Joe Bonamassa picks the “best rock ‘n’ roll guitar player in the world”
As well as being one of the finest rock guitarists of the contemporary era, Joe Bonamassa also knows a thing or two about the history of the instrument.
Bonamassa is undoubtedly one of the finest blues rock guitarists of all time. The Grammy-nominated artist follows in the footsteps of B.B. King and Eric Clapton and has blown fans away with a string of iconic shows, including at The Royal Albert Hall and The Beacon Theatre, meaning he is better placed than most to comment on the history of the six-string.
Bonamassa has provided a host of compelling accounts in his time, including his well-substantiated claim that Led Zeppelin leader Jimmy Page is the “toughest” axeman to copy because of his profoundly idiosyncratic style that utilises “slurs” as part of his sound. Unique and considered comments such as these have added another string to the New Hartford native’s bow in the cultural conversation.
When speaking to New York’s WAXQ in a 2022 interview, Bonamassa was asked to comment on the guitarists who continue to blow his mind. During this segment, he named the eminent Jeff Beck – who passed away in January this year – the “best rock ‘n’ roll guitar player in the world”. His sentiment is one that many of his peers share, including Guns N’ Roses hero Slash.
“Every decade rolls over, he’s still the best rock n roll guitar player in the world and he figures out a new way to do something different with the guitar in every decade that he’s been active – 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s to now,” Bonamassa said. He then recalled playing several festivals with Beck, “seven, eight years ago” and backstage his realisation about the older statesman’s elemental talent.
“[Beck] would retreat into his dressing room and he’d take his guitar and plug it into his little practice amp – it was probably just some little battery-powered thing,” Bonamassa continued. “And I should have been playing too because we had to go on before; I couldn’t even look at the guitar while I was listening to that.”
He concluded: “It made you want to weep and you’re like ‘it’s him, it comes out of him, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a little practice amp, you just give him a guitar and he’ll figure out a way to get these sounds out of it, and that’s complete raw talent, it’s not the equipment, it’s just him.”
Watch the interview below.
