Joe Bonamassa is not one to wait around for something to happen. For nearly 25 years, he, not a sprawling record label, booking agency or multinational promoter, has been calling the shots in a career that has put — and kept — the blues-rock guitarist and singer on the superstar path.
So when his mentor B.B. King’s 100th birthday was approaching, Bonamassa took action and went big: a 32-song album tribute to the man, with more than 30 guest musicians, including Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, George Benson, Gary Clark Jr, Chaka Khan, Slash, Warren Haynes, Dion, Michael McDonald, Paul Rodgers, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Aloe Blacc, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Marcus King, Shemekia Copeland and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.
“Nobody was going to do anything, you know?” Bonamassa says during a phone interview before a recent show at the FM Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA. “MCA or whoever owns MCA’s label wasn’t doing anything. There wasn’t much coming from the family. And I was like, well, somebody’s got to do this, right? You know what I mean? You can’t just let his hundredth birthday come and go and not even acknowledge it.”
“B.B. King’s Blues Summit: 100,” was released in February, and one of Esquire magazine’s most anticipated albums of 2026, it is a full-circle moment for Bonamassa, who was taken under the wing of the “King of the Blues” before he was even a teen. He first opened for King when he was a 12-year-old growing up near Utica and remained close with the legendary artist until his passing in 2015.
The guitarist, who has also developed a relationship with Clapton, understands his place as a link in the chain of “keeping the blues alive” — the name he chose for his charitable foundation and annual music cruise.
Joe Bonamassa with B.B. King
“That’s a big deal,” he says. “I try to do that with younger artists myself. B.B., you know, gave me a seal of approval when I was a kid and we worked together up until about 2006 or 7, and Eric Clapton coming out a couple of years later at the Albert Hall. I mean, that was a big moment in my life. Those were huge, huge moments that without that validation, my career would have probably turned out a lot different.”
Bonamassa said he had somewhat taken the relationship with King for granted because he was “so nice and affable” that he and fellow blues rockers like Clark, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang and Josh Smith “didn’t really understand how lucky we were and the magnitude of the situation that we were being invited into.”
“I asked Marcus, did you ever meet him? He’s like, man, I saw him once when I was eight years old or whatever and never got a chance to meet him. And it’s like, wow. It just dawned on me when he answered that question: I was like, wow, how lucky was I?”
With younger players like Marcus King and Kingfish on the tribute record, Bonamassa is doing his part to not only honor the legacy of the blues, but also push it forward.
“Every 10 years or so, there’s someone who comes along and gives the blues and the genre a B-12 shot,” he says. “I did it in 2010, 9, 10, 11, whatever. And then it was Gary Clark Jr. And now it’s Kingfish. Every so often there’s an artist that comes out and connects with an audience that’s larger than the genre itself. And that’s super important to keep it modern. Marcus King I could put it in that category. Marcus is on our record. Gary’s on our record. Kingfish is on our record. The greatest thing about doing this record was not only getting people involved that knew B.B. King and rolled with B.B. King going back to the ’40s with Bobby Rush, in the ’50s with, Buddy Guy, but also seeing younger artists like Marcus and DK Harrell and all those those kind of guys that never met him.”
PHOTO GALLERY: BLUES ROCKER JOE BONAMASSA THRILLS PACKED KIRBY CENTER
The self-proclaimed guitar nerd who owns “somewhere between 740 and 760” guitars but tours with just 12 will on June 19 release “The Spirit Of Rory Live From Cork,” a live album and film recorded during a series of shows in Rory Gallagher’s hometown, an homage to the late blues-rocker. He says just finished recording a new album at Power Station in New York, and later this month he’ll start a tour in Europe, including a two-night return to the Royal Albert Hall in London. On June 26 he’ll kick off his summer tour at Bethel Woods — he’ll play Atlantic City the next night — and in the fall it will be more European dates.
For Bonamassa, this is slowing down.
“Last year I was on the road over 230 days, 240 days. I was away from home. I’m like, I’m too old for this, 49, heading into year 50. We’re doing 65 shows this year and that’s enough.”
Bonamassa and his manager Roy Weisman in 2002 formed J&L Adventures to handle all aspects of his career. The outfit has also managed the careers of newer artists such as Robert John & The Wreck.
“I’m a firm believer in betting on yourself, and I’m also a firm believer in vertically integrated business,” he explains. “The artist in me is like, yeah, I’m going to bet on myself, and if you’re not confident enough in yourself to bet on yourself, then how are you going to get others to bet on you? So that’s the art side.
“The [concert promotion] side is a vertically integrated business. It’s like you’re giving chunks of the pie away that you don’t have to, you know what I mean? Ten, 15% to an agent or promoters and this and that, but you still got to pay for the trucks and buses, you still got to pay for the hotels. And you’re like, well, that’s a big chunk off the bottom line that you’re saving by betting on yourself. And we work with Live Nation, we rent their venues and they’ve created a wonderful business. I mean, you’re not knocking them, but we’re here at the Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre and it’s sold out on a Monday night. I don’t need a Live Nation to take 10% of that.”
Bonamassa has been nominated for six Grammys and has won zero. He says it doesn’t bother him.
“No. I’ll tell you why. Because I know people that have Grammys that would trade their statue and three magic beans for what I do on a Monday night. And if that’s the tax, that I never win the hardware, well you know what? I got enough fucking nominee medallions to make a bitchin’ wind chime out of it and call it a day.”
He notes that The Beach Boys and Jimi Hendrix never won a Grammy.
He answers with a similar sense of confidence and contentment when he’s asked if there’s anything left he’d like to accomplish.
“I mean, honestly, I have nothing left to prove or do, you know? I just want to be able to maintain my skill set, go out there, put on the best shows, keep curating the songs, keep improving the arrangements. And every two years play the Royal Albert Hall. If I can do that, geez, how lucky am I?”
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