Black Country Communion’s Joe Bonamassa Claims Glenn Hughes Used Press to Bully Him

Black Country Communion continue to have their issues, and guitarist Joe Bonamassa is clearing the air publicly, claiming that singer Glenn Hughes portrayed him in a negative light in interviews as a way to "bully" him to alter his career plans.

Hughes has made it clear in interviews that he took on a larger role with the band's latest album and also expressed his concern about being able to promote the disc properly while Bonamassa continues support of his own solo record. The guitarist hasn't taken kindly to the comments and admits that Hughes making his concerns public caught him by surprise.

He tells Music Radar, "The weird thing is, I heard all about this nonsense second-hand. You know what I mean? I'd look on Blabbermouth and I'd see 'Glenn Hughes…' and I'd be like, 'Oh!,' cause I knew he was doing the press tour. See, going into making the record, I had a lot on the table, a real whirlwind of activity. But everybody knew that was the deal for me. These were all facts on the table and everybody knew that and we had a great time making the record. The impetus of the songs was really on Glenn's shoulders and he was happy to take the responsibility. He came up with some good songs."

Bonamassa says he was surprised to see the singer laying blame on him especially because he explained his situation prior to the band even recording their album. He adds, "I'm doing what I said I was going to do for the last three years, and now because somebody changes his mind, that's now my fault? At first it didn't really faze me. You know, journalists like to take liberties. They do like to start s---. But then it's time and time again, and then I read the 'Classic Rock' article and it went from slightly annoying to supremely not cool."

The guitarist says it really hit him hard when he began receiving e-mails from fans blaming him for the band's lack of touring. He adds that he was never contacted by Hughes to work things out privately, but rather than get upset, he's decided that there needs to be some time to chill out rather than overreact and break up the band. He concluded, "I still have a lot of love for Glenn Hughes. I still have a lot of love for Jason [Bonham] and Derek [Sherinian], and I feel sorry for Jason and Derek -- they got caught up in this thing unfairly."

As for the future, Bonamassa says, "If everybody gets on the phone or gets in a room -- and most likely it's going to have to be me and Glenn to hash this thing out -- then I don't rule out ever doing it again, at all. I'm actually particularly proud of this facet of my career. I just rule out doing it in the short term and next year, because at the end of the day, I'm not going to be bullied into doing something that was never on the table from day one because some cat changes his mind and figures out it's the best thing he's got going on."