RICHIE SAMBORA Talks Working With ORIANTHI - "On Any Given Night She's Just The Best Guitar Player On The Planet"

February 28, 2015, 9 years ago

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RICHIE SAMBORA Talks Working With ORIANTHI - "On Any Given Night She's Just The Best Guitar Player On The Planet"

Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora is featured in a new interview with Brekke Fletcher at The Wall Street Journal. He discusses his friendship with late guitar legend Les Paul, jamming with Dolly Parton at Glastonbury, and working with former Alice Cooper guitarist Orianthi. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: Tell me about playing with Orianthi.

Sambora: "First of all we have a chemistry that is incredible. I’ve never ran into this in my life. We just play and sing so well together. There’s this perception in the public: Richie Sambora was Bon Jovi’s a side guy. And Ori was Michael Jackson’s side guy."

"She was a child prodigy and is a virtuoso. I know for a fact that she’s the female guitar player on the planet, but on any given night, she’s just the best guitar player on the planet.  We toured the world together during the last year. We did a lot of festivals and headlined a bunch of theaters. Everything was sold out, and we didn’t even have product to sell. Now we’re in the studio. We’ll have a record, and we’ll tour the world again."

Q: What songs are you recording?

Sambora: "I have 60 songs. I’ve been writing them for months. I knew we needed to get next to each other  in the studio and see where we were going with this. The first 20 songs you’re kind of leaning on what you know, just to get it going. Then we kind of struck a nerve, and now we know what the sound is going to be. She’s got all the chops and she can sing. And when we sing together, it’s very compelling."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Sambora and Orianthi toured together in Europe during the summer of 2014. In an interview with the UK's Rock Radio NI, Orianthi talked about Sambora's skills, confirms that they have over 30 songs written and agrees with the description "Fleetwood Mac on steroids". She also talks about Alice Cooper and her pride at being asked to perform at Kennedy Centre tribute to Carlos Santana in December 2013.

An excerpt follows:

Q: You’ve been on tour now with Richie for a few months, how did you feel stepping in to play Bon Jovi tracks in front of what can be a fiercely loyal fan base.

A: "Yeah, I’m just doing my thing you know. I always just do that. You know I used to play Bon Jovi songs when I was in a covers band. It’s just great to get up there with an amazing musician, singer and performer like Richie. He does he own versions that are completely different from what it was like. He takes on a new life - he's more blues based. He just sings and plays his arse off every night. It’s awesome to be up there and inspiring because I’m up there because he’s on fire. When you watch like Stevie Ray get up live at El Mocambo and he plays and he’s got that fire. We could jam until the cows come home."

Q: There’s lot of videos of you both now on YouTube and you just seem to be having so much fun with it all.

A: "Yeah, definitely. I think there’s like a 12 or 13 minute version of 'Voodoo Child'. We could just jam for about 30 minutes. It’s just so much fun. That’s what is missing in music these days, that freedom. I grew up listening to Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Carlos Santana and watching Woodstock. Watching those festivals where you didn’t have time to play 20 songs, everything like 'Stairway To Heaven' went on forever, so orchestrators got big guitar parts soloed and everything. It’s more interesting. Music should get back to that."

Read the complete interview at this location.

Richie Sambora - Facebook

Orianthi - Facebook

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