“I said, ‘I don’t have $5,000,’ and Joe said, ‘They’ll want a photo of me but I could probably get it for you for four’”: Joe Bonamassa helped Joanne Shaw Taylor buy an Albert Collins Telecaster – and then kept it for himself
Joe Bonamassa’s guitar collection is the stuff of legends – so much so that he’s got two ‘museum’ locations – Nerdville East and West in Nashville and LA, respectively – housing hundreds of vintage guitars and pieces of gear.
It might not come as a surprise, then, that he’s had to adopt something of a poacher’s mentality to get his hands on the guitars he wants – even competing against one of his best friends, fellow blues maestro Joanne Shaw Taylor.
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As Taylor notes in an interview in the new issue of Guitarist magazine, an Albert Collins signature Fender Telecaster she now proudly owns was once poached by Bonamassa under the guise he’d help her buy it.
Of the guitar – which was ultimately gifted to her by JoBo around 15 years – she recounts the hilarious tale of how it ended up in her hands.
“I flew to New York to see Joe for a few days,” Taylor recalls. “He was rehearsing for the first time with Black Country Communion. I went to, I think it was, Manny’s, and in there they had an Albert Collins signature model and it was signed by Albert. Other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence.
Credit: Frank Hoensch/Redferns
Upon seeing the guitar’s $5,000 price tag, Taylor consulted Bonamassa, informing him that she didn’t have enough money to buy the guitar outright herself.
“He’s like, ‘Okay, well what do you have?’ I said I could probably get together about four. He’s like, ‘Alright, well come back with me. They’ll probably want a photo of me, but I could probably get it for you for four.’
“So we go back to the guitar shop, he plays the guitar, and he’s like, ‘How much?’ And the guy goes, ‘Okay, four grand and a picture of you buying it.’ So we did the deal… and then he kept the guitar for himself! [laughs]”
The guitar remained under the custodianship of Bonamassa for about a year, Taylor says, until she informed his father Len, who then set out to make things right.
“About a year or so later, I talked to his dad and mentioned this, and Len was furious,” she says. “So Len must have phoned him and read him the riot act because I got a text the next day saying, ‘Remind me of your address,’ and then this was delivered in the post.”
The post “I said, ‘I don’t have $5,000,’ and Joe said, ‘They’ll want a photo of me but I could probably get it for you for four’”: Joe Bonamassa helped Joanne Shaw Taylor buy an Albert Collins Telecaster – and then kept it for himself appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
