Joe Bonamassa Weighs In On Phones At Gigs: ‘I Have To Be Careful’

The topic of smartphones at gigs can be a polarising issue, one that Joe Bonamassa seems to have found a civilised stance on, albeit at the expense of some diehard fans.

Speaking with The Music ahead of his September Australian tour, the US guitar legend said he has had to alter his live show in recent years due to the advance of smartphones.

Back in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Bonamassa would workshop songs on the road, but as technology advances, he’s less inclined to do so.

“Unfortunately now, you get a very high-quality DVD shot with an iPhone, and immediately it’s up on YouTube and it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the record,” he said.

“We’re going to make the record in January so it won’t come out until September of next year and if I start playing them now, they’re old news by the time we even record them, so I have to be careful.

“I came up in an era where we didn’t make DVDs every night, but now it’s almost like you have to assume that every song from every night is going to be put on YouTube in some way, shape or form.”

With that said, he’s not totally opposed to people having phones at gigs or the benefits they provide to a lot of other artists, including “promotion and awareness”.

He also doesn’t agree with banning them at shows, which is what artists like Jack White and others have begun doing, while performers such as Bob Dylan have been quite vocal about the issue in recent years.

“As long as you’re not disrupting other people during the show, I’m cool,” Bonamassa said.

“If they want to spend the entire night videotaping the whole show and go to the doctor the next day and be treated for carpal tunnel and some sort of nerve damage, then that’s up to them.

“I’m all about people having fun at the show, there shouldn’t be this ‘us and them’; I don’t really buy into that.

“There’s a happy medium, and as long as someone isn’t disrupting other peoples’ experience of the show, I am totally fine with whatever they want to do.”

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