Joe Bonamassa has paid tribute to Tim Curry, the renowned English actor and singer who has died at the age of 80.
Curry was best known for portraying the flamboyant Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 movie musical The Rocky Horror Show, as well as for playing a wide range of dynamic roles both onscreen and onstage.
Shortly after the movie was released, Curry launched a music career, releasing his debut album, Read My Lips, in 1978. Among the tracks on the record is Sloe Gin, which Bonamassa later covered on his 2007 album of the same name.
“Rest in Peace Tim Curry,” writes Joe Bonamassa on social media. “Many do not know that Tim cut the original version of Sloe Gin on his debut album Read my Lips in 1978. The song was composed by Bob Ezrin and Michael Kamen.
“20 years ago, [producer] Kevin Shirley rang me and said he found the perfect desperate blues song for me. He was right and our version changed my career trajectory forever. Tim's version was bold, beautiful and featured the mastery of Dick Wagner on guitar.”
Wielding one of his many Les Pauls, against a backdrop of Fender stacks, Bonamassa gave a heartfelt rendition of Sloe Gin – a song which remains one of his biggest hits to this day.
“That song initially came to me via [producer] Kevin Shirley who was born in South Africa,” Joe Bonamassa previously told Total Guitar. “It was a hit there but nowhere else.
“I have to give a special shout out to Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner who played on the original version. They were basically Bob Ezrin’s ringers… What you hear on the record and how we play it live are two different things. That song’s got a life of its own. I’m thrilled with that… sometimes we just have to play it!”
Bonamassa’s solo on Sloe Gin, played with incredible restraint and intensity, is one of the bluesman’s signature solos, coming 42nd in Total Guitar’s 2020 poll of the greatest guitar solos of all time. It perhaps comes as no surprise, then, that it remains part of his setlist to this day.
“The first time I played it, people applauded like they knew the song. And they didn’t know the song, it just sounded familiar. That was a very cool thing. That song has been with me for 20 years now.”
