What goes through an artist’s head when they receive the call to play for The Rolling Stones?
Joe Bonamassa initially felt confused. “I go, ‘Did they run out of people?'” Bonamassa remembers this in a recent interview with Blues Rock Review. “Because those calls don’t happen for me.”
The blues chart-topper was preparing for a performance in Paris when his management approached him about the chance in April. The Rolling Stones selected various guest performers to open for them on their 2024 tour in support of Hackney Diamonds, the band’s first original album since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The Stones asked Bonamassa to open for them”Just being asked to do that was crazy,” Bonamassa remarked. After being reassured that the invitation was genuine, he responded immediately. “I said, ‘Sure, let’s do it.'” “Of course.
Bonamassa and his band had previously performed for large crowds—as many as 60,000 or 70,000 people at various music festivals in Europe, or about double the 35,000 to 40,000 people Bonamassa believes he played for at Lumen Field. The Stones’ opening slot, however, was a very different experience. Dave Natale, the Stones’ longtime sound mixer, gave Bonamassa’s staff “a really open lane” with the sound system, so things got off to a good start. The concert that followed was electrifying.
“We sounded really good,” Bonamassa added. “We received two standing ovations, on May 15 at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington.Despite the strength of his own performance, Bonamassa was overwhelmed by the one that followed.
“Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Steve Jordan, Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Bernard Fowler and company come out,” Bonamassa recalled; “and Keith goes into ‘Start Me Up,’ and with two chords—remember now, we killed it—and within two chords, they killed us.”
Watching the rock ‘n’ roll icons work their magic on stage was a unique experience for Bonamassa. “You don’t realize how effing good those guys are until you see them live,” he told me. “The songs are wild and iconic. But they’re good. They’re better than good. “They’re the greatest rock and roll band ever.”
The energy that the band’s three core members, Jagger and Richards, who are
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