That time I took the fabled Ear of Newt guitar to get signed by Joe Bonamassa in Vancouver

By Steve Newton

On May 11, 2015, I dragged my Ear of Newt guitar–the plexiglass Raven showcased on this website’s beautiful banner–out of retirement down in the basement and took it to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre to get it signed by American guitar hero Joe Bonamassa.

I’d done my third interview with Bonamassa two weeks earlier, and managed to wangle a couple of free passes to his “meet and greet”. My good rockin’ buddy “Honest” Todd Salive–former roadie and head of security for local hard-rock band Mad Duck–tagged along, in case somebody tried to snatch the prized Ear of Newt guitar and run off with it.

Before the show we scored our yellow wristbands and lined up with the paying customers to get a quick photo and a few words with Joe. He scribbled his autograph on the back of my souvenir axe–which you can read the history of here–joining the likes of such illustrious pickers as Robin Trower, Ronnie Montrose, Steve Morse, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Buddy Guy, Rick Derringer, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and B.B. King.

To hear the full audio of my interviews with Joe Bonamassa and all the other guitarists mentioned above subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 650 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with musicians since 1982.