Joe Bonamassa

“I don't have any legato skills; I could never figure out how to roll the notes off.”

“The blues, the way it's interpreted, is always a product of your environment, and so it's almost like food. You know, it's like you use the ingredients, and you use your life experiences that you have.”

“I work well under pressure.”

“My first memory of guitar was seeing my father play one.”

“I was thrust into an adult world very quickly, and that can make anyone somewhat socially maladjusted to dealing with people your own age. But I wouldn't trade any of it.”

“I went through a period in my life where I didn't have money to buy ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly, but I also needed to go to the guitar store and buy strings and picks and polish and rags. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't play guitar.”

“It doesn't matter if people take the music for free, because you can't illegally download a ticket to a concert.”

“When you play a gig in Poland or Australia, or you play a gig in Toledo, they all clap at the same parts of the show. They're clapping for the solos in the exact same way.”

“When you've done so many records in 20 years like I have, you're going to have ebbs and flows and go through peaks and valleys.”

“Jimi Hendrix is a classic example of a player in which everything he did, it was all in his hands.”

“The one area where I'll say that Hendrix is underrated was his ability to use chord melodies. He used different inversions of chords and was able to make a three-piece band sound absolutely huge. From the moment Hendrix and the Experience came on the scene, power trios had their work cut out for them.”

“I've been lucky and very fortunate over the course of my career, and I try to do something good for people every day.”

“I don't think there's any music that you hear on the radio today that would be possible without Jimi Hendrix. Rock, blues-rock, heavy metal, any guitar stuff when you get right down to it - Jimi did it. He's certainly the guy who basically invented the blues-rock genre for guitar players.”

“Nothing I'm doing musically is revolutionary in any way, shape, or form.”

“Carnegie was a life-long dream because I was a born New Yorker. I was born in upstate New York, and we've played Radio City, and we've played The Beacon, but Carnegie was this mystical place, you know?”

“It's good to see young kids getting into the blues.”

“I'm a kooky collector and own a couple of hundred guitars.”

“At the end of the day, you, as the player, create the tone coming out of the amp. The gear is part of it but by no means all of it.”

“I am the poster boy for brick-by-brick foundation building. Play a club. Put on a good show for 35 people. Come back. Build your market. Have people talk about you.”

“If I'm soloing, I usually try to start with a theme, which will often stem from the blues.”