Nuno Bettencourt’s love for Eddie Van Halen is well known, but at a recent Extreme show, he shone a light on his very first guitar hero – his brother, “King Luis the 1st.”
The super shredder has often spoken about his love and admiration for Van Halen, but it turns out his brother inspired him long before that obsession began. That’s why Nuno brought him out to tackle the leads on Extreme’s Get the Funk Out at Ormeau Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland, on June 26.
Posting a clip of the properly heartwarming performance on his socials, Bettencourt declared: “Long before King Edward, there was King Luis the 1st.”
“Yes, Edward, [Jimmy] Page, [Brian] May, and many more have influenced me as a player,” he says. But it was his brother – “My first true guitar hero” – who “created me as a player.”
“Without his presence and mind-blowing talent, I wouldn’t have picked up the instrument in the first place,” Bettencourt writes.
Playing a Nuno Guitars S-type – what else? – the other Bettencourt Brother shows some serious chops across the performance, with the tapping passage at the end particularly tasty. We aren't surprised, though. Luis Bettencourt is a virtuoso in his own right, with a number of solo records under his belt.
It turns out that it was Luis’ 70th birthday, and what a way to celebrate it was.
After recently raving about an up-and-coming guitarist that everyone needs to hear, Nuno has turned his praise to his brother.
“His fire, passion, speed, singing, and his compositions shaped me and molded me from the ground up,” Bettencourt purrs. “I wanted to be like him and play like him.
“He set the stage for me in a way that no matter what influences came along later, they were all built on his foundation and DNA.”
The younger Bettencourt sibling has also recently taken to socials to pay tribute to Yngwie Malmsteen’s playing, and reflected on the Extreme song that changed his life overnight.
