In high school, you were considered a traitor if you wore a leather jacket and a Metallica t-shirt but popped an R and B mix tape into your detachable face cassette deck on your ride to the deli. There were CLEAR lines drawn dividing music realms not just by genre but style of clothes and dialect as well.
You just didnt use certain slang if some “other” group said it. So when it came to my love of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger, my FATHER’S ROCK, I kept those labels blank and memorized who was on what based on grease and other stains on the “A” side.
Joe Bonamassa is a RENOWNED blues rock guitar player whose first solo album came out in the year 2000. He’s only two years old than I am, so when a mid 40’s guy talked about listening to blues albums in the 90’s and being oblivious to his contemporaries, it hit home.
As far as grunge and metal, sure I was as immersed in the scene as anyone else… but I couldn’t admit to liking a dance song. I couldn’t BRING myself to like one, because I was a ROCK KID!
A lot of this interview with Joe Bonamassa will hit home if any of this makes sense to you. Check out him, Kenny Wayne Sheppard and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening at Jones Beach on August 19th – get tickets here.
Listen to Joe talk about it here.
(Image: AP Newsroom)