Jonny Lang – HuffPost 4.26.10

[Note: This is taken from my first interview with Jonny Lang when I wasn’t yet asking the question, ‘What advice do you have for new artists.” But the following contains inspirational information that may be useful to new artists.]

Mike Ragogna: Do you prefer playing live or working in the studio? You seem to do an equal amount of both.

Jonny Lang: Yeah man. They’re both different, you know, I like them both. I think at one time, I would have said I like playing live better. But I think that at this point, I like them both in different ways, you know.

MR: What’s your axe lately?

JL: I’ve been playing a lot more Les Paul these days than I ever have. I’m starting to like my Les Paul, so it’s pretty much between that and the Tele.

MR: Nice. Do you have any current guitar sponsorships?

JL: I’ve been with Fender for years and years, but no, nothing right now.

MR: You’ve toured with The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, B.B. King, Jeff Beck…everybody. Who are some of your favorite artists?

JL: Probably my favorite artists to listen to James Taylor, Stevie Wonder–I haven’t gone back in a really long time and really listened to them–my first guitar influences. It’s been awhile since I revisited that. I’ve been getting into different gospel artists; Aretha Franklin is someone I’ve been listening to a lot of. Not too long ago, she came out with all that unreleased stuff that nobody’s ever heard. I’ve been listening to that a lot as well.

MR: Who were your musical influences?

JL: B.B. King, Albert Collins, and Albert King were probably my three biggest influences.

MR: Which songs of theirs or which songs, in general, were your favorites?

JL: Like influential type songs, you mean?

MR: Yeah, and even favorite songs. Sometimes a favorite isn’t influential.

JL: From those guys, when I was starting out, I think stuff I studied the most was “Gambler’s Blues” which is B.B. King’s. There’s a song off Albert King’s, I think it’s called “Blues Power” that he did live at the Fillmore. And then, you know, basically any song off of Albert Collins Ice Pickin’ record. Those are the things I listened to the most probably when I was learning guitar.