“The worst-case scenario is if you just hang the guitar on the wall and brag to your rich buddies that you bought it. These things are tools to make music”: Joe Bonamassa plays Rory Gallagher's 1959 Esquire, calling him “one of my guitar heroes”

Joe Bonamassa with Rory Gallagher's '59 Esquire.

As Rory Gallagher's guitars head to auction this October, Joe Bonamassa has paid tribute to the Irish blues-rock legend with a retrospective on his influential career, including a hands-on session with Gallagher's heavily-modded '59 Esquire

“I grew up in a very blue-collar part of the world, and my father showed me a Rory Gallagher record. It was called Live in Europe,” says Bonamassa in a new Guitarist interview.