Richie Sambora and Orianthi have been a couple for a while now, but they haven’t actually released any recordings together.
That’s about to change. The guitarists are gearing up to release their debut album, and they’ve recorded a teaser video to give fans a preview. For the video, they selected the Sonny and Cher hit “I Got You Babe,” currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.
“The album has a lot of duets, songs that Richie sings, songs that I sing,” Orianthi says. “It’s a little Fleetwood Mac in parts, there’s so many different sounds. It’s very diverse.”“It’s basically Sonny and Cher on steroids,” Sambora told Billboard last February. “We looked back on our career and saw the different styles of music that we did and, when you make a record, obviously, you have to own it. After 40 years in this business I know if we owned it or not.”
Both Orianthi and Sambora have celebrated histories with previous acts. Sambora spent 30 years as lead guitarist in Bon Jovi, while Orianthi has been a guitarist in backing groups for Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper and Prince. Together, they hope to show the music world another side of what they can do.
“There’s not a lot of male/female duos going on in the world right now—especially two guitar players like us two,” Sambora tells News.com.au.
“First of all, the world doesn’t know how good Ori sings and writes. The world knows how amazing a guitarist she is, but she’s more amazing than people think.
“Then on the other hand you’ve got me. I’m just Jon Bon Jovi’s sideman for most people. That’s what they know me as.
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“Now we’re together and we’re doing something that means something. We’ve got something to prove to people—we can do this too. Together I think we’ve reached something that is a new sound.”
The duo first announced they were working on an album in February 2015 via posts on their respective Facebook pages. Check out the teaser below. We’ve also included a video of the two performing “Bad Company” and Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” in São Paulo on July 8, 2016. Below that you can find the much-viewed video of Sambora and Orianthi jamming on vintage guitars during a 2015 visit to Norman’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, California.
Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.
