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Joe Bonamassa is undoubtedly most famous for his killer blues rock soloing, but he's also a master of heavy, grooving riffs as the title track from 2009's 'The Ballad of John Henry' proves. Interview: James Uings.

How do you feel about 'The Ballad Of John Henry' coming 12th in Total Guitar's 50 Greatest Riffs Of The Decade poll?

"Did it? That's so cool, it really is! I've never been known as a riff kind of artist. My most notable songs aren't riff-orientated; in fact, 'John Henry' is probably the only one that is."

Are you surprised you beat out riff heavy acts like AC/DC and Metallica?

"I'm really shocked I made the list. There does seem to be a new generation of blues guys younger than me coming through. They seem to be making a career out of it. So it's good to see young kids getting into the blues."

How did the song come about?

"It was written in about an hour. I needed something upbeat and heavy to open the record. We also didn't have a title track, so I was really under the gun!"

What do remember about writing the riff?

"When I write for an album, I'll always have about 30 different types of instrument around me. I set them up in a small room with my computer running GarageBand, which is always set to record. I have a Marshall and a Fender amp: one for clean, one for dirty. Then whatever I feel like plugging into I can plug into right away. I'd just got involved with Musicman guitars and they'd just sent me over a few different baritone guitars. One was a six-string bass, which I used on another track, and the other one was a John Petrucci baritone guitar. When you think of a blues guitarist you don't think of them using a Petrucci model, but I plugged it in and started playing a few notes and thought, 'That's pretty cool'. I started singing along and made up a few lines over it. After about five minutes I listened back to what I'd recorded. It wasn't like a 'divine intervention' thing, where the whole track wrote itself, but I'd say three quarters of it was there in this 'off the top of my head, ramblings of a madman' demo!"

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