Blues musician Joe Bonamassa first picked up the guitar at age four and was playing clubs by age 12, which led to a gig opening for legendary bluesman B.B. King. ∙ In 2009, he dueted with his hero Eric Clapton on a cover of Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Further On Up the Road,” and he teamed up with Paul Rodgers on two Bad Company songs in 2011. ∙ Bonamassa has been nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best Blues Album for his 2013 Beth Hart collaboration, Seesaw. ∙ He is a member of Black Country Communion, a blues-rock supergroup featuring one-time Deep Purple member Glenn Hughes and drummer Jason Bonham. ∙ Different Shades of Blue, his 2014 LP, debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart and featured a song cowritten by Journey’s Jonathan Cain. ∙ In 2017, he won B.B King Entertainer of the Year and Best Instrumentalist - Guitar at the annual Blues Music Awards. ∙ He’s landed more albums on Billboard’s Blues chart than any other musician—a total of 23 as of the 20th anniversary reissue of his debut album, A New Day Now.