Joe Bonamassa Quotes

AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' is the greatest meshing of vocal, guitar, and content I've ever heard. That's what I aspire to.

My first influences for playing were Johnny Ramone and Jimmy Page, the same as everybody else. Joe Perry. The guys in Alice Cooper's band, whatever their names were. Mick Ronson from David Bowie. You know who really influenced me to write songs? Iron Maiden.

The power chords in 'Come Sail Away' were super heavy to me as a kid. Metal? No. Hard rock? At times, for sure.

But, you know, all good rock is easy.

AC/DC is a prime example of taking that blues rock thing and just living in that world. They only really move the furniture around a little on each album, but it still works.

I love Aerosmith. I love Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, anything from that era, Led Zeppelin. So my guitar style is very much like Slash or Jimmy Page. I love playing that kind of music. It's where my heart's at.

I like hard rock, and classic rock, and even metal.

I probably spent more time as a kid playing air guitar to Jimmy Page than any other guitar player.

I've always loved big riffs and chunky guitars.

There's so many STP songs that are just classic to me, and just so influential in my musical growth.

'Master of Reality' rules; it's one of my favorite records of all time. It has some of the most evil riffs on it - and some of the sexiest riffs as well.

The most common power chord in metal is the root/fifth, but root/third diads are also worth checking out.

A lot of the 'Back In Black' stuff is really challenging.

I'm a guitar player first. So my first hero was Angus Young from AC/DC. I used to copy every move that he did, play every lick that he would. I knew I wanted to be some kind of a rocker, back in the day.

I really don't listen to Led Zeppelin that much.

Man, don't get me started on Pat Travers. That dude writes killer blues rock and roll riffs.

I was mostly influenced by bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest - Metallica's 'Kill 'Em All' was also a hell of an inspiration.

Phil Rudd from AC/DC was someone I really liked a lot... Not because I was dazzled by his playing ability - he was just a rock, y'know?

We've always been just an American rock n' roll band.

The electric guitar and its players hold a place of privilege in the annals of rock music. It is the engine, the weapon, the ax of rock.

We've never been shy to admit that Metallica is a huge influence in our lives and on our music.

With Audioslave, it's all about melody and chord progressions.

I've always loved playing Zeppelin - they were one of my favorite bands growing up.

Heavy metal to me implies a relentless, pounding, hitting-people-over-the-head music. Trend setters tend to dismiss it as basic and simple, but all the time that little trends keep coming and going, the Bob Segers, Bruce Springsteens and the Billy Squiers keep staying.

To me, a lot people really get wrapped up in the technical side of metal and what's metal and what's not and more double-kick and more blast beats and more technicality, but for me, I'm a song person. So I think you can write good songs in any type of style of rock and any type of style of metal, and that's kind of what I'm a fan of.