Famed Rock Guitarist Reveals Surprising Friendship with Late Patrick Stewart

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Patrick Stewart attends the 84th Annual Peabody Awards at Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel on June 09, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.

Friends, fans and colleagues have all been paying tribute to the late Patrick Stewart, who passed away at age 86 on October 29.

Among them is guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who’s performed with a who’s who of rock and blues royalty, ranging from B.B. King to Eric Clapton to Buddy Guy.

The musician took to social media to share the surprising connection that he shared with the late “Star Trek” icon.

A Friend and Neighbor

“This is a huge loss,” Bonamassa wrote in an Instagram post, accompanying a photo of Sir Patrick.

“As a massive fan of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ I grew up knowing him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. It was my favorite show. Patrick Stewart was an actor’s actor that went way beyond ‘Star Trek,'” Bonamassa wrote

He also revealed the personal relationship that he and Stewart shared.

“On a personal note: In a former life Patrick was a neighbor of mine,” Bonamassa added.

“He lived in the house across the street from me and was the nicest, most humble movie star I have ever encountered,” the guitarist continued.

“He always made a point to say hello and ask me how the music business was,” Bonamassa added. “I would apologize for the loud guitar playing and we would have a laugh. Rest in peace, Sir.”

Sir Ian McKellen Pays Tribute

Of course, Bonamassa’s tribute to Stewart was one of many.

Also weighing in was the late actor’s “X-Men” co-star and longtime theater colleague, Ian McKellen.

“Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love,” wrote McKellen in his touching tribute via Instagram.

“We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions. My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in ‘Star Trek’. ‘But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk — getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?’ Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did for not just his devoted Trekkies but film and theatre audiences, who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway,” McKellen continued.

“America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin. But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire,” shared McKellen, adding, “His farewell performance in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is yet to be seen.”