2024 Year in Review: Sicilian virtuoso Matteo Mancuso made an appearance with Joe Bonamassa and his band in April, guesting on Breaking Up Somebody’s Home to a delighted crowd in Berlin.
JoBo laughingly shrugged at the notion of trying to keep up with the whiz kid on stage with him and had been kind enough to give him a pep talk before the performance.
“Joe was great at making me comfortable – he’s such a nice guy,” Mancuso told us a few months after, while also giving us the background on his latest track, Paul Position.
The new song had originally been composed as a demo for the Bacci baritone Mancuso had been using and ended up loosely serving as a tribute to Mr. Big/Racer X shred master Paul Gilbert, hence the name.
The guitarist was also quick to point out that his endorsement deal with Yamaha remains very much intact, and the Bacci partnership is exclusively for baritone models – which Yamaha no longer make.
“I loved working with David Gilmour… but that was an uneasy collaboration”: Pete Townshend admits he’s not a natural collaborator – even with bandmates and fellow guitar heroes
“This guy kept calling saying, ‘I’ve never been in a band before, but I’m the best guitarist ever.’ When I heard him play it was like a fire from heaven”: The life and times of Killing Joke visionary Geordie Walker – the guitar hero’s guitar hero
![[from left] George Harrison with his Gretsch Country Gentleman, Norman Harris of Norman's Rare Guitars holds a gold-top Les Paul, John Fogerty with his legendary 1969 Rickenbacker](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TuH3nuhn9etqjdn5sy4ntW-840-80.jpg.webp)
