ORIANTHI On Rumours That PRINCE Tried To "Steal" Her From ALICE COOPER - "He Wanted To Produce My First Album But The Label Said No"

October 11, 2020, 3 years ago

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ORIANTHI On Rumours That PRINCE Tried To "Steal" Her From ALICE COOPER - "He Wanted To Produce My First Album But The Label Said No"

Platinum-selling recording artist and world class guitarist, Orianthi, will release of her new album, O, on November 6 via Frontiers Music Srl. This will be Orianthi's first new studio album in seven years and her first new music as a solo artist in six years.

During a conversation with Ultimate Guitar's Justin Beckner, Orianthi talked about jamming with Prince but not being able to work with him in the studio. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

UG: I'm from Minnesota, so I've got to bring this up... I had heard that while you were with Alice Cooper, Prince kept trying to "steal" you and that he would call you quite regularly. Is that true?

Orianthi: "Yeah, well, I knew Prince since like 2007. He called me... I don't know how he got my number... the day after he played the Super Bowl. It was a call from a private number and it was Prince and he was like, 'Hi Ori, this is Prince...' I thought it was my friend playing a prank on me so I was about to hang up and he said it really was him. He said he had seen my YouTube videos and he was coming into LA to the Record Plant the next day and he was bringing Sheila E, and wanted to jam with me for a few hours.

So I met him at The Record Plant with Sheila E and we ended up jamming. He played bass, I played guitar, and Sheila played drums. We jammed for like four hours and he wanted to produce my first album but the label said no. So it was kind of a weird situation. It was a whirlwind - I got to hang out with him for four or five days. He went to the Roosevelt Hotel and jammed in the lobby at like 5 AM with all these people... Penelope Cruz was there... it was like a celebrity fest. It was crazy. Honestly, it was such a wild time.

He would randomly call me from a private number two or three times a year, just to check in. I'd be on the tour bus with Alice Cooper and he'd be like, 'Who was that?' and I'd tell him it was Prince and he'd say, 'What!?!' He just had the greatest sense of humor. He was just such an inspirational musician and he always kept this childlike energy and enthusiasm for music and he just never stopped creating. I knew a lot of people who knew him, too, and it's just unfortunate that we've now lost Bowie, we've lost Prince, we've lost so many innovators."

UG: Why did the label say no to Prince producing your record?

Orianthi: "I don't know the answer to that question. I wish I did know. At the time, I was signed to a major label (Geffen) and they didn't want that to happen. I guess when you sign a major deal, you're at the mercy of the label and it was their choice for me to go with someone else. Obviously, Howard Benson is an incredible producer and it was great to work with him, but Prince wanted to do some songs with me and they just didn't think that was the right idea at the time."

Read more here.

Pre-order Orianthi's new album here. Get autographed bundles at the US or EU stores, here.

Orianthi recently dropped the second single and video, for the track "Impulsive" Watch the clip below.

"'Impulsive' is a fun track, I wrote it pretty fast with my friend and producer Marti Frederiksen. The video was was a blast to make at the Dollhouse in Los Angeles with the great director Jim Louvau," says Orianthi.

"The album O is a very inspired album... kept things pretty raw and didn't overthink it. Marti [Frederiksen, producer, mixer, songwriter] and I wanted to create a unique sound and vibe with every track and we experimented a lot with synths and different guitar tones. Lyrically, a lot of this record comes from life experience and other people’s stories. It’s going to be so fun to play these songs live!," says Orianthi.

In addition to her album release with Frontiers this fall, Orianthi also has a signature acoustic guitar being released in partnership with Gibson Guitars with first-of-its-kind engineering that will be revealed later this year.

Tracklisting:

"Contagious"
"Sinners Hymn"
"Rescue Me"
"Blow"
"Sorry"
"Crawling Out Of The Dark"
"Impulsive"
"Streams Of Consciousness"
"Company"
"Moonwalker"

"Sinners Hymn" lyric video:



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