bit when we take these new
songs on the road. Luckily, I
had the luxury of spending
about four months on writing
the songs, rather than rushing something together at the
last minute. I brought about a
half-dozen barebones sketches,
with melodies, chord progressions, and lyrics, into the studio
and gave my mates permission
to kick my babies around the
room. That’s the way I look at
it—songs are like children. It
was hard to let go of them at
first, but in the end I trusted
everyone to add and subtract
little bits and pieces. That’s the
best way to do it in a band,
democratically. In this case, it
made my music better to share
it with a group of strong individuals—which is something I
hadn’t done in a long time until
BCC got together.
Bonamassa: I think one of
my biggest models, in terms of
songwriting, is Jimmy Page. I
try to take old blues music and
make it my own like he did. In
terms of the process, a lot of
guitarists start out with licks or
riffs, but I usually come up with
the lyrics first—or, at the very
least, the title. When it comes
time to write the music, I use
whatever guitar I have close
by—I have about 100 in my
collection—and try to come up
with things that are as much
about the song as the solo.
One of Bonamassa’s favorite guitars—a 1959 Gibson Les Paul he calls “Magellan”—getting cozy with a Native American-themed blanket and pillow.
Joe, you’re known as a big-time gear aficionado. What
were some of the guitars you
used on 2?
Bonamassa: I had something
like 40 freakin’ guitars at my
disposal for the record. I used
a bunch of Gibson Les Pauls—
some of my goldtop signature
models and a real ’ 59 burst
that I’ve nicknamed Magellan
because it’s traveled around the
world with me. It’s all stock
except for the tuners, which I
swapped out. I also played a
A close-up of Magellan, which features a beautiful honeyburst finish and is all original except for its tuners.
Gibson Custom Don Felder
doubleneck, an ’ 82 Explorer
with three humbuckers like a
Les Paul Custom, a Fender Jeff
Beck Stratocaster, and a Music
Man Steve Morse Y2D. For
acoustic, I used an extremely
rare 1969 Grammer Johnny
Cash model.
Which amps and effects did
you record the album with?
Bonamassa: I selected from a
wall of Marshalls: four Jubilees
and four ’ 69 metal-panel Super
Leads that I kept powered up
continuously during the ses-
sions. For cabs, I had two old
Marshall Super Basses and two
Mojo cabinets, all with Electro-
Voice EVM12L speakers. I
