CUTTING HEADS

Friends for two decades, blues giants Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor invited Classic Rock to join them and press 'Record' as they put the world to rights - from Al and internet trolls to crap journalists, and the music execs who need a punch in the face.

- Words: Henry Yates

Forget the rocketing sales and ever-bigger venues. For rock writers, the real joy of Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor's respective success stories has been watching these two modern blues figureheads grow as interviewees. Rewind to the millennium, when Bonamassa arrived with A New Day Yesterday, and the New Yorker was the epitome of the guitar geek caught in the headlights: comfortable enough talking about pickups and string gauges, cagey on anything else. Likewise, while promoting her 2009 debut album White Sugar, Taylor hinted at a snarky Black Country wit, but stopped short of showing her cards or character.

How long ago that seems now. Today he's on the talk circuit for his 17th album, Breakthrough (while she's flogging number 10, Black & Gold), and the pair have a reputation as the smartest, wittiest voices on a blues scene sometimes characterised as dour and overly reverential. Get these longtime friends together on a Zoom call, meanwhile - Taylor dialling in from her adopted Nashville hometown, Bonamassa from Copenhagen, smoking a cigar thicker than a toddler's arm - and they're even more fun, finishing each other's sentences, mercilessly taking the piss, and showing occasional flashes of genuine tenderness.

Now that's what you call a cigar, Joe.

JST: He's in Tony Soprano mode.

JB: This is a 15 Robusto. Sorry I'm late joining the call. I was testing out the rig for the Black Country Communion tour.

You're great friends now, but what do you remember about your first meeting?

JB: It was at the Notodden Blues Festival in 2008. Which is amazing, but what it's telling me is that time is fucking flying. We ran into each other at the hotel check-in.