Joe Bonamassa

When you're on a winning streak, don't mess with the formula - and opinions be damned, says the perennial blues phenomenon

- BY ANDREW DALY

IN THE LAST 25 years, Joe Bonamassa has dropped 16 studio records. That's a lot of music, meaning it's hard to keep things fresh - and his latest, Breakthrough, despite its title, doesn't even try to break new ground. The truth is, it doesn't have to; it just needs to reflect the type of music Bonamassa likes to create, which tends to rub about half the hardcore blues community the wrong way - not that Bonamassa cares.

That's not to say Bonamassa is on the losing end of the stick. Quite the contrary; he's perpetually on tours that include continuously sold-out arenas. Even so, Bonamassa keeps a level head when it comes to the subject of his success.

“I'm not in the thought process of going, 'Well, this is the most important thing in the world,” he says. “What I offer is an escape for two hours and 10 minutes. When we play a show, it's an escape from politics, the world's problems and your personal problems.

What does it mean to you?

The way I came up, you had the blues, but it was a joyful blues. My parents were sharecroppers. We couldn't even afford a bicycle, so a horse was the only way to stop walking for miles. [Laughs] And we picked cotton and raised potatoes and everything like that. We didn't have no radio or nothing. My grandparents would say, “I don't know how that boy got to be a musician, because we didn't have no radio to listen to at night.” But when I was 13 or 14, I got my first record, and I was still driving a tractor and plowing a mule. If that ain't the blues, what is?

While recording, are there any pieces of gear that you rely on the most?