Joe Bonamassa on the greatest lesson he ever learned from one of his blues heroes: “It was him going, ‘Welcome to the big leagues, kid’”
Joe Bonamassa has looked back on one of the most intimidating moments of his early career, recalling how sharing the stage with blues legend and Telecaster master Albert Collins as a teen taught him some of the “greatest lessons” he’s ever learned as a performer.
Speaking on the No Cover Charge podcast, Bonamassa explains that Collins had a unique way of wielding the guitar not just as an instrument, but as a “weapon” capable of commanding a stage and keeping fellow players on their toes.
“Guitars are great, ‘cos you can use them to coddle people, but you can also use them as a weapon – and I love using guitars as a weapon,” says the guitarist. “You know who’s the best at that? Albert Collins. That was a weapon. They didn’t call him the Iceman for nothing. I mean, I was on the receiving end when I was a kid.”
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That unforgettable lesson came at the Silver Lake New York Blues Festival in Hog Rose, where a 12-year-old Bonamassa was invited to sit in with Collins. A year earlier, the young blues prodigy had shared the festival stage with telecaster virtuoso Danny Gatton, where his performance had earned him another slot twelve months later with the Iceman himself.
“They convinced Albert Collins to let me sit in,” Bonamassa recalls. “And he taught me the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned on stage.”
Needless to say, sharing the stage with Collins in his prime was a daunting prospect.
“At the time, I worshiped all those records – the Showdown! record, Ice Pickin’, Frosty.. All that,” says Bonamassa. “So I got up on stage, and I had my little USA Strat with Lace Sensors, and my Sunn Beta Lead solid state 4×12 amp.”
“Debbie Davies was in the band and it was prime time Albert Collins. He had a Tele, a [Fender] Quad Reverb, and about a 150-foot cable because he would go out into the crowd.”
Bonamassa remembers Collins putting him to the test almost immediately.
“He stung a note… He did all that Albert Collins shit, but he kept stinging the note,” says Bonamassa. “I mean, he pointed the Tele like [he was pointing a gun] at me. I’m like this little kid in the cowboy hat. It was his way of saying, ‘Welcome to the big leagues, kid. I don’t care how old you are, being up here requires a certain amount of intestinal fortitude, and I’m testing you to see if you had it.’ So I did my best [plays note] Albert impression.”
Decades on, Bonamassa remains fascinated by the bluesman’s unconventional setup and technique.
“His thing was awesome, because he tuned to open F, and had a really primitive capo. It was kind of gnarly, and I don’t know how he was able to keep the strings from moving. He would bend and not have the strings just move into another position. I don’t know how he did it.”
Watch the full interview below.
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