Black Country Communion guitarist Joe Bonamassa admits he became disillusioned with the band during their 2011 tour, reports Classic Rock Magazine.
He says he’s “happily not involved any more” with the supergroup, months after a public spat with frontman Glenn Hughes came close to derailing the release of third album Afterglow.
The musicians fell out after Hughes expressed his frustration that Bonamassa wouldn’t go on the road to support the record with live shows – one of a series of outbursts that led to the cancellation of a one-off concert in the UK planned for January.
Now the blues guitarist tells PremierGuitar, “As far as I’m concerned my involvement is pretty much done.
Originally I did it for the same reasons I did the stuff with Beth Hart and Rock Candy Funk Party: it was an excessive to play a different kind of music that I don’t get to play normally.
So I did it and did a nine-week tour in 2011 that really, by the end of it, wasn’t fun for me. It wasn’t because I didn’t like the cats in the band, but it was just too much – too much involved in getting people from place to place and getting the band onstage.
Everybody seemed to be very tense, and it made my crew very tense, and it’s not the way I like to tour. I run a family. I have 21 people who go on the road with me all the time, and if you asked them who was the cause of the least of their problems, they would say me.”
But Bonamassa remains proud of his work with the band, also featuring Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian and producer Kevin Shirley.
“The first two records were a blast,” he says. “The band is fantastic when the Ritalin kicks in, the ADD goes away, and everyone’s focused. It’s a devastatingly good rock band of the early-1970s type, and Glenn is a fantastic singer – just one of the best ever.
It just wasn’t fun for me any more. All the stuff that Glenn says in the media, essentially pinning it on me, that I was the reason for the band’s lack of touring and the band’s lack of future. It became rapidly not fun at all. It would be dishonest of me to get onstage and pretend like I’m having fun to please the band.”
He’s previously given his blessing for BCC to continue without him, a move that both Hughes and Bonham have hinted at in the past. “I’m just not the guitar player for that band,” he says. “Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any out-of-work guitar players in LA that they can get. There are so many guys that can fill that role and I would be the first guy to queue up and buy a ticket.
“I’m happily not involved any more – but I’m happy with the legacy that I left with that band and happy with the records we made. It was a great three years for me.”
additional source: classicrockmagazine.com
16 Responses
Well this sucks and sadly I feel ends BCC. WTF is it with groups doing something most people would love to have the talent to do, but just cannot get along? All 4 CDs (including the Live disc) were awesome, I am truly saddened.
I agree with Greg.
Finally a band came along where I would buy their record in advance without needing to hear it (because I knew it would be great) and now they’re stalled. I was thinking maybe Richie Kotzen could step in, but he’s already stepping in for John Sykes (who’s new material I can not wait to hear!).
I already miss this band, Joe’s guitar playing is not easy to replace.
Someone NEEDS to call Jake E Lee and tell him to call Glenn.
I like Joe (his more recent records don’t grab me at all though…), but he tends to come off like a pretentious twit. He’s a bit of a cry baby in my eyes. I don’t like him knocking Stevie Ray Vaughan when he started out playing his licks (it’s kind of hip to not like SRV these days…or any blues played on a Stratocaster). It hurts, man. But he does have a solo career, and Glenn was a bit rude. I think they both brought it down, tbh.
And yes, I’ve been pitching for getting Jake E. Lee. He’d fit perfect (perhaps even better than Joe), and it would be a great way for him to come back out again. They could even do some old Badlands stuff!
Too bad he couldn’t have been honest about this sooner like when Glenn was calling him out for being the reason BCC was being held back. Oh well, this guy was clearly the disposable, weak-link of the band: Glenn one of the greatest singers with an unmistakable voice that happens to also be a kick-ass bass player; Jason is rock royalty and a hell of a drummer that’s proven himself with arguably the greatest band of all time – Led Zeppelin; Derek is in a class of keyboardists you can just about count on one hand that really matter and make a difference in their respective bands, not to mention his impressive resume; and then you have Joe… a guy that looks like your average 15-year-old dorky kid and sounds like countless other blues guitarists you can hear any night at your local watering-hole blues bar open-mic night. If they want another Joe, I’m sure they can find a plethora of guys that fit that bill right now on YouTube teaching Clapton licks. I suggest and hope the guys aim higher this go around and get a man (in both looks and maturity) and someone on par with the rest of the band like a Jake E. Lee. This is actually great news provided Glenn and the guys don’t quit because of this. Let Joe have his lame-ass solo career with his circle jerk road crew that he’s so fond of, and you guys keep rocking on to bigger and better things.