“I don’t have many years left in this thing”: Joe Bonamassa hints at retirement
Joe Bonamassa has said his retirement may come within the next 10 years.
The 47-year-old blue legend contemplates hanging up his instrument for good in a new conversation on My Weekly Mixtape.
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“I don’t have many years left in this thing, you know,” he says when asked about the notion of retirement from music. He then puts a timeframe on his career, which started when he was just 12 years old supporting the late, great BB King: “I’d like maybe a decade before I just retire.”
He continues: “I’ve done this 36 years. We’re taking this thing up to, maybe you know, a 45-year career, and that’s great enough. You know, let me go enjoy my life and not work every single day, you know?
“And everybody goes, ‘No, you’re still a young man. You can go for another 35, 40 years.’ That’s not me. That is not gonna happen. There’s only so many pitches in this arm and use them wisely from here on out.”
Bonamassa’s revelation of hoping to retire in his mid-to-late 50s follows comments he recently made criticising the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The guitarist said he was “slightly pissed” the Rock Hall didn’t induct guitar great John Mayall before the guitarist died in June, aged 90. Mayall, who learned of his impending induction months before he died, will join the annals of the Rock Hall this year, alongside Alexis Korner (who died in 1984), MC5, Cher and Ozzy Osbourne.
“There’s a lot of omissions [in the Rock Hall] that I think they need to start reconciling quickly,” said Bonamassa, “because you cannot wait for them all to die to then go, ‘Well, we’re gonna put you in posthumously.’ It means something. It would have meant something to John to get that statue.”
Bonamassa also recently joined forces with effect pedal company Way Huge to create the Deep State, which is being promoted as “ultimate Klon clone”. It’s available on Bonamassa’s Reverb store for $189.99.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
