Smokin ' Guitar with Joe Robinson by Doug Doppler
photos by Mark Kimura, Kimura Productions
If you’ re on Instagram chances are you saw some of the amazing clips Joe shot during soundcheck on his recent US tour opening for Tommy Emmanuel. A singer, songwriter, and guitarists’ guitarist,“ Smokin’” Joe Robinson has all the goods. When he was sixteen he won Australia’ s Got Talent and bagged the $ 250,000 grand prize in the process. With over 2,000 concerts in twenty countries this twentyfive year old has more experience than most of us will get in a lifetime! If by chance you haven’ t seen or heard Joe play, we strongly encourage you to check out the companion videos for this story!
[ CG ] Considering you’ re just twenty-five, you’ ve already had a pretty amazing career. Tell us a bit about how you got started.
[ Joe Robinson ] I grew up in a very small town in Australia, and started touring when I was eleven years old. This has been my life, the fact that I’ ve played 2,000 shows since I was eleven, it kind of tells my story in a way that feels like the most honest way to say it for me.
[ CG ] So, did you buy your mom a vacuum cleaner with the money you won from Australia’ s Got Talent?
[ Joe ] I’ ll go you even one better! My mom got a vacuum cleaner endorsement from a vacuum cleaner company!
[ CG ] So was that technically your first endorsement?
[ Joe ] Actually, I had endorsements with Fender and Maton from age fourteen. I had a few guitar endorsements before the vacuum cleaner deal( laughs).
[ CG ] I think one of the things people love most about your playing is the fact that you play with incredible maturity, but at the same time in never feels like you’ re holding back. Were there any things you did when you were starting out that contributed to this?
[ Joe ] I hung out with a lot of older musicians who I learned from, and I made it a point to study great people. My parents played in bands, so I was around a lot of musicians. From the moment I started playing guitar I developed this thirst for understanding the instrument and learning as much about it as I could, and so when I would be around someone who was a guitarist and had been playing in blues and rock bands for thirty years, I would sit down with them and say,“ How do you do this? How do you do that? Show me a lick, and show me a chord that you like!” I was just so hungry to learn from people. I wasn’ t shy about approaching people and asking if I could sit in, or asking if I could hang out and jam with them after the gig.
I look at someone like Tommy Emmanuel, who I just spent three weeks on the road with, and he’ s been a mentor to me since a very young age. I have learned so much from being around him, and when I was on the road I realized just how much of my musical knowledge and understanding of music comes from what I
32 Jul � Aug 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com