“You don’t want your favorite tone. The secret is to set your gain, roll your volume back and challenge yourself to play cleaner”: Joe Bonamassa on defying the blues police, his greatest tone discoveries and why you’re not a success until you’re a meme

Joe Bonamassa in full stage wear of suit and shade plays a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard onstage in Birmingham.

In the past 25 years, Joe Bonamassa has dropped 16 studio records. That’s a lot of music, meaning it’s hard to keep things fresh – and his latest, Breakthrough, despite its title, doesn’t even try to break new ground.

The truth is, it doesn’t have to; it just needs to reflect the type of music Bonamassa likes to create, which tends to rub about half the hardcore blues community the wrong way – not that Bonamassa cares.