Joe Bonamassa and Brad Paisley exchange blues and country licks in this fiery onstage guitar duel for Nashville’s 4th of July celebrations

Brad Paisley invited Joe Bonamassa along for an electric guitar-heavy guest spot during his headline set at Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing 4th of July celebrations yesterday, and now you can watch footage of their live exchange below. 

The performance saw the bluesman share the stage not just with Paisley, but also dobro whiz Jerry Douglas and bluegrass stalwart Dan Tyminski. Following the show, Bonamassa took to Instagram to share a clip, shot from the side of the stage. 

“My greatest thanks to my friend and legend @bradpaisley for inviting me to sit in tonight at Nashville's Fourth of July,” wrote Bonamassa in the accompanying caption. “What an honor to share the stage with him and his amazing band featuring legends like @dantyminski and @jerrydouglas.”

The clip shows Paisley – armed with a Butterscotch Fender Telecaster – and Bonamassa (with a Gibson Les Paul) pulling out a grab-bag of lead licks and tricks cribbed from the worlds of blues, rock and country playing. The band then breaks off and the two are left trading lines before Paisley’s cue brings the spectacular proceedings to their inevitable close. 

The guest spot was a sequel of sorts as Paisley and Bonamassa previously performed together at the event back in 2021. 

That year’s spot was a distinctly bluegrass-style workout, full of fast picking and major scale runs, whereas this time the two contemporary guitar icons strayed deep into blues and rock territory – something the Nashville crowd seems more than happy to indulge, at least for a guest spot.

Apparently, that’s not always been the case for Bonamassa in Nashville. The blues rock icon interviewed Paisley on his Live From Nerdville show around the time of that previous appearance, back in 2021, and discussed a time he performed at the legendary Grand Ole Opry.

“They didn’t know what to expect,” caveated Bonamassa after Paisley asked him how it went. 

“I was invited by Chase Bryant, who said, ‘Hey man, come play on this tune!’ I’m like, ‘OK!’ So I grab a Les Paul and plug it into one of those Silverface Deluxes and I set it all to ‘stun’ – and I’m not sure if they were used to that kind of behavior… They didn’t kick me off, but they haven’t invited me back!”

Speaking of Bonamassa’s Live From Nerdville interviews, his recent chat with Norm Harris of Norman’s Rare Guitars yielded an interesting tale: namely that Harris initially told the makers of Back To The Future to use a Fender Strat instead of the iconic (and historically inaccurate) Gibson ES-345 for the film's famous Johnny B. Goode scene.