations. I would say approximately 1:20:15.240 --> 1:20:19.040 about four hundred and fifty. Okay, if you buy a 1:20:19.080 --> 1:20:21.840 new guitar, at what point do you get rid of 1:20:21.840 --> 1:20:25.880 a guitar at all? You know? You remember remember the 1:20:26.280 --> 1:20:30.200 CEO of ge Jack Welch, the late of course, Yeah, 1:20:30.280 --> 1:20:32.559 And he would always go on this is when CNBC 1:20:32.760 --> 1:20:35.920 was in the nineties. I used to watch it and um, 1:20:36.040 --> 1:20:38.519 he used to talk about this concept and he did 1:20:38.520 --> 1:20:41.760 it with people, okay, which is okay, that's these are 1:20:41.760 --> 1:20:43.960 people's livelihoods. He used to do it, but he used 1:20:44.000 --> 1:20:46.160 to go he would clear out the bottom ten percent 1:20:46.200 --> 1:20:48.840 of his employees every year the underperformers, the ones that 1:20:48.840 --> 1:20:51.200 that that that weren't that we're just kind of along 1:20:51.240 --> 1:20:54.320 for the ride or wherever wherever criteria. He attached to 1:20:54.360 --> 1:20:57.880 that every year, I look at the collection top down, 1:20:58.439 --> 1:21:01.679 and I haven't obviously we have an inventory and everything, 1:21:01.880 --> 1:21:05.719 and I clear out the bottom ten percent as because 1:21:06.400 --> 1:21:10.719 you only have so much room. B you're not playing 1:21:10.760 --> 1:21:13.679 these things. And see you probably were in the moment 1:21:13.720 --> 1:21:15.080 and you bought it and you thought it was cool. 1:21:15.120 --> 1:21:18.120 Because when the addictions raging, Luckily I don't have drugs 1:21:18.160 --> 1:21:21.320 and alcohol. I have guitars and amps, okay, which is 1:21:21.360 --> 1:21:24.120 to me a healthy addiction to a point. And when 1:21:24.120 --> 1:21:26.040 the addiction is raging on the road and you're in 1:21:26.080 --> 1:21:27.880 a store and you've got four or five things going 1:21:27.920 --> 1:21:29.680 on at the same time, you go, hey, what about this? Yeah, 1:21:29.680 --> 1:21:32.120 I'll take it. You don't think about you. I'll take 1:21:32.160 --> 1:21:36.040 it because it's the it's the rush, you're in finding mode, 1:21:36.040 --> 1:21:40.919 you're in you know, your vacuum it all up and 1:21:41.000 --> 1:21:43.640 so I I get rid of ten percent of the 1:21:43.640 --> 1:21:48.360 guitars um per year. Quietly, it's not like the Joe 1:21:48.360 --> 1:21:54.120 Bonamasa Annual Collection Reduction sale here on Instagram. Bye bye bye, 1:21:54.280 --> 1:21:56.679 you know Sunday Sunday Sunday is that nothing like that. 1:21:57.240 --> 1:22:02.679 It is really, ultimately um, just an exercise. And am 1:22:02.680 --> 1:22:05.679 I a hoarder or am I got control over this thing? 1:22:06.360 --> 1:22:08.639 And just to clear out the collection? And they're all 1:22:08.680 --> 1:22:11.599 good guitars. And people have bought guitars for me, like wow, 1:22:11.640 --> 1:22:13.160 I can't believe you got rid of it because it 1:22:13.280 --> 1:22:16.639 just wasn't the guitar for me and it didn't speak 1:22:16.640 --> 1:22:19.280 to me. There's things that I hold onto that people 1:22:19.400 --> 1:22:21.280 I don't know why you keep it. It just means 1:22:21.320 --> 1:22:25.719 something to me. And the criteria is different for everyone. Okay, 1:22:25.760 --> 1:22:27.599 let's assume you do want to get rid of guitars. 1:22:27.800 --> 1:22:30.639 How do you lay them off? I got about four 1:22:30.720 --> 1:22:34.800 or five people that want stuff, and very it's very 1:22:34.880 --> 1:22:38.439 rarely in the public um. And I know the kind 1:22:38.439 --> 1:22:41.960 of guitars that people look for, and I just call him, Okay, 1:22:42.000 --> 1:22:44.200 do you want this? Here's if there's any issues. I 1:22:44.240 --> 1:22:47.160 don't really buy stuff with issues, but if there's any issues, 1:22:47.160 --> 1:22:49.080 I just disclose them. I give them a price and 1:22:49.120 --> 1:22:51.000 they like it or they don't, you know, so it's 1:22:51.120 --> 1:22:54.439 it's not a big deal generally. Generally speaking, you make 1:22:54.479 --> 1:22:58.559 money trading guitars, lose money, break even, don't care. I 1:22:58.600 --> 1:23:02.960 always call I was when I buy. Remember I'm the 1:23:03.000 --> 1:23:07.240 son of a guitar dealer. I buy not wholesale, but 1:23:07.320 --> 1:23:10.920 not retail. I buy in the brackish area where I 1:23:11.040 --> 1:23:13.760 just like I could listen, did like like we're talking 1:23:13.800 --> 1:23:17.640 about guitars that are anywhere from five thousand dollars to 1:23:18.520 --> 1:23:24.160 four thousand dollars. Okay, you're you're talking about stuff. Like 1:23:24.320 --> 1:23:27.760 I said, I just want to dignified exit strategy. There's 1:23:27.760 --> 1:23:30.559 no reason to buy a guitar to lose money. I 1:23:30.680 --> 1:23:33.439 just like to barely if I can break even. You know, 1:23:33.520 --> 1:23:36.719 if you come out a little bit ahead, great, um. 1:23:36.760 --> 1:23:38.559 But I don't do it for a living, and I don't. 1:23:38.600 --> 1:23:42.000 I don't buy with the notion I will never ever 1:23:42.120 --> 1:23:44.280 find The people offer me stuff all the time, original 1:23:44.320 --> 1:23:46.400 owners and stuff like that. Some people want to give 1:23:46.400 --> 1:23:48.840 it to you, like, let's not even go down that road. 1:23:49.200 --> 1:23:51.639 I'll pay you fair because I don't want to take 1:23:51.680 --> 1:23:54.519 advantage of people because of my stature, not only as 1:23:54.520 --> 1:23:57.759 a collector but as a musician. And I've I've corrected 1:23:57.800 --> 1:24:00.880 people when they've been super undervalued on things many times 1:24:00.880 --> 1:24:02.920 and like, I'm not gonna pay you that because they 1:24:02.920 --> 1:24:04.800 think I'm gonna try to get it for less. I'm 1:24:04.840 --> 1:24:08.519 gonna pay you more because I have a conscious and 1:24:08.840 --> 1:24:10.600 I want to be able to look at anything in 1:24:10.600 --> 1:24:14.280 my collection and go, remember the story. I buy stories, 1:24:14.360 --> 1:24:18.240 not instruments. And that little old lady who got three 1:24:18.280 --> 1:24:20.719 thousand dollars for a guitar when she was asking a thousand, 1:24:21.280 --> 1:24:23.600 that's the story I'm gonna tell because she was she 1:24:23.800 --> 1:24:26.280 just was like, you know what, thank you for the honesty, 1:24:26.320 --> 1:24:28.840 and I go, You're welcome. I would hope that would 1:24:29.040 --> 1:24:31.639 be the same thing if somebody was, you know, if 1:24:31.680 --> 1:24:33.680 I was doing if I was if I showed up 1:24:33.720 --> 1:24:35.840 with a with a with a painted egg get an 1:24:35.880 --> 1:24:39.280 antique dealer going hey, I give me fifty bucks for this, 1:24:39.439 --> 1:24:41.120 I hope somebody would say, like, you know, this is 1:24:41.160 --> 1:24:44.160 a faberge. You know what I mean. It's like you 1:24:44.280 --> 1:24:47.519 just kind of invest in, you know, your belief in people. Okay, 1:24:47.560 --> 1:24:51.960 so you get rid of how do you replenish? That's 1:24:51.960 --> 1:24:55.240 not the problem. That's not the problem. Finding this stuff 1:24:55.320 --> 1:24:58.679 is not the problem. Um, I'm a big electro magnet 1:24:58.720 --> 1:25:01.160 for guitars. People off me stuff all the time. And 1:25:01.240 --> 1:25:03.479 that's not just guitar dealers. Most of the stuff I 1:25:03.600 --> 1:25:06.240 try to buy is from original owners and from the source. 1:25:07.080 --> 1:25:10.479 And and that's the hunt, because when you have four 1:25:10.520 --> 1:25:13.160 and fifty of them, who cares? You don't need another? 1:25:14.120 --> 1:25:17.880 It's it's like, oh, like I just found uh you know, 1:25:18.600 --> 1:25:21.720 I just found like a once in a lifetime um 1:25:21.920 --> 1:25:24.080 Fender Esquire from a friend of mine who works for 1:25:24.120 --> 1:25:26.559 Guitar Center, and he bought it and and it's got 1:25:26.560 --> 1:25:28.920 a picture of a woman in a short skirt playing 1:25:29.439 --> 1:25:33.000 playing this sunburst Fender Esquire from nine nine. And you're like, 1:25:33.080 --> 1:25:35.519 oh my god, that is like you can live two 1:25:35.680 --> 1:25:38.200 collecting lifetimes and never seen anything like that. That's what 1:25:38.320 --> 1:25:41.000 I go after. It's the ones in the lifetime stuff 1:25:41.320 --> 1:25:44.280 that you if you're not in the circle. If you're not, 1:25:44.600 --> 1:25:46.439 don't keep your finger on the pulse. That's what you're 1:25:46.439 --> 1:25:49.280 gonna miss out on. Did you go to the Me 1:25:49.600 --> 1:25:53.200 exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum which is now you do? 1:25:53.280 --> 1:25:55.800 You're saying, no, I missed it. I missed I was 1:25:55.800 --> 1:25:58.519 on tour, I was making the record, and I know 1:25:58.560 --> 1:26:00.559 it went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1:26:01.240 --> 1:26:03.320 But you got you gotta see. You know they have 1:26:03.400 --> 1:26:07.200 the original you know, Frankenstein guitar from Van Halen, which 1:26:07.240 --> 1:26:09.839 has been well documented. When you see it up close, 1:26:10.320 --> 1:26:12.160 you would not take it outside of your bedroom. It 1:26:12.240 --> 1:26:14.800 looked like, you know, it would fall apart so soon 1:26:14.840 --> 1:26:18.960 as you took it out stage. And uh, certainly some 1:26:19.400 --> 1:26:22.559 the Keith Richard stuff. There's a lot of great stuff. 1:26:23.120 --> 1:26:28.240 But in terms of what you're looking for in a sound, 1:26:28.760 --> 1:26:31.599 is it more about the model just I'm talking about 1:26:31.640 --> 1:26:34.639 the at the end of the day. Is it more 1:26:34.640 --> 1:26:37.479 about the model number or reality? No matter what the 1:26:37.520 --> 1:26:40.320 model number is, they all sound different. Here's the thing 1:26:41.479 --> 1:26:46.000 what people don't realize in terms of gear is everybody 1:26:46.040 --> 1:26:48.920 wanted a fifty nine Less Paul. Why because Jeff Back 1:26:48.960 --> 1:26:51.760 and Jimmy Page play one. Eric Clapton used one in 1:26:51.840 --> 1:26:56.280 John Mayo on the Blues Breakers and cream Um. Keith 1:26:56.360 --> 1:27:00.040 Richards had one, you know when they played uh you know, 1:27:00.120 --> 1:27:03.320 shin dig You know, all of a sudden, everyone in 1:27:03.400 --> 1:27:07.240 fifty nine Less Paul ain't gonna write the songs for you. 1:27:07.240 --> 1:27:11.880 You're not gonna sound like Jeff Beck if you got one, Okay, Um, 1:27:12.000 --> 1:27:13.840 You're not gonna You're not gonna come up with. I 1:27:13.920 --> 1:27:16.600 feel free if you happen to have one on the 1:27:16.880 --> 1:27:20.439 you know, on a stand. So they were tools. I 1:27:20.600 --> 1:27:23.040 use the guitars as tools. I also like being a 1:27:23.080 --> 1:27:27.639 custodian of history and a history buff. I love history, 1:27:27.760 --> 1:27:31.360 you know, preserving American history. You know that all the 1:27:31.400 --> 1:27:33.960 stuff that I collect was made in America. Every screw 1:27:34.120 --> 1:27:37.640 and bolt and nut and speaker and string and capacitor 1:27:37.720 --> 1:27:41.760 in pot it's all us made, all manufactured here, and 1:27:41.760 --> 1:27:45.559 it's a documentation of a time which this country made 1:27:45.600 --> 1:27:48.720 everything for itself that will never get back. It's the 1:27:48.760 --> 1:27:51.600 world is too big. It's there's two inner you know, 1:27:53.000 --> 1:27:55.960 you know, it's just too intertwined now to where the 1:27:56.000 --> 1:28:00.559 potentiometers and your Gibson guitar most likely now are made 1:28:00.560 --> 1:28:02.720 in China or outsource to China. Buy the company that 1:28:02.760 --> 1:28:05.320 Gibson buys them from. And get this, No, it's no 1:28:05.360 --> 1:28:07.280 fault of Gibson's. It's just what they have. And they've 1:28:07.280 --> 1:28:11.320 been doing business with CTS pots since the forties. So 1:28:12.520 --> 1:28:16.200 all of that, you know, is what goes into being 1:28:16.200 --> 1:28:18.800 a collector. Now, Like if in terms you asked me 1:28:18.840 --> 1:28:22.000 about my love life, if I'm on a date, and 1:28:22.080 --> 1:28:26.479 she goes, I see you collect guitars. Um, I'm like, yeah, 1:28:26.479 --> 1:28:28.479 I'm a big collector, and then like you you know, 1:28:28.680 --> 1:28:31.000 you know I really like And then if she asked me, 1:28:31.040 --> 1:28:37.479 like why do you need all those dates over? Why 1:28:37.520 --> 1:28:39.400 why do you need why do you need why? Why 1:28:39.439 --> 1:28:42.599 do you need all this? If you have to ask 1:28:42.640 --> 1:28:45.040 me that you don't get the collecting thing, it's either 1:28:45.080 --> 1:28:47.280 you get it or you don't. And it's okay if 1:28:47.320 --> 1:28:49.679 you don't. But I like to be surrounded by history. 1:28:49.720 --> 1:28:51.439 I like to be surrounded by things that I love 1:28:51.520 --> 1:28:54.400 and and play and cherish. And I have stories and 1:28:54.720 --> 1:28:58.439 I'm a story collector that happens to masquerade as an 1:28:58.479 --> 1:29:02.400 instrument collector. Of the four and fifty, how many do 1:29:02.479 --> 1:29:09.000 you play within twelve months? Maybe forty? About there's about 1:29:09.080 --> 1:29:13.360 forty road guitars and rotation. Those road guitars also double 1:29:13.400 --> 1:29:15.800 his studio instruments. These are the ones that are set 1:29:15.880 --> 1:29:19.400 up to play. There's the ones like like the prevailing 1:29:19.479 --> 1:29:22.200 narrative with collectors, you want to as original as possible. 1:29:22.240 --> 1:29:25.080 You want the original frets, you want the original everything. 1:29:25.280 --> 1:29:27.320 And I have tons of that stuff that's never been 1:29:27.400 --> 1:29:32.480 touched molested even looked at. It's like the Nigel Toughnesal conversation. 1:29:32.520 --> 1:29:33.720 You know, It's like, I don't even look at it 1:29:34.120 --> 1:29:37.479 meant perfectly preserved tons of I never play it. Why 1:29:37.520 --> 1:29:40.719 because it doesn't deserve the beat down. It's survived sixty 1:29:40.760 --> 1:29:42.599 five years? Why do I have to beat it down? 1:29:43.120 --> 1:29:45.960 But I also have a fleeting guitars that are set 1:29:46.040 --> 1:29:50.760 up for playing, and and I play about forty of 1:29:50.800 --> 1:29:58.360 them every year consistently. And how many amps? Okay, so 1:29:58.720 --> 1:30:02.880 you Gibson a refender, totally fender with them with the 1:30:02.920 --> 1:30:05.840 amps most of my am Okay, Well I'll stop first 1:30:05.840 --> 1:30:09.639 talking guitars. Um. I I serve both masses. I'm equal 1:30:09.720 --> 1:30:13.439 about two hundred each. UM I love, but I do 1:30:13.560 --> 1:30:17.479 love solid bodies. I only collect solid bodies and a 1:30:18.000 --> 1:30:24.000 very few arch tops. UM. I like solid body fenders 1:30:24.040 --> 1:30:27.720 made from nineteen fifty to about nineteen sixty four. I 1:30:27.760 --> 1:30:31.799 love solid body Gibson's that were made from about nineteen 1:30:31.840 --> 1:30:37.920 fifty two through about nineteen sixty five. That's about it, um. 1:30:38.000 --> 1:30:41.639 And it's all just different variations and colors and and 1:30:41.640 --> 1:30:44.960 and conditions of that. Okay. So let's say I had 1:30:45.000 --> 1:30:49.920 three guitars. I had a Jaguar, jazz Master, and a Stratocaster. 1:30:50.040 --> 1:30:52.800 Which one do you pick? And why? Okay, if you're 1:30:52.920 --> 1:30:55.800 talking about in terms of a canoe and a river, 1:30:56.120 --> 1:30:58.559 you take the jazz Master and the Jaguar. If you 1:30:58.560 --> 1:31:02.280 want to play real guitar, take this trap. Okay, I 1:31:02.320 --> 1:31:04.760 gotta go a little bit deeper there. I'm just making 1:31:04.800 --> 1:31:08.439 a bad joke. Um, I take the strap because I'm 1:31:08.439 --> 1:31:12.200 comfortable on his strap. Noki Edwards is great, great on 1:31:12.200 --> 1:31:16.400 a jazz Master. Um. John Fascanti changed the world with 1:31:16.600 --> 1:31:19.920 a Jaguar. Um. I'm I'm not a fan of those 1:31:20.040 --> 1:31:22.800 kind of serve guitars because it's just there's something because 1:31:22.800 --> 1:31:27.240 I'm a lead player. Um, they don't feel right when 1:31:27.280 --> 1:31:31.720 I play lead. UM strato caster to me is more 1:31:31.760 --> 1:31:35.559 of a tool that I can use. That that is, well, 1:31:35.640 --> 1:31:37.479 Leah didn't invent it for me, but but but it 1:31:37.479 --> 1:31:42.360 suits my style better. Okay, I'm gonna get click bait 1:31:42.439 --> 1:31:44.960 it on that one. I'm gonna get killed. But but 1:31:45.080 --> 1:31:48.960 your Fender amps, you're a tube guy, right, Always a tube. 1:31:48.960 --> 1:31:52.200 But never discount a solid state amp, especially early solid 1:31:52.280 --> 1:31:57.639 state like um Vox super beatles sound great. Rick and Bocker. 1:31:57.720 --> 1:32:02.519 Transnics sound great. Some early silvertone solid states sound great, 1:32:03.080 --> 1:32:06.760 um generally. But the weird thing is like we're the 1:32:06.880 --> 1:32:11.479 last industry that uses this technology. I mean, like maybe 1:32:11.479 --> 1:32:16.400 the Hi fi stuff, like they use tubes, but we 1:32:16.520 --> 1:32:20.760 used quarter inch cables, okay, and we'll be using quarter 1:32:20.800 --> 1:32:23.519 inch cable as long as we're playing electric guitar. Apple 1:32:23.600 --> 1:32:26.639 will not even keep the same headphone input for more 1:32:26.640 --> 1:32:28.800 than six months, you know what I mean. It's like 1:32:28.880 --> 1:32:30.599 it's like it's like every time you look at it, 1:32:30.600 --> 1:32:32.320 it's like I don't have the right adapter. I don't 1:32:32.320 --> 1:32:34.200 have to write plug. You know. They change the plugs. 1:32:34.200 --> 1:32:38.439 And we use quarter inch cables like old telephone you know, 1:32:38.920 --> 1:32:43.839 operator headphone jacks. They're called phono jack's, you know, and 1:32:43.840 --> 1:32:47.440 and and switch craft and all the it's ald timey stuff, 1:32:47.520 --> 1:32:51.040 you know. So we're kind of a steam powered car 1:32:51.120 --> 1:32:54.519 in the middle of a digital ocean. And how do 1:32:54.560 --> 1:33:00.920 you feel about the English company Marshall Orange, etcetera. Uh, 1:33:01.120 --> 1:33:04.400 James James Hendricks did pretty good with marshals Um, so 1:33:04.520 --> 1:33:07.519 did Slash and so did you know everybody? I used 1:33:07.520 --> 1:33:11.760 to use Marshalls a lot um Orange again, Tony Iaomi, 1:33:12.160 --> 1:33:15.320 Jimmy Page. There's always a Matt Amp on stage with him, 1:33:15.360 --> 1:33:19.519 which was an Orange product. Um and you know Vox. 1:33:20.080 --> 1:33:22.880 The kids from Liverpool did great with them, you know, 1:33:23.479 --> 1:33:27.479 you know Mike Campbell, Tom Petty Vox, you know uh Hank, Marvin, 1:33:27.560 --> 1:33:31.400 the Shadows use Fox um and you know. So again, 1:33:31.600 --> 1:33:35.720 it's all about the toolkit in which you require to 1:33:35.800 --> 1:33:38.960 get the sound in your head and your heart. And 1:33:39.160 --> 1:33:42.680 some people prefer brighter. I prefer darker guitar sound. But 1:33:42.720 --> 1:33:45.160 it's just what I feel in my heart, not my head. 1:33:46.040 --> 1:33:49.760 How about pedals and other effects? The Edge does great 1:33:49.800 --> 1:33:56.040 with him. Um. I think the reliance a little bit 1:33:56.560 --> 1:33:59.320 nowadays is a little bit too much on the stomp 1:33:59.400 --> 1:34:03.839 box and not enough on the on the tactile playing 1:34:03.840 --> 1:34:07.880 elements where the box does the rites the part. Now 1:34:07.880 --> 1:34:10.040 there's a there's an argument to say that a lot 1:34:10.120 --> 1:34:12.720 of great songs are written that way. Happy accidents you 1:34:12.840 --> 1:34:15.439 put on two pedals at once, or or you know 1:34:16.080 --> 1:34:19.320 Trevor Rabin like Owner of a Lonely Heart that solos 1:34:19.400 --> 1:34:21.360 with the rack freaked out and all the things went 1:34:21.400 --> 1:34:23.040 on at the same time and like that, Wait, don't 1:34:23.400 --> 1:34:25.280 you know Trevor Horners like, don't touch it, just do 1:34:25.400 --> 1:34:28.040 this all so you get the happy accidents. So you 1:34:28.040 --> 1:34:30.480 have to have it around to have the happy accidents, 1:34:30.520 --> 1:34:33.479 but also to the great players can just walk up 1:34:33.520 --> 1:34:37.080 to an amp and a cable and they and you go, 1:34:37.120 --> 1:34:39.680 oh that's Mike Campbell or oh that's the Edge, or 1:34:39.720 --> 1:34:43.479 oh it's Jimmy Hendricks or whatever. And I use pedals 1:34:43.520 --> 1:34:47.200 to augment the playing. And I use pedals historically, and 1:34:47.439 --> 1:34:50.639 I've said some weird controversial things about pedals in the past, 1:34:50.680 --> 1:34:52.800 but that was a different me in a different time pace. 1:34:53.400 --> 1:34:56.160 You know the time and place and a headspace. But 1:34:57.280 --> 1:35:00.439 you know, if you rely too much on on on 1:35:01.720 --> 1:35:05.360 Tristan Knobs, the music is gonna go by and you're 1:35:05.360 --> 1:35:07.680 not gonna you're not gonna get the most out of 1:35:07.680 --> 1:35:10.479 the music. You know. Um, But if you're just in 1:35:10.479 --> 1:35:12.320 the moment and playing with the band, you're gonna enjoy 1:35:12.320 --> 1:35:14.879 the experience a lot more and you can just be freed, minxed, 1:35:15.280 --> 1:35:18.599 turn up and go at least my attitude. Okay, let's 1:35:18.640 --> 1:35:21.320 assume you're invited to a dinner party, not a small one, 1:35:21.439 --> 1:35:24.840 but one way. There are multiple conversation. Okay, eight or 1:35:24.880 --> 1:35:29.400 twelve people, and we're not talking about the subjects we're 1:35:29.400 --> 1:35:33.280 talking about today, you're gonna fit in converse about other things? 1:35:33.280 --> 1:35:37.040 Are you're gonna tune out? You'd be surprised, how how 1:35:37.080 --> 1:35:41.400 how little I know about a lot of subjects. No, 1:35:41.520 --> 1:35:44.080 I'm not saying, but are you comfortable? Is that a 1:35:44.120 --> 1:35:46.519 good night to be talking a little bit about a 1:35:46.520 --> 1:35:48.559 lot of subjects? Yeah? Well you say, I'd rather I'd 1:35:48.600 --> 1:35:51.920 rather be anywhere but here. Yeah. I I don't I 1:35:52.040 --> 1:35:56.200 like talking about Like I'm fascinated with journalism, fascinated I'd 1:35:56.240 --> 1:36:01.360 probably be a journalist in another life. And I'm fascinated 1:36:01.479 --> 1:36:07.880 with with um, people that dedicate themselves to public service. Um, 1:36:07.920 --> 1:36:12.280 but not politics. I I you know, to me, it's like, 1:36:12.439 --> 1:36:14.400 you know, it's it's the people that are in the 1:36:14.439 --> 1:36:17.800 State department that that are a political they have been 1:36:17.920 --> 1:36:21.080 those jobs for for you know, fifty years under the 1:36:21.160 --> 1:36:25.599 attache to the Swedish ambassadors. Like it's like it's a 1:36:25.640 --> 1:36:27.760 fascinating life to me, you know what I mean, Like 1:36:27.800 --> 1:36:30.439 just the just what you're dealing with, it's so different 1:36:30.479 --> 1:36:33.680 than what I do. And I'm fascinating with history and 1:36:33.760 --> 1:36:37.160 news and and again like I said everything about politics, 1:36:37.200 --> 1:36:40.000 because that that that is just a toxic pool of 1:36:40.200 --> 1:36:42.880 nobody wins on that one, especially if we discussed it 1:36:42.880 --> 1:36:45.160 at a dinner party or publicly. You know, and I've 1:36:45.200 --> 1:36:49.280 seen good friends defriend each other not only on Facebook 1:36:49.320 --> 1:36:52.479 but in real life over a post. You're like, no, 1:36:53.360 --> 1:36:58.040 that's how it works. You can agree to disagree. Okay, Well, 1:36:58.120 --> 1:37:00.599 we've certainly hit a nerve here. We could talk all day. 1:37:00.640 --> 1:37:02.280 There are a lot of things that you were saying. 1:37:02.479 --> 1:37:05.440 I would like to expand, but we'll do that sometime 1:37:05.520 --> 1:37:08.519 off the podcast. Joe, I want to thank you so 1:37:08.640 --> 1:37:11.439 much for doing this. I loved hearing the story, especially 1:37:11.479 --> 1:37:15.879 since you're unique business and uh you're collecting for those 1:37:16.040 --> 1:37:18.439 who may have forgotten. For the top of the show, 1:37:18.560 --> 1:37:23.200 this Sunday, The Joe will be doing a live show, 1:37:23.200 --> 1:37:26.719 which will also be available in case you aren't available 1:37:26.760 --> 1:37:29.920 yourself for the following week. Joe, thanks so much for 1:37:29.960 --> 1:37:32.360 doing and I'm a big fan when you when you 1:37:32.400 --> 1:37:33.960 reach out and say hey, you want to be of course, 1:37:34.200 --> 1:37:38.599 thank you and thank you for doing it. Until next time. 1:37:38.720 --> 1:37:39.960 This is Bob left SAX