Joe Bonamassa Quotes

I think guitar-wise, Eric Clapton was a big influence on me. I got to spend time around him. He's kind of strange, mysterious, serious and he always has played such hot guitar.

Jimi... He was the gov'nor and that's it. He was brilliant, wasn't he?

Lenny Breau is one of the true geniuses of the guitar. I suppose he is a musician's musician. His knowledge of the instrument and the music is so vast, and I think that's what knocks people out about him. But he's such a tasty player too. I think if Chopin had played guitar, he would have sounded like Lenny Breau.

One guy can ruin an instrument. Jimi Hendrix, bless his heart - how I wish he was still around - almost inadvertently ruined guitar. Because he was the only cat who could do it like that. Everybody else just screwed it up, and thought wailing away (on the guitar) is the answer. But it ain't; you've got to be a Jimi to do that, you've got to be one of the special cats.

Jimi Hendrix could play better than our best guys and he did it while he was dancing while being completely outrageous.

I suppose when I started playing guitar, it was the means to an end. I never thought of myself as a fully fledged guitar instrumentalist. And my early excursions on the electric guitar were curtailed when Eric Clapton came on the scene, and I decided I was never going to be in the same arena as a Clapton or a Peter Green.

I mean, no offense, but I don't really see why, like guitar players from Creed, or something like that, are on the cover of guitar magazines. Almost anybody can sit down and learn to play those songs.

Jimi Hendrix's music was escapism.

It's hard to say this about a guy like Eddie Van Halen, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived, but he's really limited to a style and they're locked into it.

As a guitar player, it's harder for me to impress somebody than it is to write a song that they like.

I really respect Zakk Wylde's guitar playing and his compulsive work ethic.

For just being a black artist in rock n' roll and be able to step outside and create, and make great music. And just be different. Just a different breed. And that's what I love about Jimi Hendrix's music - the way he plays the guitar is so different. He's just an icon all around.

Most people can do what I do - they can do guitar solos - but they can't do a good, hard rhythm guitar and be dedicated to it.

Hendrix was a perfect guitarist. And that's all I wanted to do as a kid. Play a guitar properly and jump around.

Everything Paul Kossoff did came from his fingers and went right into the amp. He was his own effects unit.

Even Angus says that Malcolm is a better guitarist than he is. He makes the drummer's job so easy, he's a metronome.

Richie Kotzen is such an unbelievable talent as a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter.

I started playing guitar because of seeing Steve Vai.

Hendrix was a different kind of guitar player. It was like, 'Holy cow, this guy can sing, he can play all this weird stuff... what is this?' It was a new kind of music.

Jimi Hendrix is one of the main influences on why I wanted to play guitar. He really shook me. I think it was his whole style - the look and what he did with the guitar.

I have seen Tommy Emanuel play; my wife and I went to see him and he just melted my face off. How do you play guitar like that? There are so many people that play at a ridiculous level and I sit there watching them and I'm like, 'Wow, wish I could do that.'

Jimi Hendrix was the most exciting guitarist I've ever heard.

Joao Gilberto on guitar could read a newspaper and sound good.

Jimi Hendrix once said, 'You will never hear surf music again.' Well, tonight, you will hear 'serf' music again - S-E-R-F music.

I couldn't believe how good Jimi Hendrix was It was a really difficult thing for me to deal with, but I just had to surrender and say, 'This is fantastic.'