Richie Sambora has looked back on the recovery of his long-lost Gibson Explorer, revealing he once hired a private investigator to get his early Bon Jovi era electric guitar back.

It’s one of 2026’s most heartwarming guitar stories. After his prized possession was stolen from a warehouse back in 1985, Sambora was reunited with his original 1976 Explorer, bringing a 41-year mystery to a happy ending.

There were a few bumps along the road, though. Before it was returned to him via Matthieu Lucas of Matt’s Guitar Shop, Sambora decided to take matters into his own hands, when the Explorer ended up at a Guitar Center.

“The record company had to lend us money to buy new equipment and we just went and did it,” Sambora tells People of the stolen guitar. “So obviously what happened in my career happened in my career, it was fantastic.

“And about 10 years ago, I get a call from Guitar Center in New Jersey. I'm staying at my mom's, and they go, ‘Your Explorer was in here. We just sold it to some guy.'”

According to People, Sambora called the buyer and offered him double what he paid for the guitar to get it back. Apparently, he never heard back, so he went one step further: he hired a private investigator to help with the hunt.

Eventually, Lucas came across the Explorer while going about his usual business and thought it looked eerily familiar. As Lucas told Guitar World last year, he bought the guitar on the spot, and sent a picture to Richie to confirm if his suspicions were true.

And they were true, as Sambora remembers: “He sent me a picture and I go, ‘Get the f--k out of here. You got it.’ He goes, ‘I knew it was yours. I bought it immediately for you.' So that was really, really cool of him.”

Sambora was thankful for Lucas’ intervention. He used the Explorer extensively in his early days with Bon Jovi, playing it on the band’s self-titled debut and 7800° Fahrenheit. With the help of luthier Phil Petillo, Sambora added a few mods of his own, including the star inlays.

“I said to myself, ‘This is the guitar that I can make talk.' When I wanted to be a badass, that's what I took out,” Sambora tells People of the Explorer. “It easily was the best guitar I owned, and the specs were mine. So basically it was the first Richie Sambora custom model.

“It was f---ing trippy as s--t,” he adds of being reunited with his instrument. “I put it on, I started to play it. It seemed like it was untouched. It's almost in perfect shape.”

Last year, Lucas recounted his recovery of Sambora’s Explorer, and told Guitar World how he helped get the former Bon Jovi guitarist’s prized possession back in his hands.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that, if you’re a touring guitarist, you’re bound to get one or more of your guitars stolen at some point. These tools of their trade end up disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again, with their owners still mourning their loss decades later.

In Richie Sambora’s case, his decades-long career means he has boundless guitar anecdotes – including ones of the robbery kind. But now, one of his early-year guitars, an original 1976 Gibson Explorer, has finally been tracked down.

The Explorer was his main squeeze in those early Bon Jovi days, and the first “real” guitar he bought in his late teens. Sambora spent around three years customizing and modding it – including fitting it with a Floyd Rose – putting everything he had into the guitar, or as he aptly puts it, “All the bread he had at the time.”

The Explorer was stolen from a warehouse in 1985, when Bon Jovi were touring overseas, and couldn't be tracked down – until now.

Matthieu Lucas, from Paris’ vintage and artist guitar emporium, Matt's Guitar Shop, was going about his usual business – buying and selling high-value guitars – when he came across one that suspiciously looked like Sambora's long-lost Gibson.

“I bought this guitar from somebody who said he was from Michigan and sold it as Richie’s original Explorer,” Lucas tells Guitar World.

“It’s the first time I have been offered such a Bon Jovi guitar as [typically], the early Bon Jovi guitars never come up for sale,” he goes on to explain. “We agreed on a price, and I bought the guitar. When I opened the case, I forwarded a few photos to my friend Richie [Sambora] and his guitar tech extraordinaire, Takumi, to see if they had more info.

“What I learned then was that it was stolen, and I immediately called Richie’s team to give Richie his sword back.”

A few weeks later, Lucas and his team flew to New Jersey, Explorer in hand, to give it back to its rightful owner.

“We opened the case, and I gave him the guitar. He grabbed the neck and said, ‘Oh yes, that's mine!’ I had to make it right and make sure Richie got this guitar back.” In fact, Lucas can exclusively reveal that, “It will be the first guitar he will use on stage when he gets back to it.

“Richie played everything on this guitar and composed the majority of Bon Jovi’s hit songs on it, so I am so glad he got it back now,” he concludes.

Last year, Sambora shared that he was recovering from a “gruesome” injury that has delayed his return to the stage.

This month, Bought & Sold gets a power-up as the high-voltage Phil X joins Guitarist. He’s here to talk about his life in guitars, from the instruments he made his bones on to the Gibson signature guitar that has been long in development but maybe – just maybe – is about to be released soon.

The Bon Jovi lead guitarist will be answering the big philosophical questions, too, around electric guitar pickup preferences, and the value of a cheap electric guitar versus a budget amp. Let’s get started…

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?

I was 11 and I was washing dishes at my dad’s restaurant, saving my money. My dad was like, ‘Hey, you find a guitar and we’ll split it. Whatever you have, I’ll match.’ So I took my 175 bucks, he matched that and we went to this weird guy’s apartment and bought a secondhand Strat.

Right now, that Strat is hanging up in my friend’s bar in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. One thing that Edward Van Halen instilled in me was that you can enjoy and ruin. So that guitar went through four or five different necks, three or four different Floyd Roses, and like 75 pickups [laughs].

As I honed my craft as a player, I also honed my craft as a tinkerer of guitars. I painted it many times. It went through many things and it’s pretty crazy now that I think of it. I feel like I dug that guitar way more because I put my own money into it, you know? I feel like it wasn’t just handed to me.

It’s something I worked hard for and I appreciated more. That gets missed a lot these days. You know, when people are like, ‘Man, I saw that you got a new pedal setup. But it’s so expensive and I can’t afford it.’ I’m like, ‘Go cut some lawns, man.’ I washed dishes at my dad’s restaurant – and that was gross!

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

Oh, wow… this is going to be a good part of the story. There was a 1979 Stratocaster that I found in Florida in a vintage shop. And I bought it because it reminded me of that first Strat I told you about.

The other thing is that when I put it in my hand, I felt like I was 11 again. It was the exact same neck, which is incredible, right? I was like, ‘What do you want for this?’ He goes, ‘Well, it’s this much… but you’re Phil X, so I’ll give you a deal.’ [laughs]

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying a guitar?

There’s always a bargain to be had, you know? Especially if you walk in and people say, like, ‘Hey, man, would you do a video for the store?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I really can’t because I’m under contract with…’ But, for me, it’s funny – I’ve had endorsements for so long, and some of the best guitars I’ve owned have been free!

But, really, the truly special one is the one I’m working on with Gibson, which is a signature SG, so my favourite guitar right now is prototype number three. In Bon Jovi, I have to play, like, eight or 10 guitars because there’s different tunings and sounds. I have that SG in rehearsals and I’ll pick it up and go, ‘Oh, my God… this guitar just feels like home.’

We made the body an eighth of an inch thicker for me because I’m a bigger guy. And we put in a ’57 Goldtop neck profile on it. And you can’t beat that bargain!

Have you ever sold a guitar that you now intensely regret letting go?

There was a 1964 SG Junior that I got and I loved it. A guy offered me way more than I paid for it and it was too hard to pass up the opportunity, so I let it go and then immediately regretted the whole thing.

Oh, man, another one goes back years to when I was young. My dad brought home some really, really weird guitars – one was a Vox [V251] Organ Guitar.

When I moved to LA in ’97, about a year later in ’98, it was getting really hard to pay the rent and I was working weird jobs. But no matter how many weird jobs I had, I didn’t have the rent for February, so I sold that Organ Guitar. That one really hurt.

What’s your best buying tip for anyone looking for their ultimate guitar?

Play as many guitars as you possibly can. Even if you want to play a Les Paul or a Tele, play 10 Les Pauls and 10 Teles. Whatever you want to get, it’s not going to be the first one you pick up. Maybe you won’t like the colour, but you’ve got to hear it acoustically, and there should be mojo that you hear before you even plug it in.

There’s got to be something you feel in your hands where that guitar is screaming, ‘Take me home!’ That’s the true connection.

When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window (or browsed online) and what were you looking at?

There’s something about Flying Vs and Explorers that smack me in the face [laughs]. I have two Explorers and two Flying Vs, but they keep popping up! Man, I keep saying, ‘Oh, I gotta get that.’ [laughs]

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good electric guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch guitar amp?

You know, what’s in your hands is almost more important, but I think I’d have to get a better guitar and a cheaper amp. You can always get around on a cheaper amp or then go get a cheap pedal to make the cheap amp even better. But if you’re playing a really shitty guitar, you’re really limiting your progress.

If you could only use humbuckers or single coil pickups, which would it be, and why?

Well, I still categorise the P-90 as a single coil, so that would be the one. It would be the P-90 single coil because when the volume is on 10, you get rock ’n’ roll. And when you back it off to about 7, you could get Tele-ish, country-ish tones. And when you back it up to about 3 or 4, you get a beautiful, glassy clean sound.

Phil’s go-to rig

I’ve got an SG, for sure, especially that prototype that I was talking about. But I have another two SGs – one always has a P-90 in it, and one has a humbucker in it. Then my amp would be my [100-watt EL34-powered] Friedman X signature amp. And the pedal is my J Rockett PXO signature overdrive.

So that would be my go-to rig. I have all that stuff when I play with Bon Jovi and with The Drills; it’s my go-to for anything and everything.

• Pow! Right in the Kisser is out now via Frontiers.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

A student's nonchalant shredding has gone viral after she nailed Bon Jovi's '80s hit You Give Love a Bad Name during her valedictory.

Erin Phelan showcased her musical talents in front of a hall full of her schoolmates during the farewell ceremony, for which she played what looks to be Fender's Nebula Noir 70th Anniversary Player Strat. Slick tapping, screaming whammy bar harmonics, and lyric-imitating licks are all a part of Phelan's trick bag, and the video has since gathered widespread attention.

The clip was posted on her school’s official page and has gained over 41,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments. Her showcase was part of a school leavers' event, with the school drawing attention to the “iconic moment” the teenage shredder provided.

What’s perhaps most impressive, beyond the superlative showing of what she can do on an electric guitar and a pretty tasty tone, is just how at ease she looks while doing that. Phelan is locked in.

Some commenters have described her as “absolutely fearless” and praised her “great phrasing”, while another writes, “This kid does not know how good she is, and that's why this is so good.”

The future of shred guitar looks to be in safe hands. Alongside Phelan, 10-year-old Bay Melnick Virgolino recently made waves on America's Got Talent this year, and he's been benefiting from the coaching of ex-Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Youngster Maya Neelakantan – who has been praised by Adam Jones – also made a serious name for herself on the show in 2024.

There's also a nine-year-old who can play arpeggios at insane speeds despite being smaller than his electric guitar, while Tom Morello's son, Roman, has been melting faces on the road with his dad.

Shred legend Phil X built his reputation on YouTube, showcasing his astounding chops on a range of killer vintage guitars for Fretted Americana. As a direct result of that exposure, he was spotted by John Shanks, the longtime writing partner of Jon Bon Jovi.

When Bon Jovi’s longtime guitar partner Richie Sambora missed a handful of shows in 2011, Shanks suggested Phil as a temporary replacement. Fast forward two years, and X became a full-time member of the band, a position he’s held ever since.

Phil has also continued to record with his own outfit, Phil X & the Drills, who have just released POW! Right in the Kisser, a hook-filled, hard-hitting rock album that showcases X’s vocal and songwriting chops alongside his extraordinary six-string skills.

Many guitarists with your shred credentials would make albums with wall-to-wall soloing, but for you the song is clearly king.

“Yes, absolutely; I’m glad you noticed that. It’s always very much about the song for me. I never want to be gratuitous with my guitar playing.

“I do have my own unique style and I’m happy to utilize it where the song calls for it, but if you’re shredding all the time, it loses its impact. The solo has to take the song to another level.”

There are great tones all over the record. What were your go-to guitars and amps?

“I recorded the album over a really long period, so there are tracks from when I was with Yamaha and Framus and using their signature models; the more recent tracks were all done with a variety of Gibsons. The main amp at the core of my sound is my Friedman Phil X Signature head through a variety of different cabinets.”

Is there a Gibson signature guitar in the pipeline?

“It’s on the way – we’re working on it. [The delay is] my fault, as I keep changing things all the time. I think it will have two pickups, although I’m strongly associated with one-pickup guitars. That’s based on a realistic commercial perspective, as I think people would probably prefer to have the option. It’s going to be modeled on the look of an SG, and it’ll have 24 frets.”

One of your unique sonic signatures is your use of dissonance. It can be tricky to pull off sometimes, can’t it?

“Yeah, but I love it. I love throwing weird notes in there. It adds tension, but tempo is very important. What can sound cool at speed can sound a little bizarre when it’s slowed down, a bit like two cats fighting in a bag. I like to think I’m approaching the line of jazz without crossing it. [Laughs]”

Besides the obvious size of the venues, what are the key differences between going on the road with the Drills and Bon Jovi?

“I warm up differently before the shows. With the Drills I’ll run through the solos on Sunny Days and I Wish My Beer Was as Cold as Your Heart just to make sure those crazy riffs are working. For Bon Jovi, I run through the big, thematic solos. You really don’t want to mess those moments up. It’s the simple stuff that’ll kill you – especially when everyone’s recording it on their cell to put on YouTube. One bad moment will be there forever. [Laughs]”

• Pow! Right in the Kisser is out now via Frontiers
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

For more than 10 years, Phil X has been a mainstay in the touring circuit as Jon Bon Jovi's lead guitarist.

Aside from his main gig, Phil also records and tours with his own outfit, Phil X & the Drills. However, as he details in a new interview with Guitar World, the prep for the two gigs is considerably different – and the Bon Jovi gig comes with its own unique pressures.

“I warm up differently before the shows. With the Drills, I’ll run through the solos on Sunny Days and I Wish My Beer Was as Cold as Your Heart just to make sure those crazy riffs are working,” he observes.

“For Bon Jovi, I run through the big, thematic solos. You really don’t want to mess those moments up. It’s the simple stuff that’ll kill you – especially when everyone’s recording it on their cell to put on YouTube. One bad moment will be there forever!”

Speaking of killer warm-ups, Steve Morse recently gave his two cents about why warming up before a show is so crucial.

“There's technical practice, there's stretching, there's left-hand strength, right-hand strength, and I've got this condition that has developed from 50 years of playing,” he notes on The No Cover Charge Podcast, referring to his struggles with arthritis.

And there’s one guitarist who Morse claims has his warm-up routine surgically nailed down: “We did some shows with Dream Theater. One thing I love seeing is how John Petrucci will just sit down and do a warm-up, no matter what, even if you're talking to him, he's going to keep on,” he relates.

As for Phil X, the Bon Jovi guitarist has been spotted sporting an unidentified gold SG – complete with chrome-covered P-90s – on social media, which seems to hint that his long-rumored signature Gibson is almost here.

Wet Leg have established themselves as heavyweights of the British indie rock scene – and they've done so by slinging some rather unexpected guitars.

After wielding a Player Plus Meteora and an HSS Stratocaster in 2022, their breakout year, lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Rhian Teasdale pushed the boat out and has since been sporting an acrylic B.C. Rich Mockingbird on recent tours and festival appearances in support of their sophomore album, Moisturizer.

Now, lead guitarist Hester Chambers is revealing her go-to guitar, and it's another left-field choice for the genre – a Kramer Jersey Star, originally released as Richie Sambora's signature model in the late ’80s.

“I acquired it maybe a year ago, and if I'm honest, I don't know heaps about it,” Chambers tells Reverb.

“I don't know heaps about Bon Jovi. It's the first time I've ever used a Floyd Rose. It felt very scary for me at the time. Being like, ‘This guitar is not for me, but I can't put it down at the moment.’”

Original features such as the three humbuckers, pointy headstock, gold hardware, star-shaped fingerboard inlays, and, of course, the Floyd Rose locking tremolo were carried over to the more recent reissues, with the “Jersey Star” moniker serving as a nod to Sambora’s – and, by extension, Bon Jovi’s – New Jersey origins.

Reflecting on the release of his signature model with Kramer, Sambora told Vintage Guitar (via Vintage Kramer), “Dennis Berardi [one of Kramer's co-founders] was doing extremely well with Kramer at that point, thanks to Eddie Van Halen. We got to be friends, and he asked me if I wanted to do a model, and I said ‘Sure.’

“So I tried to put something together that would give me the dexterity I needed. It had stars on the fretboard, a Floyd Rose, and DiMarzio pickups. I played them every night, too. A guy named Rod Schoepher, who had also made me a few custom instruments, would fix them to my liking when they came out of the factory.”

In 2022, Chambers spoke to Guitar World about the band's unorthodox road to rock stardom – and how her co-guitarist, Rhian Teasdale, didn't know how to play guitar before starting Wet Leg.

It's no secret that Phil X has a signature guitar in the works, and if his most recent comments concerning the build are anything to go on, the project seems to be nearing completion – with a third prototype currently in action.

The Bon Jovi guitarist, who has previously worked with Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie, is set for a signature version of his favored Gibson SG model, though it's apparently going to have bit of vintage Les Paul swagger to make it a best-of-both-worlds hybrid.

“We made the body an eighth of an inch thicker for me because I’m a bigger guy,” he reveals in the new issue of Guitarist. “And we put in a ’57 Goldtop neck profile on it. You can’t beat that bargain!”

After two initial prototypes, he hints that it’s a case of third time lucky.

“It’s funny – I’ve had endorsements for so long, and some of the best guitars I’ve owned have been free!” he reflects. “But, really, the truly special one is the one I’m working on with Gibson, which is a signature SG, so my favourite guitar right now is prototype number three.

“In Bon Jovi, I have to play, like, eight or 10 guitars because there are different tunings and sounds,” he expands. “I have that SG in rehearsals and I’ll pick it up and go, ‘Oh, my God… this guitar just feels like home.’”

His words seemingly point towards the unidentified gold SG he’s been seen playing on his Instagram – complete with chrome-covered P-90s – which might just be the guitar in question.

Other notable appointments on that particular custom build include a Maestro Vibrola tailpiece, a 50% reduction of controls – we’re presuming only master Volume and Tone remain – with the knobs looking like they were chiselled off a retro tube amp.

Time will tell if this is the final guitar, or if more tweaks are coming before production – but the collaboration feels close to the finish line

Phil X released a signature J. Rockett overdrive/boost last year. He's also been hard at work writing new Bon Jovi material, and he isn't shying away from guitar solos.

The guitarist has found that the recent Bon Jovi documentary is helping him win over die-hard Sambora fans. Earlier this year, he also explained why he prefers single-pickup guitars – and his one-of-a-kind neck pickup mod.

For the full interview with Phil X – as well as conversations with Mark Knopfler and Don Felder – pick up the new issue of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Philly-born session vet Hugh McDonald was at New York's Power Station one early '80s evening when he was asked to lay down a bass part for a demo by Jon Bon Jovi, who was working as a janitor at the studio, owned by his cousin, Tony Bongiovi.

The song, Runaway, became a hit on local radio and earned Bon Jovi a record deal. He promptly formed his namesake band with neighbourhood friends Tico Torres, David Bryan, Richie Sambora, and Alec John Such, and hit the road.

But McDonald's vinyl-embedded groove had made its impression, and beginning with Slippery When Wet (and including New Jersey, Keep the Faith, and Cross Road), he became the band's uncredited recording bassist, while Such handled bass duties on tour.

In 1995, when Such parted ways with Bon Jovi, McDonald at last received proper recognition as well as the band's bass guitar chair for all live performances.

Regarding Livin’ on a Prayer, the tale of “Tommy and Gina” rocketed to No.1 in the summer of 1986 and was soon on its way to earning permanent status as a working-class anthem, forging a place in rock & roll history for the Jersey quintet.

“The band had done an 8-track demo that had a bassline similar to Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch, or Black Is Black,” McDonald recalled in the October 2015 issue of Bass Player. “When producer Bruce Fairburn came in to work with us and tighten up the songs, we both agreed that we had to come up with a better bassline.

“I tried some different things, with everyone pitching in ideas and variations, and when I came upon the part you hear on the track, everybody went, ‘That's it!’”

The band cut the rhythm track live, with a scratch vocal from Bon Jovi. McDonald used two fingers to pluck his '63 Fender Precision (strung with La Bella roundwounds), which was recorded direct.

The track begins with synth pads, followed by McDonald's E minor sub-hook; note how he alternates between E octaves on beat one and two low E's on beat three. Four bars in, Torres's drums enter, and Sambora doubles the bass on his guitar through a talkbox (a part he overdubbed).

Chord changes arrive at 00:31, with the bassline serving as an ostinato pedal. This continues through the first verse, with McDonald breaking up the part via fill variations at 01:01 and 01:17 (the latter serving as a lead-in to the next section).

For the pre-chorus, McDonald goes to straight eighth-notes, with a cool push on the D chord, which he says “occurred naturally”.

Equally on-the-spot but very effective are the first three notes at 01:24, which double the vocal melody. “My inspiration for this bassline, and for pretty much anything I play, is equal parts Paul McCartney, James Jamerson, and Chuck Rainey – sort of rock with an R&B sensibility. The melody doubling, which I’ve used before, is a bit of my McCartney side showing.”

Arriving at the first chorus, McDonald kicks the part into high gear by using chord tones and chromatic passing tones, plus the ear-grabbing, descending G triad at 01:37 and 01:45.

For the second verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, subtle differences include the fill at 02:08, the R&B-minded ghosted 16th-note at 02:47, and the slides at 02:57 and 02:59. “The slides were to add excitement – heck, I was excited!”

In the guitar solo over the chorus changes, Richie Sambora turns the tables on McDonald by doubling his G triad bassline at 03:03 and 03:11 as part of his screaming, upper-register solo.

The abbreviated third pre-chorus (including the three beats at 03:23, which was on the original demo) gives way to the final chorus up a minor 3rd. Here, McDonald lets loose via the Jamerson-esque gallop feel at 03:38 and descending chromatic passing tone at 03:43.

“My instinct at the end of a track is to try not to add notes, but rather to choose different notes and add rhythmic motion.”

“Make the part swing; it's not supposed to be stiff and robotic. Evenness of attack is important, as is being aware of the meter. Tico's kick drum is fairly sparse and open, so embrace the sub-hook role and have fun with it. After all these years, it's still one of my favorite songs to play.”

According to reports, Richie Sambora is currently recovering from surgery after suffering a “gruesome” injury to his hand.

The guitarist had recently celebrated his 66th birthday by teasing a new solo track, I Was Born to Rock, but details of the injury he first suffered back in April have also now been revealed – and the effects of it are still plaguing him.

The guitarist has called the new track a “gift” to his Instagram followers, and follows a string of single releases last year. Before that, he put out two defiant singles, Come Back to Me and Engine 19.

The new track features reverb-soaked drums and a decidedly ’80s glam rock swagger, with Sambora handling guitar and vocal duties. Vitally, it offers a little light amid the dark of his injury, which happened while playing touch football.

“He caught a ball, and some guy gave him a touch right into a curb,” an unnamed source tells People. “He was completely swollen and fractured his hand in two places."

Sambora, who had been scheduled to perform several days later at the Unbridled Eve Derby Gala, refused to cancel, despite the doctor’s orders.

“When he told the doctor he was going to the Derby, the doctor said, ‘You’re out of your mind,'” the source reveals. “But he said, ‘See ya! I’m going.’ That’s the kind of guy Richie is. He’s a man of his word.”

The guitarist ultimately required surgery in his left hand and the source says Sambora is still battling an “arduous, slow, and painful” healing process.

In March, Sambora shared the stage with Phil X, the man who replaced him in Bon Jovi replacement. The pair joined Orianthi at a charity show to play Livin' on a Prayer. Jon Bon Jovi, meanwhile, has ruled out the guitarist's return to the band.

Tim Pierce is a highly celebrated session electric guitar player who’s played with everyone from Alice Cooper to Meat Loaf and Shakira. But his career nearly saw a dramatic change when, early into his session days, he “missed out on being in one of the biggest rock bands in the world”.

Working on Bon Jovi’s debut single, Runaway, in the early 1980s provided him one of his first ever credits. The song, which saw Jon Bon Jovi flanked by session musicians, was a surprise hit, and prompted the singer to assemble a band proper.

For fans, Pierce – who helped shape that early record – seems like he would have been the obvious choice. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.

The Bon Jovi gig “happened kind of by accident” Pierce says in the new issue of Guitar World: “I was 23 and recording in New York. Jon Bon Jovi was living upstairs at the Power Station [recording studio]. Basically, his job was the janitor for his uncle, Tony Bongiovi.

“They put together a master demo; I ended up doing all the guitars on Runaway [including an off-the-cuff guitar solo] and Jon credited me on the back of the record,” he continues. “That was his first Top 40 hit, and I got full credit. It was great.”

With Jon Bon Jovi looking to hit the road, Pierce represented an obvious choice for the guitarist spot. But there were a few factors working against him.

“A couple of things happened,” he explains. “I didn't have the image to be in the band. People forget that you couldn't be in a rock band unless you looked a certain way.”

Dave Sabo, the singer's neighbour and friend who would later form Skid Row, assumed lead guitar duties for a short while, before another local guitarist, Richie Sambora, took the job permanently.

“Richie was the perfect choice,” Pierce believes. “The way he plays, looks and sings is great. They wrote some of the most amazing songs ever. Jon didn't ask, and it probably had to do with the fact that I had another gig – and didn't look like a rock star.”

After more than 30 years of service in the group, Sambora left Bon Jovi in 2013, with Phil X stepping into his shoes. While the bandleader has unequivocally ruled out his return, there's no animosity between the guitarists, who jammed together at a charity show earlier this year alongside Orianthi. The band's new documentary is also seeing hardened Sambora stans warming to his replacement.

Meanwhile, Pierce has revealed that Michael Jackson was a guitar nerd and recently recalled getting kicked out of one of the biggest gigs in history, just hours after performing at it.

To read Pierce’s career-spanning interview in full, head to Magazines Direct to order a copy of Guitar World. The issue also features a candid chat with Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka, Mark Knopfler, and Lari Basilio.

Some guitarists see a neck pickup as an electric guitar must-have for their tonal versatility; others reckon they can do everything with just a ‘bucker in the bridge. Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X sits in the latter camp, but he has a scientific theory as to why single-pickup guitars sound better.

Before the guitarist replaced Richie Sambora in the many-times-platinum band, he was typically found in front of a camera making video content for vintage guitar store Fretted Americana.

By his own admission, the job saw him play “500 guitars” from different makers and of varying persuasions. Those playing experiences brought the realization to him.

“I just do what the job requires, but my preference is one pickup,” he tells Guitar World. “I think there's something magical about it.”

Yet, away from the magic, he says there’s science in it too. It all comes down to magnets.

“It's very earthy because I feel like if you have a neck pickup, even though the pickup isn't engaged, the magnet is pulling on the strings and disrupting the vibration from the nut to the bridge,” he explains.

For the uninitiated, a guitar pickup uses magnets to convert the vibrations of guitar strings into electrical signals, with Alnico a common material for those magnets. As Phil X says, even when a pickup isn’t being used, its magnets are still active, which he feels makes a difference to the overall tone.

“When I was playing 500 guitars for Fretted Americana, I realized that my favorite guitars were [Les Paul] Juniors,” he continues. “And it wasn't just because of the P-90s – there was something magical about one pickup.”

Asked if he then fills a guitar's pickup cavity with the neck 'bucker gone, he shows the Gibson SG that, slung over his shoulder throughout the interview, is home to a little figurine of Robin. He has kept the pickup's housing, however, so that he sits in black plastic over wood.

“In my other one,” he adds, “I have a face carving of myself, but it doesn't really look like me, so I call it Dirty Sanchez.”

The sleeker version of Gibson's flagship axe, the Les Paul Junior is an instrument that's been wielded by star players like Gary Moore and Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr. It is arguably the most recognizable single-pickup guitar ever made.

For its latest batch of metal guitars, ESP has doubled down on single humbucker builds, with 50% of its 2025 range free of neck pickups. But there have been recent examples of the other camp influencing the market.

In 2023, Schecter raised eyebrows with the triple-coil-loaded Sunset Triad, while an ambitious/silly luthier built the D.U.M.Bucker last year. The fully-functioning design features an eight-coil pickup that it's threatening to make available for purchase.

Phil X, meanwhile, made headlines earlier this year when he shared the stage with Richie Sambora for a run-through of Livin’ on a Prayer with Orianthi at a charity concert.

He’s played down any bad blood between the then-and-now Bon Jovi shredders, ascertaining that “we were buds before and after” the spot. he has since confirmed that new Bon Jovi material is on the way, and at least one killer guitar solo will feature.

Filling Richie Sambora’s shoes in Bon Jovi was always going to be a big task for Phil X, and though he accepts certain portions of the fanbase will always pledge allegiance to his predecessor, he says the band’s recent documentary has helped win some fans over.

Sambora left the band in 2013, leaving a 30-year legacy behind him, with Phil X getting the gig off the back of a three album stint with LA pop rock outfit Powder, and his work with vintage guitar store Fretted Americana.

He’s played on three albums since, including 2024’s Forever, which saw Jon Bon Jovi reunite with his first ever guitar after 45 years apart, and he’s now starting to see more and more of the band’s fans warming to him.

Speaking to Guitar World at NAMM 2025, he says: “If I walk through an airport, most guys are like, ‘Hey, I love your Fretted Americana videos.’ Most girls are like, ‘You're doing great in Bon Jovi.’

“And then once in a while you get, ‘Hey, I saw the documentary. You come across like a really down to earth guy, and I think the fans that didn't like you before like you more.’”

The four-part, career-charting doc Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story sees the guitarist enter the fray for its final episode. His presence in the doc, as it explores the band's more recent exploits, has helped showcase Sambora's replacement in a new light, allowing certain fans to embrace him for who he is, rather than stand against him for who he isn't.

But not everyone has been charmed by him.

“I still get little comments,” he reveals. “I could be blazing on Instagram and [there'll still be] comments like, ‘You'll never be Richie!’”

He laughs as he says this, accepting it’s an impossible job to make everyone happy, and it shows the importance that Sambora had in the band’s success. even if their first shot at the big time ended in smoke and disaster.

In February, Sambora and Phil X crossed fretboards when they jammed Livin’ on a Prayer with Orianthi at a charity bash, and reflecting on that era-crossing moment, Phil X assures there is no bad blood between the players.

“Man, we were buds before and after. It was really cool,” he says. “it was a really amazing day. Sometimes, I had to sit back and go, ‘Holy shit. Is this really happening?’”

It also proved an interesting moment for the guitarist, who played a “supportive role” as Sambora strutted his stuff.

“One funny thing is that he doesn’t do the modulation at the end that I do when I play with Bon Jovi,” he goes on. “I just had to stay in my head. I’d be like, ‘OK, don’t do the modulation, don’t do the modulation.’”

Despite the pair getting together, the chances of Sambora rejoining the group, in any capacity, seem thin. Speaking of his departure last year, Bon Jovi said, rather bluntly, that “he wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back.”

Sambora was a recent guest on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, where he discussed the band’s origins and his subsequent departure three decades on. Corgan also revealed that the guitarist is hugely respected in the alternative guitar scene.

In the latest episode of his The Magnificent Others podcast, Billy Corgan sat down with Richie Sambora to discuss their respective musical backgrounds – and revealed he came from an indie scene where being a good guitar player wasn't looked overly fondly upon.

Corgan's comments came after he and the ex-Bon Jovi electric guitar hero discussed some of their earliest eye-opening musical moments. Sambora's first gig was Black Sabbath in 1975 when he was just 15 years old.

“I lived on a dead-end street next to a swamp, but I could cut through the swamp and get to the train tunnel in a minute and a half,” Sambora remembers. “It dropped me off in Penn Station, underneath [Madison Square] Garden. I saw everyone that there ever was to see: Queen, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, David Bowie five times.”

Corgan is quick to note that such early experiences meant Sambora's bar for music was set high – something that contrasted with the music scene where he cut his own teeth as a guitarist.

“Not everybody has a high standard,” the Smashing Pumpkin man relays. “You know the thing about a lot of indie people is they think playing too good is a bad thing.”

Despite his rock background, though, Sambora was able to generate a credible reputation among such “indie” guitar players, as Corgan reveals.

“You are very well respected in the alternative community,” Corgan continues. “A lot of the rock guys, the alternative community look at and go, 'Uh, too obvious, too cheesy, they want it too bad,' but you have a different rep in my world. People would understand where you're coming from. They get it.”

During his chat with Corgan, Sambora also reflects on his time in Bon Jovi, and discusses the events leading up to his eventual departure. Sambora left Bon Jovi in 2013, but joined forces with his replacement, Phil X, for a run-through of Livin’ on a Prayer at a recent charity bash as the pair proved there’s no bad blood between them.

Corgan, meanwhile, recently announced a new solo project, with the Smashing Pumpkins' newest guitarist, Kiki Wong, also set to be involved. Billy Corgan and The Machines of God will celebrate a plethora of classic Pumpkins records, with a US tour kicking off in June.

One of Corgan’s previous podcast chats with Gene Simmons saw the bassist recounting how Ace Frehley’s Kiss audition nearly ended up with him throwing fists.

Last Thursday (February 27), Phil X and Richie Sambora shared the stage with Matt Sorum and Orianthi for a fundraising performance of Livin’ on a Prayer during the Rock For Responders LA wildfire benefit concert.

The performance made headlines, and for good reason: it saw Phil X – the electric guitar player who formally replaced Sambora in the legendary rock outfit – team up with his predecessor – the man who, in turn, helped Bon Jovi actually write the classic track – as two eras of Bon Jovi combined on stage.

And, speaking to Guitar World writer Andrew Daly, Phil X reflects on the occasion, and recalls how the unexpected collaboration first came about – and how the show’s organizers were unsure whether it’d be something the pair would be happy to do.

“They called me a couple of days before,” the guitarist says. “They were like, ‘Hey, so Richie wants to come out and play Livin’ on a Prayer…’”

“I was like, ‘Hey, what a great song for the cause.’ They were like, ‘Is that going to be OK?’ Because nobody knows, right? That was a good question. But I said, ‘Yeah, we’re both adults. Yeah… it’ll be OK. It’ll be fun.”

“I had been playing all night,” Phil X continues. “Then, he [Sambora] finally got onstage, came over, and we started playing Livin’ on a Prayer. We had rehearsed it the day before, so he and Ori could play their parts, and I just played more of a supportive role.”

Indeed, Sambora took lead vocal and lead guitar duties for the song, and though the rendition ditched the talk box, it kept the solo, which Sambora took for a quasi-improvised spin.

However, it turned out to be a rather enlightening occasion for Phil X, who was able to observe up close the differences between how he and his predecessor both tackle the Bon Jovi hit.

“One funny thing is that he doesn’t do the modulation at the end that I do when I play with Bon Jovi,” says Phil X. “I just had to stay in my head. I’d be like, ‘OK, don’t do the modulation, don’t do the modulation.’”

It turned out to be a successful evening, and while the wider public perception may be that Phil X and Sambora are at odds with each other owing to the Bon Jovi connection, Phil X insists this isn’t the case.

“Man, we were buds before and after. It was really cool,” he goes on. “Like, it was a really amazing day. Hanging out with all those guys was killer. He [Sambora] was just one more guy hanging out backstage. I felt like, you know, I like to engage, and sometimes, I had to sit back and go, ‘Holy shit. Is this really happening?’ It was really cool.”

Sambora left the band officially in 2013, but Phil X had been brought onboard as a fill-in around 2011 for a number of tour shows. In 2016, he was minted as the official Bon Jovi guitarist, and in a recent interview with Guitar World, he confirmed new music and tour dates were in the works.

Bon Jovi guitarists old and new, Richie Sambora and Phil X, joined forces with Orianthi and Matt Sorum at the Rock For Responders benefit concert on Thursday, February 27, with Livin’ on a Prayer headlining the supergroup’s mini performance.

Phil X became a full-time member of the rock giants in 2016, having initially served as a stand-in for Sambora on a number of tours after 2011. And, while a Sambora-Bon Jovi reunion may be off the table, the two lead guitarists offered perhaps the next best thing with an era-combining show.

Sambora wielded a heavily relic’d Henrik Danhage signature Charvel, while Phil X opted for a gold Gibson SG as the pair put on an initially subdued – and notably Talkbox-less – take on the 1980s classic, with an octaver-laced solo from Sambora helping crank through the gears.

He’d started by thanking the responders who “risked their lives to save ours” during the wildfires before asking the crowd, “Wanna sing with me?” as the droning opening chords of the song cut through the PA.

Taking place at the Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro, California, the show was the latest in a long line of benefit concerts that have been put on to raise much-needed funds in the wake of the LA wildfires that swept through the city in January.

The concerts haven’t disappointed so far, with a female-powered Nirvana reunion, Blink-182 performing with Matt Skiba, and a star-studded show being compared to Live Aid all delivering the goods previously.

Orianthi, meanwhile, made one of her first public appearances since being forced off the Alice Cooper tour due to injury. The guitarist had been forced to perform sat down at PRS's recent 40th anniversary bash.

Last month, Phil X confirmed that new Bon Jovi music – featuring at least one killer guitar solo – is in the works, along with more tour dates, as the band looks to build on the momentum of 2024’s Forever. That record featured Jon Bon Jovi’s first-ever acoustic guitar, after the frontman was reunited with it 45 years after he sold it.

The news seemingly keeps any possibility of a Richie Sambora return on ice. Mind, Bon Jovi had rather brutally shut the door on a reunion last summer, when he hit back at the manner of Samobora's departure, saying: “He wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back.”

Sambora, meanwhile, has detailed Bon Jovi's disastrous first arena show when, opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden, he blew his amp in the first 60 seconds.

Rumors of a new Bon Jovi record have been circulating online for some time now, so when we caught up with Phil X at NAMM 2025 last month, we just had to ask him whether there was any truth behind the chatter.

While in conversation with Guitar World’s Michael Astley-Brown, the electric guitar veteran was asked about the possibility of forthcoming new material with the Jon Bon Jovi-fronted rock institution, and he confirmed such speculation was true.

“You heard a rumor? It’s right!” Phil X revealed while showcasing his J. Rockett PXO overdrive pedal. “I can’t expose the details, but you’re on the right track.”

The as-yet-unannounced Bon Jovi songs will follow 2024’s Forever, which served as the band’s 16th studio album and the third to feature Phil X on guitar after he officially replaced Richie Sambora in 2016.

And while the previous record saw Phil X up the electric guitar ante – just see tracks such as Living Proof for, erm, proof – this new instalment is set to see him take his playing down even grander avenues, after Jon Bon Jovi himself personally asked for “more Phil X” while tracking a solo.

“There’s one song where I was coached to play more,” Phil X continues when asked about his parts. “As opposed to, ‘It’s too much, play less,’ it was like, ‘Hey, at the end of the solo, can you go full Phil X?’ I was like, ‘Okay, but who are you?’”

As Phil recalls, it was Bon Jovi who coached him to let loose on his soloing: “He literally said, ‘I want more Phil X. Play something that not everybody can play.’”

Of course, chat about a new record will inevitably lead to talk of a potential supporting tour and live dates – something that Phil X was equally open to confirm.

“There is stuff in the works,” he coyly responds when asked whether a tour would follow. “Nothing confirmed, but they’re working on stuff.”

A Bon Jovi tour would be some comeback, especially since the group hasn't toured since 2022 after the vocalist was forced to recover from surgery on his damaged vocal cords, as documented in tell-all music doc Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story.

As recently as last year, Bon Jovi voiced his desire to tour again, but made it clear that would be entirely dependent on how successfully he recovers from the operation. Fortunately, if Phil X's comments are anything to go by, the recovery seems to be going well.

Session guitarist Tim Pierce started his career side by side with Jon Bon Jovi – and at 23, Pierce scored one of his earliest successes, coinciding with 19-year-old Bon Jovi's ascent to rock stardom.

Runaway, Bon Jovi's debut single and a track with incredible staying power, was originally recorded in 1981 as a demo. However, it ended up being the singer’s first solo outing, backed by session musicians – namely, the tour de force of Pierce on guitar, Hugh McDonald on bass guitar, drummer Frankie LaRocka, and keyboardist Roy Bittan.

“I am sure the band, when he got his record deal, tried to redo it,” Pierce tells MusicRadar. “It just didn’t turn out. So we got full credit on the record and they put out the version that we did.”

Referring to his guitar solo, which perfectly captures the rock zeitgeist of the era (plus a dash of spontaneity), Pierce says, “It was totally improvised. I had no idea that that song would go out into the world and be his first single.”

When it came to gear, Pierce kept it simple – a decision that tonally still paid off. “I used a Les Paul and some Marshalls, and a Schecter Stratocaster [copy]. Very simple gear.

“Some of it was just borrowed. Some of it was rented. In my mind, I was just trying to play the best solo I possibly could. It is a combination of thinking and not thinking, y’know.”

Pierce recalls that the single was the result of “pure collaboration” between the session musicians, Bon Jovi, and the team at Power Station – the recording studio co-founded by Bon Jovi’s cousin, producer Tony Bongiovi, and the site of many Grammy Award-winning recordings.

“We tracked the song, then we went upstairs into a smaller room and we overdubbed the guitars and the solo, and I made up the solo.”

He concludes, “You create with the advice and the collaboration of the others, and they weigh in on what you are going to do.”

Earlier this year, Jon Bon Jovi reunited with the first guitar he ever owned, 45 years after he sold it.

Working with one of the Fab Four is an extraordinary feat for anyone – but an instance of Bon Jovi, one of the most enduringly popular bands since the '80s, collaborating with Paul McCartney is nothing short of historic. According to a new interview with ex-Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, McCartney had a hand in mixing a track on one of the band's live albums.

“I was in Henson [Recording Studios in LA], which was A&M at the time,” Sambora tells Howie Mandel [transcribed by Ultimate Guitar].

“We were pretty popular, so, I'm the guy that likes to go around the studio and go, ‘Who's in today? What's happening?’ ‘Don Henley's over here in B, and Sting's doing his thing over there. And then Paul's in there.’ I go, ‘Paul, who?’ ‘Paul McCartney.’ I had never met a Beatle in my life. I was probably almost 40.”

The two were working in different studios, but Sambora recalls being eager to meet McCartney. While mixing a Bon Jovi record, he found himself “peeking out the door, waiting for Paul to walk in.”

“It’s like two hours now, he’s not showing up. So I walk out of one studio to go into the other overdub studio to actually do some overdubs on this live thing. I walk smack into him, and he goes, ‘See you’re practicing, are you, mate?’ And he takes the guitar, and he’s lefty and I’m righty – he takes the guitar and starts to play it.”

As Sambora tells it, the two sat down on a couch and got along like a house on fire, so much so that “they had to pull us apart.”

“We just got into talking to each other so much. So, then he had to go into his respective studio, and I was in my respective studio, and I looked back, and Paul’s got one of my guitars, and he’s kind of messing around with it, right? And I’m mixing, so I said, ‘Well, if you’re going to be in here, why don’t you help me mix this?’ And he did.”

While Sambora didn’t specify which track Macca helped mix – and the Beatle went uncredited – he confirmed that it was a track from One Wild Night Live 1985–2001, Bon Jovi’s live record released in May 2001.

In other Richie Sambora news – Guitar World recently dug up a 2013 interview with the former Bon Jovi guitarist in which he looked back on the band's disastrous first arena engagement: an opening slot for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden.

The old saying, ‘everyone has to start somewhere,’ has been repeated a billion times in a billion contexts for a reason – it's true for even the most successful in any field.

Take Bon Jovi, who have spent the last 40 years taking their particular brand of hard-rock – peppered with literal million-dollar choruses – to stadiums and arenas around the world.

Needless to say, they've gotten that live show in tip-top shape during that time – their 2013 outing, for instance, was the single highest grossing concert tour in the world that year.

But what were we saying about ‘everyone has to start somewhere’ again?

Back in 2013, former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora told Guitar World about the band's very first arena engagement, an opening slot for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden.

ZZ Top were at the absolute peak of their commercial success, but the up-and-coming Bon Jovi were hungry, and all too eager to leave a real impression on the packed crowd. In that regard they did succeed, though not in the way they had in mind...

“We were opening for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. The first Bon Jovi record was in the can but hadn’t come out yet,” Sambora recalled to Guitar World.

“We had no management. We were just brazen kids who wanted to play Madison Square Garden. We probably had no business doing it. Not that the band wasn’t ready, but we had no road crew, no infrastructure.

“I knew this was a heavy blues-rock crowd, so I told the guys, ‘I’ll go out there and blow for about 60 seconds, then we’ll go into the first tune.’ I hit the first chord and my Marshall blew up.

“I had a spare head, but it took about 45 seconds to switch and get the tubes warmed up. The crowd started chanting, ‘Z-Z-Top! Z-Z-Top!’ Consequently, we played a 40-minute set in about 19 minutes.”

Reflecting on the experience 30 years later, Sambora saw it – rather than an embarrassment to be buried – as a learning experience. “Getting through moments like that,” he told Guitar World, “is what shapes you as a pro.”

In more recent Bon Jovi news, band namesake and frontman Jon Bon Jovi recently poured cold waters on rumors of a reunion with Sambora, who left the band in 2013.

“I’ve talked to him twice,” Bon Jovi told Classic Rock when asked about a potential Sambora return. “He. Quit. The. Band. I swear to Christ there was never a fight, nothing… He wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back.”

Jon Bon Jovi has once again discussed the possibility of Richie Sambora rejoining Bon Jovi – and it doesn’t sound likely.

Sambora departed the band in 2013 and rumors of his return have been circulating ever since. Speculation intensified in November 2022, when Sambora hinted a reunion at Glastonbury Festival was on the cards. 

Then, rumors came to the fore in February last year, when the group’s former electric guitar player claimed he was in discussions about returning to the outfit.

However, in a new interview with Classic Rock, Bon Jovi himself has seemingly refuted such claims, stating that Sambora “hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back” – and that any potential reunion is highly unlikely.

“I’ve talked to him twice,” Bon Jovi responds when asked about a Sambora comeback. “He. Quit. The. Band. I swear to Christ there was never a fight, nothing… He wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back.”

To further dismiss rumors of a potential fight leading to the split, Bon Jovi went on to recall the circumstances surrounding Sambora’s surprise departure.

“Nobody anticipated it, no-one saw it coming,” Bon Jovi reflected of Sambora’s exit. “I talked to him the day before, I remember it so well. 

“It was Easter Sunday, 2013, and I was driving through the Lincoln Tunnel as I was talking to him, because I was living in New York, and I was like: ‘Yeah, I’m feeling great, the album [2013’s What About Now] is gonna come in at Number One, see you up there.’ 

“He said: ‘Can I stay home one more day?’ ‘Of course. You want to fly private tomorrow? Sure. Do it. I don’t care. See you up there.’ And then the next day the phone rings at three in the afternoon, and, you know… ‘I can’t go on.’”

Despite not agreeing on a formal reunion since then, Bon Jovi and Sambora did briefly reunite in 2018 to perform at the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

In other Bon Jovi news, the band recently shared Living Proof, the latest single from their upcoming album, Forever.

That album will also feature a song titled My First Guitar. That track was written using Jon Bon Jovi's actual first guitar, which he recently recovered 45 years after initially selling it.

Bon Jovi have shared Living Proof, the newest single to be lifted from their upcoming 16th studio record, Forever.

Set to arrive June 7, Forever has already been previewed by lead single Legendary – an anthemic acoustic guitar-lead ballad – but Living Proof kicks things up a gear, and finds Jon Bon Jovi and Phil X return to electric guitars and reunite with the talk box.

A pillar of the Bon Jovi sound (largely thanks to that riff on Livin’ on a Prayer), the Talk box is pulled out of retirement to pay homage to the band’s biggest-ever hit, and used extensively over a main hook that has a similar bounce to the classic 1986 cut.

It very much is a song supercharged for 21st century ears, though, and that’s largely thanks to the contributions of Phil X. The virtuoso, who officially replaced Richie Sambora in 2016, chugs through much of the track, injecting it with a recurring, tidy sliding-drenched solo.

All things said, it’s bound to be a huge hit among Bon Jovi purists. The return of the talk box for a song that has “Living” in the title and a “wow-wow” opening riff? It's like Bon Jovi bingo.

The revisiting of such a sound doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, either. As Bon Jovi himself explains, Forever is very much a reflective record, and will see the band return to their roots.

“This record is a return to joy,” he observes. “From the writing, through the recording process, this is turn up the volume, feel good Bon Jovi.”

The theme of revisiting the past won’t just be evident from the music. As previously reported, Forever will feature a song titled My First Guitar, which was written by Bon Jovi using his actual first guitar after he tracked down the Strat copy 45 years after he sold it.

Living Proof has been released alongside the recently premiered band documentary, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. The career-spanning docu-series traces the band’s history, and is available to watch on Hulu and Disney+.

• Forever is available to preorder now via Island Records.

2024 was already the year of the guitar reunion, but now Jon Bon Jovi has a touching tale of his own: 45 years after selling the first guitar he ever owned for $100, he’s got it back. 

We’ve already seen “the most important bass guitar in history” returned to Paul McCartney and a guitarist reunited with his ‘81 Les Paul Custom almost 30 years after it was stolen. Now, the Livin’ On A Prayer legend has got in on the action.    

In 1978 – six years before the release of Bon Jovi's self-titled debut album – a young Jon Bon Jovi sold his first guitar, a Univox Stratocaster clone. It was sold with the budget cardboard case it came in to a “kid down the street… for $100, in the hope I could save enough money to buy a Fender.” 

Some 15 albums and four and a half decades later, the guitar is back in the singer’s hands. Incredibly, too, it was in the exact same state as it was when he parted ways with it all those years ago.  

“I didn't run into him [the guitar's buyer] for the next 45 years,” Bon Jovi told Howard Stern in a new interview. “But a volunteer at the Soul Kitchen [the singer's non-profit community restaurant in his New Jersey hometown] told me, ‘Not only does he still have it, but I think he'd be willing to give it back to you.’”

Bon Jovi says he gave the owner “some money” and a signed acoustic in return for the sentimental guitar.  

“I opened up that same cardboard case and there it was with five strings,” he said. “If memory serves me, the sixth string was broken [when I sold it to him], so I don't think the kid ever played it. 

“I picked it up and I wrote a song with it called My First Guitar – it was one of those songs that had to be on the new record.”

The ‘kid’ who bought the guitar remained in New Jersey and has since become a police officer. Of their meet-up, Bon Jovi reflects that “it was very emotional, it was very sweet of him. He said ‘This is where it belongs.’” 

Forever, the band’s 16th studio album, is set for a June 7 release via EMI Records, with My First Guitar the penultimate track of 12. 4-part documentary Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story is also available to stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

Few bands have been as iconic and timeless as the great Bon Jovi. Bringing the 1980s era of hair metal to the masses with their radio-friendly anthems, Bon Jovi paved the way for huge choruses, tight leathers and gratuitous guitar solos. While the band took its name from the legendary frontman himself, Bon Jovi was far from the solo act that some people assume.

Richie Sambora joined the band in 1983 and was instrumental in the group’s success, being one of its main songwriters and producers for 30 years. As well contributing his iconic guitar solos to their greatest hits, he was also responsible for crafting the songs themselves. Richie is credited as having co-written their biggest anthems including Living on a Prayer, You Give Love a Bad Name, Bad Medicine and many other iconic and mega-selling hits.

In Bon Jovi, Richie’s playing is soulful and melodic, interspersed with moments of ’80s-style shred guitar. It’s clear on listening to the construction of his solos that Richie has a strong producer’s ear, with each solo being exactly what is needed for the song: melodic and catchy, with just enough technical flair to keep the guitar nuts happy.

As well as a successful career in Bon Jovi, Richie has also had a notable solo career, having released three albums featuring his own songs and vocal work. He’s composed music for television and film, and has been invited as both a guest vocalist and guitarist on a number of records with a diverse range of artists like LL Cool J, Bo Diddley, Stuart Smith, P!nk and Orianthi among them.

Like many great rock players of his era, Sambora is well versed in the art of blues guitar. Growing up in the ’70s, he was inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Page, B.B. King and many other legends of the genre. Undoubtedly, this is where Richie picked up his brilliant sense of phrasing and musicality; his solo albums contain wonderfully rich, earthy blues-rock tracks with soulful vocals, as well as his ’80s-style commercially informed music.

There’s lots that we can take away from Richie’s iconic style, like his sense of melody and the compositional approach to his solos. Our two studies focus on his rocky blues side, exploring his use of classic blues-based vocabulary to break up his melodic ideas and add fire and expression to the overarch all of his compositions.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 5, Middle 5, Treble 5, Reverb

Although best-known for using hot-rodded Strat style guitars into modified Marshall amps, these days Richie plays his ESP signature guitars through Friedman amps. Any good electric guitar will work for our two tracks, but you’ll need a fair amount of drive, so a good distortion into a Brit-style amp sound is perfect. Add a nice reverb or smooth delay pedal for that final touch.

Solo 1. Melodic blues-rock

This is a great example of Richie’s melodic lead work, interspersed with some Hendrix-style double-stops to break up scalic nature of the solo.

Solo 2. Mixing up the scales

This study features the use of two pentatonic scales in one key. The track itself is in D major, but the first half pedals around the II chord of E minor, giving us a Dorian tonal centre. This then releases into the parent key of D major. 

To employ Richie’s blues-rock based phrasing we use E minor pentatonic vocabulary over the first half and then switch to D major pentatonic for the second half, with other melodic ideas drawn from the D major scale itself.

Jon Bon Jovi was interviewed on the Howard Stern Show recently and was asked to quickly pick his favorite guitarist. His answer? “Jeff Beck.”

In the clip below, the Bon Jovi frontman is immediately challenged on his answer by Stern, who asks “Not Jimi Hendrix?” However, the singer responds with a quick anecdote relaying his first-hand experience of Beck’s technique and tonal wizardry. 

“Jimi Hendrix would be of course in the starting lineup,” acknowledges Bon Jovi. “But you put me on the spot. And Prince,  Eddie [Van Halen] – they’re all different – but I was in the room with Jeff Beck when he took a guitar out of a cardboard box, with a rented amplifier and no pedals and created that sound. 

“[It was] when we did the Young Guns record and he was my guitar player. I sat there flabbergasted because Jeff Beck did things with his fingers with his thumb that would blow your mind. So he's different.”

Bon Jovi is referring to is his first solo album, Blaze Of Glory, which was released alongside the movie Young Guns II in 1990. Bon Jovi made a cameo appearance in the film and the tracks Billy Get Your Guns and Blaze Of Glory both featured in the end credits.

Jeff Beck was recruited as part of a star-studded line-up that featured Elton John and Little Richard, alongside a host of session pros. However, Beck made a sizeable contribution to the record, laying down six solos across the collection. 

Chief among them is the searing, melodic lead section of the title track, Blaze of Glory – a song that hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The recording shows the guitarist’s continued growth (at some 30 years into his playing career), being informed somewhat by the hair metal era. However, it is still full of deft Beck touches – not least his unrivaled whammy bar control.

There’s a brief but endearing MTV clip of Bon Jovi and Beck in the studio together a the time, in which the former airily tells Beck he’ll need an improvised part played slower. You can then watch as it dawns on him who he’s issuing instructions to... “You can hit me any time you want,” says the singer. “I’ve just told Jeff Beck how to play guitar!” 

Bon Jovi’s story also reminds you that Beck’s session list is so enormous that it’s easy to overlook his contribution on chart topping hits, let alone the more obscure material. 

The guitarist’s passing left us reflecting on many of his underrated contributions and collaborations – as our recent Jeff Beck guest appearances and deep cuts pieces attest – the scope and variety is astounding.

Former Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony has revealed he is working on a new project involving Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X, Aerosmith live drummer John Douglas and an as-yet-unnamed vocalist.

Speaking to interviewer Eddie Trunk on the latter’s Trunk Nation show, Anthony offered up a tantalizing tidbit.

"I wasn't going to mention anything about it,” says Anthony. “But there is a little side project thing that I've kind of been speaking to some people and might be doing a couple of things with.

“I don't wanna get ahead of myself and mention too much, but it might involve [Bon Jovi guitarist] Phil X and John Douglas, who you know as the [touring] drummer for Aerosmith right now.”

However, despite naming Phil X and Douglas, Anthony remained tightlipped when pressed about the band’s vocalist. “I don't wanna mention any names,” he tells Trunk. “But it’s a really, really cool singer. And we're recording just for fun right now, some stuff. That's all I can say.”

Even without knowing the singer, the lineup offers a wealth of top-flight experience. Phil X has a huge list of session credits to his name – playing with the likes of Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper and Tommy Lee – even before he committed to Bon Jovi in 2016.

Douglas, meanwhile, was a longterm Van Halen drum tech before he landed the Aerosmith gig, covering for the injured Joey Kramer. He also has a sideline as an artist who customizes gear – not least Joe Perry’s ‘Billie’ guitar, which featured a portrait of the guitarist’s wife.

As for the singer, there are no concrete clues from Anthony. However, there is the small matter of Anthony’s ongoing relationship with former Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar. Since the bassist’s departure from Van Halen in the ’00s, the two have reunited in the supergroups Chickenfoot (which also featured Joe Satriani) and The Circle.

The warmth between the two players was still apparent when Sammy Hagar spoke to Guitar World about The Circle last fall.

“In Van Halen, Eddie was so busy with the way he played guitar that there wasn't much room for Mikey to do anything,” noted Hagar. “Eddie played lead, rhythm, melody, and in some ways, the bass line all at once because he was just a master. 

“So, Mikey rarely got to stretch out, but the truth is that he’s up there with John Paul Jones, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, and Jack Bruce, but he never got to show it with Van Halen. But now, we've got Mikey off the leash, so we get more from him than we ever got when he was in Van Halen.”

Richie Sambora has reignited the possibility of reuniting with Jon Bon Jovi by revealing he is currently in talks to rejoin the band.

Though the electric guitar player prefaced the comment by saying nothing has been set in stone, Sambora did confirm discussions are ongoing and that he feels particularly strong about rekindling the band’s classic-era guitar/singer partnership.

Speaking to Planet Radio, Sambora touched upon a potential return to Bon Jovi following his departure in 2013, commenting, “We're talking about it. I don't think there's any reason not to at this point.”

Sambora went on to acknowledge Bon Jovi’s recent vocal issues, which prompted the vocalist to take a step back from singing, but said he was keen to take part in a reunion “for the fans”.

He continued, “Jon [Bon Jovi] was having a hard time with his voice a little bit there and he needed to take a little bit of a breather.

“I don’t know when Jon’s going to get his voice together and [when the Bon Jovi reunion is] going to happen, but we have to get out there and do it for the fans, really. I feel a second obligation.”

It’s not the first time Sambora has gone public about his potential reunion with Bon Jovi. In November last year, he hinted a long-awaited link-up between the two artists could take place at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

When probed as to whether Glastonbury Festival could be the event at which a Bon Jovi concert is staged, Sambora replied, “It’s a possibility. We’re talking a bit.”

Elsewhere in the Planet Radio interview, Sambora discussed the current state of his relationship with the band, and suggested he would be up for contributing his songwriting chops on future original material.

“You know what, there's no malice,” he reflected. “I mean, we did something… there's not a lot of bands that did what we did. I mean, obviously, bands like The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and U2 [have].

“If [Bon Jovi] doesn't let me [write music], he's crazy. I'm on a tear,” Sambora went on. “Actually, I did write that other [Bon Jovi] stuff, too. It's a misnomer when people go just because his name is on [the band] that's the name. We just couldn't think of anything else really. 

“People think that I just come up with the guitar parts and something like that. But songwriting is conceptual. You have to have a concept. It's a story. And it can sometimes just come from looking out the window and observing and a lot of times it comes from your own life and for the most part of Bon Jovi my life was a lot (more) colorful than everybody else's in the band.”

The topic of songwriting in Bon Jovi has been discussed by Sambora before, with the guitarist suggesting to Nile Rodgers’ Deep Hidden Meaning Radio he had to downplay his contributions in the band as “that was part of my deal, to shut the fuck up”.

Sambora joined Bon Jovi back in 1983 to replace the outgoing Dave Sabo, who left to form Skid Row. After contributing to 12 albums over the course of almost three decades, Sambora suddenly left the group in 2013 due to personal reasons.

Following his departure, Bon Jovi recruited Phil X to fill his position for a handful of US and European tour dates. In 2016, the Greek heavy metal axeman became the band’s full-time guitarist and featured on their most recent studio album, Bon Jovi: 2020.

Sambora temporarily teamed up with Bon Jovi back in 2018 for a performance during the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In other Richie Sambora news, the guitarist was recently unveiled as a contestant on The Masked Singer UK, which saw him masquerade as a guitar-playing jacket potato.

The UK’s edition of The Masked Singer – a show in which celebrities don ridiculous costumes while performing to a panel of judges who try to guess their real identities – appears to be where one of rock’s most esteemed guitarists is getting his kicks these days.

Jacket Potato, a character on the show who, you guessed it, resembles an anthropomorphic spud, has been the subject of considerable speculation since the start of season 4 earlier this year, when he made his debut with a cover of Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas.

At the time, fans were convinced the mystery performer was faking his American accent, leading them to believe he was a British celebrity.

But in recent weeks, keen-eyed viewers and DIY detectives have zeroed in on the theory that Jacket Potato is, in fact, former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.

And the theory has been all but confirmed, according to some fans, after the performing vegetable delivered a stellar rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, complete with a ripping guitar solo on a gold Fender Telecaster, in the latest episode of the show.

In addition to their performances, each Masked Singer character also offers clue packages to help the judges and viewers hone in on the true nature of their identities.

In further justification of the Richie Sambora theory, fans have pointed to various clues from these packages, including when he tried turning on the tap to a slip ‘n’ slide during a performance – a reference to Bon Jovi’s 1986 album Slippery When Wet.

Another came when he offered a riddle: “Hey it's me Jack, Jacket Potato. I've got quite the collection, so big you'll say ‘Woah,’” possibly a reference both to his guitar collection and the classic chorus line of Bon Jovi’s mega hit, Livin’ on a Prayer.

A third clue came when a sign pointed to a potato marked ‘number 50’ – another potential reference to Livin’ on a Prayer: “We’re halfway there”.

And lastly, Jacket Potato’s recent performance of Go Your Own Way could be a reference to Sambora’s departure from Bon Jovi in 2013.

Jacket Potato’s true identity hasn’t yet been revealed, but we can certainly get onboard with the Sambora theory – all the clues do seem to make sense.

Back in 2021, Richie Sambora said that his role in Bon Jovi before his exit was to “shut the fuck up”. 

“That was part of my deal: to shut the fuck up,” he said in a conversation with Nile Rodgers. “If I had a coffee place, the sign would say, ‘Have a hot steaming cup of shut the fuck up.’ That would be my coffee place. And you know what? Guess what? I did it. And it worked out because that's what he needed, for whatever reason.”

John Shanks is in his Los Angeles studio, and behind him the walls are adorned with rows of gold and platinum records that bear his name. As a producer he has consistently been making hit records for decades, emboldened by a finely developed curiosity for sound that started when he was a kid. 

He recalls listening to his parents’ Beatles records: “I remember finding the Balance knob and realising, almost suddenly, the drums were on one side, or the harmonies were on the other side, listening to parts more individually that made up the whole.” 

Growing up in New York City it was hard to escape the barrage of influences that were all around. “There was always music playing out of cars, taxis, the park,” he says. “Then there would be my parents’ parties, these elaborate parties. You’re hearing Cole Porter and Gershwin and classical music.”

However, it was the guitar that really drew him into the world of music. “I was playing tennis rackets and anything when I was in first grade and saw the attention that I got pretending to be John Lennon or McCartney.” This eventually led to Shanks picking up his sister’s acoustic, which sat imposingly in a back room of the house. 

At what point did that acoustic guitar become an electric?

“I had this acoustic probably from 10 to about 13 and then I wanted a Strat. My mom was great. She was like, ‘Save up your money and then wherever you get to, I’ll match you.’ She was awesome. So I worked summer jobs. I did whatever – walking dogs, working at a pharmacy, delivering medicine to old ladies. I went to this camp and I worked in the kitchen, scrubbing pots and cleaning tables and mopping floors. But I had this guitar in my head, this shining light on the hill. 

“I remember, I think it was eighth grade, seventh grade, somewhere in there. I got to about 150, 160 bucks, and a new Stratocaster in ’75 was $237 with the case, I still remember the price. We took a cab there. We made it right before closing and it was hanging on the wall. Then I proceeded to strip it. 

“Four days later, I had sandpaper and I was taking all the goopy 70s lacquer off my Strat. I had that Strat until I was 26 and it got stolen. I eventually put the humbucker in it. I put a Floyd Rose on it at some point. But that guitar got me here talking to you.”

Who were some of your early influences?

“I wanted to play guitar like Jimmy Page or Beck or Peter Frampton or Gilmour. It was that great time of guitar players and the English blues guys and giving back to us what we had forsaken. But also, we had a lot of blues records in our house, so I understood the three Kings. 

“It was Albert first and then BB and then Freddie, and you start to see the connection. But I think, for me, AM radio really taught me about songwriting and songs back when I was a kid. It was Sly And The Family Stone to Elton John, or John Lennon to Stevie Wonder.”

At what point did you start playing with other people?

“I think, initially, it was some friends from school. In New York, there are these rehearsal rooms and you would all chip in $10 or $15, anything you could get your hands on. Then we’d get a couple of hours in these rooms and you started learning how to play, and not just [playing] to records. There’s a difference between playing to a record and moving the needle and trying to learn the lick, and then playing with other musicians… 

“But let me backtrack a moment. I got a four-track recorder, a Tascam 144 – and that changed my life in a sense because I learned how to layer parts. I could double this, I could pan it. I started to learn how to build a chorus. I started to learn counterpoint just on my own.

“Then somehow I started playing on really, really early hip-hop sessions in New York. A guy named D.ST, we did Rockit with Herbie Hancock. I think I played on the Afrika Bambaataa record, maybe a couple of powerchords. You show up with your guitar and a Rockman and you were good to go. That was the start. I didn’t really know what I was doing. Then when I was 16, my family moved to California and it was in my junior year of high school and that’s when my whole life was just trying to get into a band.

“In high school I met this singer and she was like, ‘Oh, you should play with my sister. She’s an artist,’ and turned out it was Teena Marie who was on Motown. I auditioned for her band and got the gig. 

“We opened for Prince. It was crazy. It was like that period when Controversy first came out. Not that I’m a huge funk guitar player, but it really taught me how to play in a band and sit in a pocket and understand that aspect of playing. 

“But I was still a kid. You think it’s about the money and it wasn’t. It was just really about the experience and getting to play with really great musicians. Each time I thought, ‘This is it. This could be the break,’ and they’re not. It’s just part of the journey. It’s just part of your path.”

What was the path that took you from being a session guitarist around town to a Grammy Award-winning record producer?

“I was playing in this band, it was called The Uninvited. We were playing clubs around town and this young gal kept coming to see us play and I heard she was putting together a band. 

“She came up to me one night after we played a show and she’s like, ‘I’m playing The Roxy tomorrow night, I think you should come see me.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, okay.’ It was Melissa Etheridge and this is her early, early days and she had just moved to LA, so I went to see her play. 

“I was so blown away by her stage presence and her songwriting and her strength as a performer and as a writer. I was like, ‘Well, so much for my dreams.’ My dream in that moment was like, ‘I want to stand next to her. I want to be in her band.’ And that was probably a really smart thought because our lives have intertwined since the 80s and she’s been a force for me forever. 

“I started playing as just her guitar player for many years and I got the opportunity to tour the world with her – starting off with her in a van and then a shitty bus. Then we got a better bus, and then I left the band for a little bit and grew up a bit, came back to LA and got my shit together and started working again, and then started doing more sessions. 

“Then I was playing somewhere and I bumped into Melissa and she asked me to come back and join the band again. She’s like, ‘I’ve been through all these guitar players… It’s time for you to come home.’ That was the beginning of her ascension. 

“I was still just the guitar player, but it put me in a room with Pino Palladino and Hugh Pageant, who was the producer, and Kenny Aronoff. When I had the opportunity to be in a room with not just musician heroes or peers but producers that I respected, you start to see what qualities they have that I admire, and you go, ‘Well, this guy’s so good with singers, the way he treats them, the way he gets the best out of them, how he pushes them, how he really challenges the band as far as tempo, arrangement, getting the best version of the song down.’ 

“That was massive for me because if you’re there and you’re just another schlub on the bus, so to speak, or a cog in the wheel, your job as a player is to make the song sound as great as it can be.

“I was very cognisant of never crossing that boundary with Melissa. I never went to her and said, ‘I write songs, too,’ or ‘You should hear my demos.’ So when we were working on a record and the person who was producing the record wasn’t going well, Pino Palladino came up to me and he goes, ‘Listen, man. By the end of this day you’re going to be producing this record, so get ready.’ And I was like, ‘There is no way I’m going to produce this record.’ 

“He’s like, ‘She loves you, it’s your time. You’re ready. You guys work well together and I’ve been in this position. I’m just further down the road than you and I’ve seen this happen. And you would be the right guy.’ And that opportunity happened.

“It wasn’t because I imposed my ego on her; it was a collaborative journey we went on. And that record, I made sure I wasn’t the only guitar player. I brought in Greg Leisz to play what he does and he’s my friend. I brought in Jon Brion, a guitar player I really loved. 

“And we had all these amazing drummers – from Abe [Laboriel Jr] to [Jim] Keltner to [Steve] Ferrone, to Matt Chamberlain, to Kenny Aronoff to Vinny [Colaiuta]. It was amazing. And that record, [Breakdown, 1999], got nominated for a number of Grammys. [Angels Would Fall] was a song that she and I had written together that was nominated for Best Rock Song. 

“All of a sudden, because of this record, it was like I got my credentials stamped – to them, to the A&R community, to the managers, to the record companies. I was the same guy, but to them I guess I was worthy enough. And literally since that day, I’ve never stopped working. That was in the 90s.”

You’ve worked with Van Halen, Sheryl Crow, The Doobie Brothers, Miley Cyrus, The Goo Goo Dolls… But it was Bon Jovi that saw you come full circle and get back on the road as a member of the touring band. How did this come about?

“Well, I didn’t tour from basically 2000 till 2016. I just didn’t want to go on the road. I was grateful to be writing and producing records, and I thought that’s my life. I have two boys and it was important for me to be at home. But I was always producing and writing with Jon and Richie on these Bon Jovi records – we’ve done eight or nine together.

“Then when Richie left the band, I played more guitar on This House Is Not For Sale. At the end of doing that record Jon and I, we’re really close, he said, ‘Listen, do you want to do the promo tour with us? You played a lot of these guitars, it’d be really good for you and Phil to work together. Can you do that?’ It was not, ‘Can you physically literally do it?’, but can you be Ronnie Wood? You’re not Keith Richards, you’re not Richie. Can you be the other guy? 

“It’s the joke in the band. It’s like, ‘Oh it’s Phil X and the other guy.’ I’m the other guy. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I can…’ I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it when I was 20 or 23. I was really cocky and my ego wouldn’t have let me do it. But I think as one gets older, hopefully humility kicks in and you have more maturity, and I was very grateful. 

“So we did the promo tour and at the end of it he said to me, ‘It’s basically yours if you want it.’ I actually called a couple friends of mine, artists, and I said, ‘Is this a bad thing to do for my career? Whatever Grammy-winning blah, blah, blah, is this dumb?’ And it’s funny, independently they both said to me, ‘You’ve been staring at a computer screen for 20 years, and I think it’s time.’ I realise it’s a privilege, that I’m ready to go back and I want to play with the band.”  

John Shanks: Gear tour

GIBSON TRINI LOPEZ

“Believe it or not, that [blue] Trini Lopez I found on eBay in the early days of eBay, I saved it as a search. It was a dream guitar – ‘Pelham Blue, Trini Lopez’ – way before Dave Grohl got into them. 

“I thought the headstock was really unique because it’s more of a Firebird headstock, and then you have this crazy colour, and the Patent Sticker pickups, which I’m a big fan of – they’re super shiny and bell-like and cut through in a really musical way. So I saved it as a search and it turned out that the guy that sold it to me had had the guitar since he bought it.

“The black one’s pretty rare, too. I know Gibson has just reissued a black Trini Lopez [Historic Reissue Standard in 2020] – and Phil X has one that he plays live. But this one’s from the 60s.”

1958 GOLDTOP GIBSON LES PAUL

“That Goldtop, believe it or not, that might be the best guitar I own – in the sense that it’s perfectly balanced, the weight and the neck, the neck is a perfect size. It’s not super, super chunky like some ’58s. You have to understand that halfway through ’58 is when they went to the sunburst, so I’m sure if you pull the gold off that thing, there might be flame underneath, who knows. 

“But there’s something about that era, ’57 and ’58. When the gold fades it just has such a beautiful lustre and they’re beautiful looking. It’s perfectly balanced where the neck pickup is weaker than the bridge pickup. You go to the neck pickup and it’s really bell-like and chime-y. It has that classic kind of Dickey Betts, Allman Brothers-y thing, which is a lot of tone, a lot of cut and character, not muddy. And when you roll down, it gets really clean.

“I would love to take that guitar on the road, but I won’t do it. I’ve often thought about it because I play this game where I think, ‘Oh I should sell some guitars. I’ve got to sell guitars. Which ones would go first?’ And I’ll tell you that Goldtop would be one of the last.”

ZEMAITIS CUSTOM

“That guitar is a Zemaitis, made in England by Tony Zemaitis. Guys like Ronnie Wood played one. I think Dave Edmunds played one, but then I saw that James Honeyman-Scott, who was the lead guitar player in The Pretenders, played one – and I’m a huge Pretenders fan. 

“I love Chrissie Hynde and I love James Honeyman-Scott’s guitar playing… huge fan. I was lucky enough to meet Peggy Sue Honeyman-Scott, who was married to James.” 

“At the time she was selling some of his guitars as she was putting a kid through college, so I was a caretaker for about four of his guitars for a couple years and had the privilege of bringing them back to life, cleaning them up, getting tech to properly work on them. They were pretty beat up. Then she sold some of them through an auction. This was the last one and I just couldn’t let that one go.”

1963 FENDER JAGUAR

“That’s a ’63 Jaguar. I think it might have been Firemist Silver – it’s a silver colour and it’s faded into a green. I don’t know if I’d use it on the road, but I certainly use it in the studio. It’s a great guitar. They’re very unique.”

1952 FENDER ESQUIRE

“I took the body for that neck and then had this other ’52 and I just swapped it – and that’s the one I play on the road. It’s got the chunkier neck, but I made them both into Teles, even though they say Esquire. I was in New York and got the privilege of checking out Keith Richards’ guitar one day, and a lot of his Teles are Esquires. 

“They were always like, ‘Man, you can’t beat that pickup,’ because it’s a little tougher. It’s a little hotter because it was the only pickup – they wound them a little tougher. I acquired those maybe in the early 2000s. 

“Obviously, the prices of these things have gone through the roof, but at the time this guitar was so beat up, I don’t think I paid that much for it. But in order to make the ultimate one, I just combined the body and the necks, and that’s what I play live with Bon Jovi. It’s very Stones-y. It kind of has that thing.”

1964 FENDER STRATOCASTER

“That’s a ’64 Shoreline Gold Stratocaster. I bought it for $3,000 from Albert [Molinaro] from Guitars R Us, which used to be on Sunset Boulevard across from Guitar Center. He was very kind to me because at the time I couldn’t just give him three grand. He literally let me pay him 200 bucks a week for months. 

“I played that guitar at Woodstock ’94. That’s one of the guitars I won’t sell; it means so much to me. Supposedly it belonged to Brian Setzer at one time, and then I think it went to one of the gals in The Go-Go’s, and then it went to me. That’s what I heard… you never know when you hear these stories.”

1960 GIBSON ES-335

“These Gibsons are super rare. It’s an ES-355 from 1960. From what I’ve been told, it’s the only 355 from 1960. One of one. Really rare. This guitar is a ‘60 gold parts mono’, meaning it doesn’t have the tone switches. I’ve been told by Joe Bonamassa that if I sell it, I have to sell it to him.”

1960 GIBSON ES-335

“This belonged to Johnny Marr from The Smiths, and there’s pictures of him all over the internet playing it. What’s interesting about the Johnny Marr one is he changed the pickups and put in Seymour Duncan pickups that he can split the coils, so he can get that real kind of jangly, single-coil Smith’s thing, or you can make it a humbucker. 

“So when you pull up on the volume knobs, they split the coils on the pickups. That was a guitar I said yes to without even playing it because I knew the guitar and what it was.”

VEMURAM SHANKS ODS-1

“This is my favourite effects pedal. It’s an overdrive pedal by a Japanese company that makes boutique guitar effects. I designed a few pedals with them [a range of fuzz boxes], but the last one we did was this overdrive pedal. It took us two and a half years to develop. It’s not a super gainy pedal; it has a lot of transparency and a lot of clarity. 

“That Pedal Show reviewed it and they gave it the best review. It was like I wrote the review! So everyone go on YouTube and just watch their review of that pedal. I sat there with my mouth open. They were so kind – I’m a fan of that show. My other favourite guitar pedal is an [Electro-Harmonix] Deluxe Memory Man.”

1960s GIBSON SG

“There’s something about that colour green for me when it fades. I mean, it’s blue, but when it fades it gets greener. The slight amber of the lacquer gets yellower, which therefore makes the paint look green. It has a Vibrola, I think they are called. Everyone thinks Vibrolas don’t really stay in tune. But if you use them in a subtle way, they do.”

Richie Sambora has dropped hints that a reunion with his former band Bon Jovi could take place at next year’s Glastonbury festival, in the UK.

Speaking to the UK’s Metro paper at the Music Industry Trust Awards (MITS) in London on November 7, the guitarist was questioned about his appearance at Glastonbury with Dolly Parton in 2014.

Later prompted on the subject of whether he might appear with Bon Jovi at the same event for what the paper terms “a proper reunion” Sambora replied, “It’s a possibility. We’re talking a bit.”

The UK festival does have a remarkable track record in surprise bookings for major guests, but we’d consider this rumor best filed in the ‘unconfirmed’ category for now. However, it is nonetheless a promising hint of a rekindled musical relationship and friendship for Sambora and his former bandmates. 

It also marks a change in tone from the guitarist, who this time last year told Nile Rodgers’ Deep Hidden Meaning Radio that he felt he had to downplay his songwriting contributions in the band: “that was part of my deal, to shut the fuck up.”

In a somewhat complicated picture, Sambora has otherwise appeared to maintain contact with members of Bon Jovi and even joined the group onstage during their 2018 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Session royalty Phil X has served as the band’s guitarist since 2013.

Bon Jovi’s original bassist Alec John Such passed away in June of this year, aged 70. “As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band,” said a statement from the band at the time. 

“To be honest, we found our way to each other through him. He was a childhood friend of Tico [Torres] and brought Richie [Sambora] to see us perform. Alec was always wild and full of life. Today those special memories being [a] smile to my face and a tear to my eye. We’ll miss him dearly.”

Perhaps the mutual loss has led to a softening of stances from both parties…

Alec John Such, a founding member and former bass player of iconic rock band Bon Jovi, has passed away at the age of 70.

The news was confirmed via a statement posted to Bon Jovi’s official Twitter account. A cause of death has not been announced.

“We are heartbroken to hear the news of the passing of our dear friend Alec John Such,” the statement said. “He was an original. As a founding member of Bon Jovi, Alec was integral to the formation of the band. 

“To be honest, we found our way to each other through him,” it continued. “He was a childhood friend of Tico [Torres] and brought Richie [Sambora] to see us perform. Alec was always wild and full of life.

“Today those special memories being [a] smile to my face and a tear to my eye. We’ll miss him dearly.”

Born in 1952 in Yonkers, New York, Such was an influential force behind the formation of Bon Jovi. Having honed his craft playing in a band called The Message, Such would later receive a call from an early Bon Jovi lineup – then comprising only Jon Bon Jovi and keyboardist David Bryan – to join as the band’s bassist.

After a turbulent few months, the majority of the band’s lineup was eventually solidified thanks to Such, who tapped Tico Torres and Richie Sambora to fill the drummer and rhythm guitar positions, respectively. As of today, Torres still remains a core member of the group.

Such left the group in 1994, and though he never rekindled his in-studio musical relationship with the Bon Jovi crew, the bassist did make an appearance for the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2018, during which he reflected upon his time with the band.

“When Jon Bon Jovi called me up and asked me to be in his band many years ago, I soon realized how serious he was and he had a vision that he wanted to bring us to, and I am too happy to have been a part of that vision,” Such said at the time. 

“These guys are the best. We had so many great times together and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those guys. Love them to death and always will.”

Along with their statement, Bon Jovi posted a montage of Such, which was set to the song Blood On Blood – a track from New Jersey that Such would occasionally take lead vocals for during live shows.

Richie Sambora has said that he felt obliged to keep quiet about his role in penning Bon Jovi songs, telling Nile Rodgers “that was part of my deal, to shut the fuck up.”

The guitarist – who left the band in 2013, stating that he wished to spend more time with his family – was appearing on Nile Rodgers Deep Hidden Meaning Radio on Apple Music. Their discussion starts by looking at the perception around his role in the band. 

“A lot of people don’t know… but you’re like singing on everything,” comments Rodgers. “It’s strange because when the band has a front guy and the band has the front guy’s name, you think that all the singing is the front guy.”

Sambora then chimes in, “And all the writing. That was part of my deal: to shut the fuck up. If I had a coffee place, the sign would say, ‘Have a hot steaming cup of shut the fuck up.’ That would be my coffee place. And you know what? Guess what? I did it. And it worked out because that's what he needed, for whatever reason.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Sambora discusses the writing of the band’s signature song, Wanted Dead Or Alive.

"I thought if the band was going to have any longevity, we needed a banner song for guys,” says Sambora, who had noticed their fans tended to be female.

"And I had this idea, Wanted Dead or Alive. And I got stoned one day, and I was sitting in my mother's basement waiting for Jon to bring me a pizza so we could get going. And I came up with that riff and I went, ‘Well, that's pretty easy.’

“And it's a very simple riff,” he continues. "It seems like it's hard to play – it's not hard to play at all. And it made girls able to bring their husbands and their boyfriends, [who] didn't feel like they had to go hide someplace.”

Sambora has only played with Bon Jovi once since leaving the band in 2013, appearing at their induction to the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 2018. However, Sambora has previously told Rolling Stone “there ain’t no malice”, in his relationship with singer Jon Bon Jovi.

Check out Richie Sambora’s full interview with Nile Rodgers on Apple Music.

A huge fundraiser featuring personally signed electric guitars from Kiss’s Tommy Thayer, Bon Jovi’s Phil X and Ghost’s Papa Emeritus IV, among other pieces of music memorabilia, is being launched to benefit Roadie Relief.

Founded by Chad Ward, Roadie Relief works to provide ongoing support to live event workers struggling financially as a result of work stoppage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fundraiser has been organized with 32auctions.com.

Among the many items on offer include a Tommy Thayer-signed signature series Epiphone Les Paul, a Phil X-signed Gibson Les Paul Jr. and a Papa Emeritus IV-signed Hagstrom Phantom.

Also up for sale are a Steve Stevens-signed J. Rockett Audio Rockaway Archer overdrive EQ guitar pedal and guitar pics; a PRS SE Custom 24-08; a custom handmade guitar used on episodes of Couch Riffs; a Darkglass Electronics 500 v1 bass amp; and a Daredevil Almighty Bass pedal.

Non-guitar items, meanwhile, include a Taylor Hawkins piano black Gretsch drum kit used at Wembley Stadium in 2008 with the Foo Fighters, along with an All Access laminate from the show; a Metallica bundle including a show poster, a pair of Lars Ulrich's used drum sticks and one of Ulrich’s custom snare drum heads; and five different Faith No More bundles that have a signed poster, guitar picks and an after-show pass.

The auction is live now and ends April 14. For a full list of items, head to 32auctions.com.

Gibson TV has unveiled a new “thoroughly epic and unique” online series, Riff Lords, featuring iconic artists using a variety of Gibsons and Epiphones to demonstrate how to play their classic songs.

The new series kicks off with episodes featuring Bon Jovi and Phil X & the Drills electric guitar player Phil X and Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner.

In Phil X’s episode, he breaks down Bon Jovi classic like Wanted Dead or Alive, Bad Medicine and You Give Love A Bad Name, as well as Drills tunes like Kiss My Troublemaker and Talk You Off the Ledge, using a Custom Shop 1964 SG Standard Reissue with Maestro Vibrola and Custom Shop 60th Anniversary ‘59 Les Paul Standard.

Faulkner, meanwhile, grabs an Epiphone Inspired By Gibson Flying V and other guitars to blast through Priest anthems like Electric Eye, Painkiller, Hell Bent for Leather, You've Got Another Thing Comin’ and more.

Riff Lords and all Gibson TV shows are streaming for free on Gibson.com and Gibson TV’s official YouTube channel.

What makes for a great 12-string guitar song as opposed to a great song that just happens to have a 12-string guitar somewhere on it? Let's face it, if Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven had a ukulele on it, it would immediately be in the running for Greatest Ukulele Song of All Time.

That being said, we looked at not only the legacy of the song but how prevalent 12-string guitar is in the song and how influential the song would be in inspiring others to pick up their 12-strings.

Without the 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, the Byrds might not have existed as you now know them (assuming you know them - and you should know them), and without Stairway to Heaven, the double-neck guitar might be sitting in a museum as a one-time oddity produced by Gibson. So what song will we crown as the best 12-string guitar song of all time?

Read on ... (And yes, we threw in an extra song; our math isn't too good. Enjoy our top 31!).

Also, before we get started, we're presenting an "honorable mention" award for Tom Petty's Somewhere Under Heaven, his standalone 2015 single, which proves artists are still writing and recording great 12-string guitar songs in the modern era. The song, which was written by Petty and Mike Campbell, was featured in the Entourage soundtrack in 2015 (but don't hold that against it). It's actually an unreleased song from Petty's Wildflowers sessions.

31. Pantera - Suicide Note, Part 1

Album: The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) 

This song marked one of the most experimental moments in Pantera's catalog, with Dimebag Darrell's dark 12-string guitar part perfectly echoing the song's somber subject matter.

30. John Butler Trio - Ocean

Album: John Butler (1998) 

The newest song to make the cut, John Butler's instrumental masterpiece Ocean stands as a fine example of the timeless sound of the 12-string. Keep an ear out for Butler's use of two-hand tapping ala Satriani in Midnight.

29. America - A Horse with No Name

Album: America (1971) 

Although the 12-string acoustic guitar plays only a supporting role in this ubiquitous folk-rock tune about a nameless equine, it actually plays a major part in its overall sound.

When A Horse With No Name was released, a lot of people thought it was a Neil Young song, which is ironic because it replaced Young's Heart of Gold at the Number 1 spot on the U.S. pop chart.

28. Bob Dylan - Hurricane

Album: Desire (1976) 

Most assume it was Dylan himself who played the 12-string here, but it was actually session guitarist Vinnie Bell manning the Danelectro Bellzouki 12-string guitar on this classic cut.

27. Gordon Lightfoot - Early Morning Rain

Album: Gord's Gold (1975) 

Gordon Lightfoot re-recorded this old Gordon Lightfoot tune for his 1975 compilation album, Gord's Gold, and it's this lush, radio-friendly version that became the hit. While 12-string electric guitars were all the rage in the '60s, 12-string acoustics had taken their place in the '70s; this song is a prime example of that shift.

26. Alice In Chains - I Stay Away

Album: Jar of Flies (1994) 

If ever there was a rock band who had an equally strong handle on menacing drop-D riffs and menacing, introspective acoustic music, it was most certainly Alice In Chains. I Stay Away from Jar of Flies is not only the band's best 12-string moment, but it marks the first track Jerry Cantrell wrote with then-new Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez.

25. The Hollies - Look Through Any Window

Album: Hollies (1965) 

As you'll see, 1965 was a huge year for the electric 12-string guitar. It was big like synthesizers and skinny black ties were big in 1982. You had your Byrds, of course, your Beatles - and your Hollies, who rode the 12-string bandwagon to great heights with this song written by Graham Gouldman and Charles Silverman. That's Tony Hicks on the 12-string, by the way.

24. Queen - 39

Album: A Night at the Opera (1975) 

Brian May's massive-sounding 12-string acoustic is an integral part of this sci-fi masterpiece, the B-side of You're My Best Friend. It's about a group of astronauts who set out on what they think is a one-year journey, but when they get back, they realize they've been gone for 100 years. They simply don't write Einstein allusions like this anymore.

23. Mahavishnu Orchestra - You Know You Know

Album: The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) 

It's undeniable that Mahavishnu Orchestra had many fine 12-string moments in their career, but You Know You Know off their first album, The Inner Mounting Flame, stands out as guitarist John McLaughlin's shining moment with the instrument. Fun fact: This song was later sampled by both Mos Def and Massive Attack.

22. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Breaking the Girl

Album: Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) 

One of only two Chili Peppers songs in 3/4 time, John Frusciante's main 12-string riff in this song was inspired by none other than Jimmy Page.

21. Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train a Comin'

Album: Blues (1969) 

Jimi Hendrix sitting alone playing blues on a 12-string acoustic guitar is a reminder that, despite all of his distortion and psychedelia, he always felt a strong connection to his roots, including Delta blues. Although he performed and recorded electric, full-band versions of this song (as heard on the Valleys of Neptune album), this version is more stark and disarming.

20. Supertramp - Give a Little Bit

Album: Even in the Quietest Moments... (1977) 

This international hit for Supertramp is a pop masterpiece in the key of D, which, as the Byrds proved a decade-plus earlier, is the 12-stringiest of all the keys. It was written by Roger Hodgson, and a solo Hodgson performance is featured in the video below.

19. David Bowie - Space Oddity

Album: David Bowie/Space Oddity (1969) 

Long before working with the likes of Adrian Belew, Carlos Alomar, Robert Fripp and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bowie himself manned the 12-string for his 1969 ballad of Maj. Tom. The song was so well-received, the album it appeared on, David Bowie, was renamed after the song before its 1972 reissue.

18. The Who - Substitute

Single (1966) 

When Pete Townshend wanted a riff to one-up the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, he reached for his 12-string. "Substitute" was a top ten hit twice in the U.K., once in 1966 when it was originally released an again 10 years later when it was re-issued. The track found unlikely supporters in the punk rock movement, being covered by both the Sex Pistols and the Ramones.

17. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

Album: A Hard Day's Night (1964) 

Although the Byrds were the band that was most associated with the 12-string Rickenbacker in the '60s, their inspiration came from the Beatles. "We went as a group to see A Hard Day’s Night multiple times and were totally taken with the Beatles," said Roger (formerly Jim) McGuinn. 

"I liked George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 12, but I couldn’t find one that looked like his with the pointy cutaways, so I bought the blonde 360 model." For a clear, crisp example of the beauty of the guitar's sound, check out the 12-string riff as the song fades.

16. Rod Stewart - Maggie May

Album: Every Picture Tells a Story (1971) 

Maggie May, Rod's Stewart's first hit as a solo performer, starred a striking combination of 12-string acoustic guitar and mandolin. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song at No. 130 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. We like it too.

15. Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive

Album: Slippery When Wet (1986) 

Half-inspired by Old West Outlaws and half by Bob Seger's Turn the Page, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora managed to craft arguably the most recognizable acoustic guitar riff of a ballad-heavy era in rock music.

14. The Rolling Stones - As Tears Go By

Album: December's Children (And Everybody's) (1965) 

This was one of the first Jagger/Richards compositions - although producer Andrew Loog Oldham is also credited as a writer. Legend has it that ol' Loog Locked Mick and Keith in a room and told them to come out with an original song, period. This is what they came up with, and they gave it to Marianne Faithfull in 1964 before taking a stab at it a year later.

13. The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

Album: Mr. Tambourine Man (1965) 

Even though George Harrison had been recording with his 12-string Rickenbacker for a while, with this song, Jim (later Roger) McGuinn showed the world exactly how cool a 12-string guitar could be. Its jangly sound was the perfect partner to Bob Dylan's ethereal lyrics. The 12-string Rick would be an integral part of the Byrds' sound until they disbanded in 1973.

12. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven

Album: Led Zeppelin IV (1971) 

With this song, Jimmy Page did for the doubleneck guitar what Roger McGuinn of the Byrds did for the 12-string electric. Or perhaps more fitting, Page did for the doubleneck what Henry Ford did for the horseless carriage.

11. Rush - Closer to the Heart

Album: A Farewell to Kings (1977) 

Taken from Rush's 1977 album A Farewell to Kings, Closer to the Heart begins with a majestic-sounding arpeggio picking pattern played by guitarist Alex Lifeson on a 12-string guitar. This song was also Rush's first hit in the U.K. and has been a staple of their live show ever since.

10. Ozzy Osbourne - Mama I’m Coming Home

Album: No More Tears (1991) 

Zakk Wylde's obvious Southern-rock homage in the opening bar gives way to beautiful, descending riff, which anchored Ozzy Osbourne's only solo Top 40 hit. Rest assured there are plenty of Zakk's patented pinch harmonics to go around, but the sound of the 12-string intro is what makes this song instantly recognizable.

9. Boston - More Than a Feeling

Album: Boston (1976) 

A classic rock radio mainstay and one of the most recognizable 12-string guitar intros in all of rock, More Than a Feeling reportedly took Tom Sholz five years to write.

8. Tom Petty - Free Falling

Album: Full Moon Fever (1989) 

Back when the Traveling Wilburys ruled the airwaves, Tom Petty, a Wilbury himself, adopted the band's thick, acoustic sound for Full Moon Fever, his first solo outing. He also took fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne along for the ride as co-producer. 

This one features 12-string acoustic on the rhythm and a touch of 12-string Rickenbacker on the mini-solo.

7. The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!

Album: Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965) 

Yes, it's the Byrds again. This song is higher up on the list than Mr. Tambourine Man because of its beautiful 12-string Rickenbacker solo and the fact that the Byrds are actually playing on it (which is not entirely true for Mr. Tambourine Man).

6. The Beatles - Ticket to Ride

Album: Help! (1965) 

Yet another one from '65. This tune, with its crisp 12-string Rickenbacker intro, is one of the many highlights from the Beatles' second feature film, Help! Just play an A on the G string, an open E string, a C sharp on the B string, that A again and then an open B string, and you're on your way.

5. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Rude Mood

Album: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (Box Set) (1990) 

It was a little surprising when SRV turned up on MTV's Unplugged in 1990 with a Guild 12-string, tearing through a slew of Texas Flood tunes, including Pride and Joy, Testify and Rude Mood. 

Then again, that's also the year he recorded Life by the Drop on a 12-string. Perhaps he'd stumbled upon something new that he could've put to greater use in the future.

4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Album: Wish You Were Here (1975)

Recorded to sound like it was being played through an old transistor radio, the 12-string intro of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here never fails to evoke a sense of nostalgia. 

When David Gilmour plays the overdubbed six-string solo, sounding like a lonely old man playing along with the radio, you get one of the most timeless songs in the back catalog of one of the most timeless bands of all time.

3. Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away

Album: Houses of the Holy (1973)

Stairway might be the most revered song on this list, but there's no denying Over The Hills and Far Away as the quintessential 12-string guitar song in Led Zeppelin's catalog. Yes, that Davey Graham was a great guitar player...

2. The Byrds - Eight Miles High

Album: Fifth Dimension (1966)

Hey, we love big, sloppy guitar solos played on Rickenbacker 360s. This is Jim (later Roger) McGuinn at his, well, 12-stringiest.

1. The Eagles - Hotel California

Album: Hotel California (1976)

Yes, it's Hotel California. What a nice surprise! Admit it: Don Felder's 12-string acoustic guitar intro (and every other note and chord he plays on this song) is, at this point, a part of our collective consciousness. 

This song, the ubiquitous soundtrack to 37 trillion barbecues, elevator rides and long trips through Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley, California, at 3 a.m., has never gone away - and probably never will.

Legendary Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X has signed with Gibson as a brand ambassador, joining Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains, and moving from Framus where he had the XG signature model.

“Phil is one of the most versatile guitar players today and has an unparalleled ability to cover a wide range of music genres,” says Cesar Gueikian, Chief Merchant Officer of Gibson. “Phil is one of my favorite songwriters and entertainers and everyday he inspires fans of all generations to pick up a guitar and play. Above all, Phil is a wonderful person, a friend and I see him joining our Gibson family as coming home.”

The move coincides with Phil X & The Drills new album, Stupid Good Lookings Vol. 2, which features a different drummer on each song including Tommy Lee, Taylor Hawkins, Liberty Devitto, Kenny Aronoff and Ray Luzier.

Gibson sat down with the newly appointed brand ambassador to welcome him to the fold.

Welcome to Gibson. How do you like your new Explorer/SG/Les Paul?

“Thank you. I’m very partial to the SG style, but I love the neck of the '58 Les Paul and a thicker body, so my hope is to marry the two into a balanced dream guitar. Plus, I love Les Pauls, Explorers and Flying Vs, so I feel fortunate to finally be with Gibson.”

What is your personal history with Gibson guitars?

“I’ve owned and played many over the years. It’s funny, when I was a budding session guitar player in LA, I had to borrow a Les Paul from a friend to go record Alice Cooper’s Brutal Planet record. Now I have a few (haha).

"Most of the guitars recorded on Daughtry’s first record were a ’59 double-cutaway Jr and a mid ‘60s Trini Lopez. On the 2017 Bon Jovi This House Is Not For Sale tour, I tried my Explorer for 'Lay Your Hands On Me' one night and bam!, it had to be that guitar every night.”

What Gibson artists inspired you to play and who might still inspire you today? 

“Of course, it was Jimmy Page and the Les Paul. The KISS perfect lineup was a Gibson bass, Ace’s LP and Paul’s Flying V. Man… I really wanted a V after that. Now, what I love seeing is super old pictures of Eddie Van Halen rocking a Les Paul. Just completely on fire and blowing minds without a whammy bar.”

You teased a new Gibson SG on Instagram. Tell us about this guitar. What is it?!

“That is actually a 1964 Custom Shop SG I saw at the showroom in Nashville in August. It didn’t catch my eye. It punched it. That finish looks like a delicious apple. The neck is fatter than usual too. I played it with Jovi in South America last September, but as I’m getting ready to really dig into the company as well as do a Drills tour in March, I had to personalize it.

"I put an Arcane PX100 (a P90 style pickup in a humbucker housing) in the bridge position, pulled the neck pickup out (and replaced it with a DC action figure) and just ran one volume and one tone. This is my 'pre sitting down with the Luthier at Gibson and throwing around ideas for a signature' Phil X machine and it kicks ass!"

How do you go about choosing a guitar that will be appropriate for the demands of playing in Bon Jovi? 

“Of course, each guitar has to suit each song. For most of the catalogue, anything that simply produces a great rock tone works. It’ll be harder to pick what not to play. i.e.: Bed Of Roses... do I want to play a 57 Custom Shop Gold Top or a natural ES-355?  It’ll be a blast putting guitars to songs. I’m actually excited to dig into that process.”

If you only had one instrument to play for the entire gig, what would it be and why?

“If it’s a Drills gig, the 1964 Custom Shop personalized SG mentioned above because of its simplicity and all the tones at my fingertips with just one volume dialing in the anger of the PX100 that rolls back to a chime. 

For Jovi, there’s a little more demand covering a 30-year career. Probably an ES-335 with Filter'Trons and coil tapping options. You can get pretty much anything out of a workhorse like that.”

For more information, head to Phil X's website.

Ovation Guitars has teamed up with Richie Sambora to create two new guitars—the Signature Series Elite Double Neck and RS Rockstar—for the benefit of youth music programs.

Sambora—best known for his three-decade tenure as the guitarist for recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Bon Jovi—will donate the profits from the sale of the Signature Series Elite Double Neck to the non-profit organization Notes for Notes, which builds, equips and staffs after-school recording studios in Boys & Girls Clubs and after-school facilities across the U.S.

The acoustic/electric double-neck model features a sitka spruce top in Gloss Black, an ebony fingerboard inlaid with mother of pearl stars, teak/paduk/walnut/mesquite inlaid rosette/epaulettes, gold hardware and a mother of pearl star inlay on the body. The guitar is finished with Sambora’s signature in gold on the headstock.

“My relationship with Ovation goes back to the very beginning,” Sambora said in a statement. “They worked with me to help create my original acoustic double neck when nobody else could even figure out how to make one. It’s all come full circle now that these new models will help benefit the next generation of players.”

You can watch Sambora take the Signature Series Elite Double Neck for a brief spin in the video below.

The six-string RS Rockstar guitar was created by Ovation and Sambora in tandem with the DW Music Foundation. The guitar will be donated to each Notes for Notes location along with a DW drum set to equip each studio with professional-level musical instruments. The DWMF also will work with other partnering charities to donate RS Rockstar model guitars to music education programs in underserved communities worldwide.

The RS Rockstar is an acoustic/electric hybrid single neck, six-string guitar that features all the essentials of the Ovation Elite sound and style. Premium features include a laminated spruce top with Elite-style multi-soundholes for clearly articulated tone and a mid-depth body for greater volume and projection, excellent balance and supreme durability. The guitar also features comfortable action and an easy-playing neck profile, multi-hardwood epaulettes for the classic Elite aesthetic and an Ovation CE304T pickup/preamp system with 3-band EQ and built-in tuner for superior amplified tone and performance.

For more info on the guitars, head on over to ovationguitars.com.

A week after announcing the results of the fan vote for its 2018 inductions, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its class of 2018. Bon Jovi—who easily won the fan vote—Moody Blues, Dire Straits, The Cars and Nina Simone will all be enshrined at the ceremony at Cleveland's Public Hall on April 14, 2018.

Notable omissions included Radiohead—who were on the ballot for the first time this year—and Judas Priest, who had finished fifth in the fan voting. Sister Rosetta Tharpe—who was also up for induction—will be given an Early Influence award.

"I wasn't surprised, but I was pleased," Jon Bon Jovi told The New York Times of his band's induction.

An edited version of the ceremony will air at a later date on HBO and on radio on SiriusXM.

For more information on the ceremony, stop by rockhall.com.

The polls have closed for the fan vote for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2018, and Bon Jovi have emerged as the clear winners.

With 1.16 million votes, the New Jersey band trounced the competition, coming in close to 200,000 votes ahead of runner-ups Moody Blues, and over half a million votes ahead of third-place finishers Dire Straits.

The other two "winners" of the fan vote (the Hall of Fame gives an extra vote to the top five finishers in the fan vote) were The Cars and Judas Priest, who edged out sixth place finishers The Zombies by about 9,000 votes.

In other noteworthy finishes, Radiohead and Rage Against the Machine came well short of the top five, finishing 12th and 13th with 176,310 and 167,903 votes respectively.

The winners of the overall vote will be inducted in April 2018 in Cleveland.

You can see the full results over at rockhall.com.

Four years ago, Richie Sambora was vacationing in Hawaii and was asked by his old pal Alice Cooper to join him onstage at his annual charity concert for the Maui Food Bank.

The former Bon Jovi guitarist had no idea his life was about to change. “Before the show, I’m sitting in the audience with Alice while the main band is soundchecking, and I see this beautiful girl onstage with a guitar,” says Sambora. “I said to Alice, ‘Wow, who’s that?’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s Orianthi. She’s in my band. She’s played with Michael Jackson—she’s really great.’ ”

While Sambora might have been first attracted to Orianthi’s looks, it was love at first shred the second he heard her play. “I was blown away, and so I was even more intrigued,” he says. “I was like, ‘All right, that’s somebody I wanna jam with!’ ”

For her part, the 32-year-old Orianthi knew full well who Sambora was. As a budding guitarist growing up in Australia, she had seen him hundreds of times in Bon Jovi videos. “ ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’—those are iconic songs,” she says. “I knew Richie was an amazing player, but I wasn’t expecting us to connect so quickly during the charity concert. We did ‘Voodoo Child’ and then with Sammy Hagar we played ‘Rock Candy.’ Our styles mixed so well—I was really pleasantly surprised.”

A month later, Sambora invited Orianthi to join him for a tour of Europe and her native Australia, and sparks started flying both onstage and off. “There was no hesitation with anything,” Sambora says. “We dove right in and became a couple right away. We didn’t really think, ‘Oh, we should keep the musical and personal things separate.’ ” Adds Orianthi, “I think what really helped is the fact that we’re both guitarists. We share a language, and we have so much respect for each other. That makes everything easier.”

Once Orianthi fulfilled her touring commitments to Alice Cooper, she moved in with the 58-year-old Sambora in Los Angeles, where the two made firm plans for their musical collaboration. For a time, they struggled to find a suitable band name before finally deciding on their initials, RSO. “It’s better than Samborianthi,” Sambora jokes. “And Ori-Bora, that definitely wasn’t happening.”

They set up a musical compound in their home—recording gear in the kitchen, amps in the dining room, and a drum room in the home theater area. “It seems crazy, but it works,” Sambora stresses. “My good friend Bob Rock [producer of Bon Jovi and Metallica, among others] helped us put it all together, and he did a great job. We get some killer sounds right in the kitchen.”

With Rock in tow as producer and occasional bassist, the happy couple recorded a healthy batch of the nearly 70 songs they had written over a two-year period. While Sambora and Orianthi handled vocal, guitar and some bass duties, they welcomed a host of guest players, such as keyboardist John Webster and Paul McCartney drummer Abe Laboriel Jr.

“We had a blast the entire time,” Orianthi says. “Richie and Bob have a great chemistry from all their years together. I’d met Bob at some of the Maui jams Alice has thrown, so it was cool for me to finally work with him.”

RSO’s first release comes in the form of a five-song EP called Rise, which features a compelling snapshot of both guitarists’ musical strengths. “Masterpiece” is a poignant piece of mainstream pop capped by Orianthi’s fiery soloing, while “Truth” is a gorgeous piano-driven ballad complete with backward acoustic guitar flourishes. Their two voices mesh beautifully on the country-laced “Good Times,” and they lock axes forcefully on the anthemic, Hendrixy title cut.

“We love to play guitar together, but we didn’t want it to be a ‘guitar noodlefest record’ per se,” Sambora points out. “But trust me—that stuff is coming. This EP is just the tip of the iceberg.”

As for how the two have influenced each other, Orianthi says she’s sharpened her compositional skills from Sambora. “He writes ‘songs within songs’ when he solos,” she notes. “But what he does is really raw and pure.” Sambora, on the other hand, credits Orianthi with awakening his love of music in general.

“I don’t want to come off like some old dude,” he says, “but when you play with someone like her, the reasons why you do this come flooding back. She’s got a lot of soul for someone so young.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its nominations for its Class of 2018.

The list includes Judas Priest, Radiohead, Bon Jovi, the Moody Blues, Link Wray, the Zombies, the Cars, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, MC5 and the J. Geils Band.

Other hopefuls include Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits, Eurhythmics, LL Cool J, the Meters, Rage Against the Machine, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Nina Simone.

The public will have the opportunity to vote alongside the more than 900 artists, historians and music industry insiders of the Rock Hall voting body. Fans can caste their vote at rockhall.com/vote through December 5. The top five acts will comprise a "fan's ballot" that will count as one of the ballots that determine the class of 2018.

The top vote-getters will be announced in December, and they'll be inducted in April 2018 in Cleveland.

In order to be eligible for this year's ballot, artists or bands need to have released their first single or album in 1992 or earlier. Nine out of 19 of the nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including: Eurythmics, Dire Straits, Judas Priest, Kate Bush, the Moody Blues, Nina Simone, Radiohead, Rage Against Machine and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Last year's inductees included Pearl Jam, Yes, Joan Baez and Journey.

Vision Films has partnered with Fathom Events to bring a riveting new rock documentary, Hired Gun: Out of the Shadows Into the Spotlight,to select U.S. movie theaters this summer, with an exclusive one-night theatrical event set for June 29.

The feature-length doc, which has been screened to critic and audience acclaim at SXSW Festival, Glastonbury Festival and Calgary International Film Festival, introduces fans to several unsung heroes of the music industry. These artists have played with legends such as Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Alice Cooper and many more.

Guitarist Phil X (Bon Jovi, the Drills) is just one of the artists featured in the documentary. I recently spoke with him about Hired Gun, his role in Bon Jovi, the Drills, his gear and more.

How did you get involved with Hired Gun?
[Producer] Jason Hook and I go back to our teens outside of Toronto, Canada. He moved to LA a few years before I did, and we later started putting a band together and making music. We went on to different things and ended up in the "side guy" realm of life. When he was presented the opportunity to make a documentary, he had the idea of getting all the people together he knew who were hired guns. So it was a no-brainer for him to call me up and say, “Hey man, you just toured with Bon Jovi. You want to be in there?” [laughs].

Was having a career in music something you always aspired to do?
For me, there was no choice. I feel that if you’re truly passionate about making music, you can’t do anything else. You’re always making music because it’s in your heart. Everyone has a dream of being in a successful band, but for some reason, my bands always happened on a small scale. The hired-gun thing started in the studio and by meeting people and then playing guitar on their records. Two years later, around 1999, I was asked to come in and play on Tommy Lee’s solo record, Methods of Mayhem. It started snowballing after that.

How did you wind up getting the gig with Bon Jovi?
It happened very quickly. I was doing my session thing at Henson Studios, and John Shanks had a studio there. John co-wrote and produced a lot of the recent Bon Jovi records, and I’d run into him a lot either having lunch or walking down the hallway. What changed the game was one day he came up to me and told me he couldn’t stop watching my YouTube videos.

We hit it off, and a few weeks later he called me up and told me about a gig he had. He told me about a band that was having some issues with their guitar player and that I might be the guy to get called in to do some shows when he can’t. I said, “Ok, who are we talking about?” and he said, “Bon Jovi. Do you want to do it?”

So they gave me the material to learn the two-and-a-half-hour hour show and told me I’d be in the reserve tank. That meant I might get a call or I might not. Then it happened: April 14, 2011. They told me to go to New York and rehearse with the band. I was on hold again, and then “on hold” became “Let’s go! We’re playing New Orleans in a few days and there will probably be 50,000 people there.” That was it!

What’s the best part of working with Bon Jovi?
Well, the best part about working with Bon Jovi is just that—working with Bon Jovi. It’s the dream every musician has—to be in a situation where you’re playing arenas and stadiums. You sit back and you go, “Wow! this is it. This is the top of the chain.”

What’s the best advice you can give to someone who’s a hired gun or someone who finds themself in that position?
You never know what it’s going to be like until you’re thrown into that situation with the band, so you can never prepare too much. It’s hours and hours of practice. I know everyone says that, but in this case it’s really true. There’s no relaxing. It’s constantly learning.

What’s your current setup like?
No matter what gig I do, it’s usually an amp and an overdrive pedal. In Bon Jovi, you obviously need the talk box for “Livin’ on a Prayer” and a wah and a few delays. Basically, I’m using my Friedman X head that I co-designed with Dave Friedman and a ‘76 Marshall JMP that I blend with it, along with two overdrive pedals. I go in with the amps working hot but not too gainy. Just a real nice gain where you get true power chords and the single lines sound really powerful. For solos, there’s one overdrive pedal I use and that’s the Saucy Box by Way Huge. I use it for the country solos like “Who Says You Can’t Go Home." For the more gainy songs like “Raise Your Hands,” “Prayer” and the solo to “Wanted Dead or Alive," I use a prototype pedal from a company in Italy called LAA. I went through 20 to 25 overdrive pedals and this pedal came out on top of everything.

Do you have an update on the next Drills album?
We’ve got the fourth record we’re working on right now. There are 12 songs on the record with 12 different drummers, including Tommy Lee, Ray Luzier from Korn, Kenny Aronoff, Abraham Laboriel Jr. from Paul McCartney’s band and Glen Sobel from Alice Cooper. We’re in mix mode now and I’m hoping to have it out for Christmas.

Is there a message you’d like people to take away from watching Hired Gun?
It’s all about the hustle. Everybody in this movie hustles their ass off. Whatever gig it is, your job is to go in and take the music to another level, especially on a record. Being a chameleon musically is also helpful. I’ve said this at every clinic I go to, and Steve Lukather also says it in the movie: If you can sing, you’ll probably get more gigs. You can be play great but people will always need a background singer. So work on your vocals when you practice your scales!

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Early last month, we at GuitarWorld.com launched our latest readers' poll, the Best American Rock Band Ever.

Although we had thousands of great bands to choose from when kicking off the poll, we decided to narrow things down to 32, which is perfect for a month's worth of matchups. All the bands were selected by Guitar World's editorial staff.

The poll included current bands and classic bands that disappeared into the woodwork decades ago. The full list included:

Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Styx, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, the White Stripes and ZZ Top.

Anyway, in the end, the title went to Bon Jovi, who battled it out over three days (this past Friday through Sunday) with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. If nothing else, the poll proved that Bon Jovi fans think Bon Jovi are the best American band ... of all time.

So, on that note, thanks to everyone who voted legitimately. We actually received thousands upon thousands of page views and votes (not to mention scores of interesting comments). Thanks also to the crew at Sweetwater, who sponsored the poll.

Below, you can check out the final bracket.

Final

When Labor Day came and went early last month, it reminded us of the American labor movement and the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the good ol' U.S. of A.

However, since we're Guitar World people, we couldn't help but apply those sentiments to music and the American people who made and make it—bands!

This, in turn, led to thoughts and theories about the greatest American band of all time, which led us to our latest readers' poll—the Best American Rock Band Ever! Yes, the gangs from Guitar World and Sweetwater want to get GW readers—you people!—involved as we attempt to crown the Best American Rock Band Ever!

Although we had thousands of bands to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to 32, which is perfect for a month's worth of intense—and fun (it's supposed to be fun, people!) matchups. All the bands were carefully selected by Guitar World's editorial staff.

Note that this poll includes current bands and bands that disappeared into the woodwork years ago. Also, if you're wondering why the Jimi Hendrix Experience aren't on this list, they weren't an American band. Hendrix was American, but he's not a band. Band of Gypsys were American, but they simply didn't make the cut based on the music released under the "Band of Gypsys" moniker. It's one of many tough sacrifices we had to make along the way. Speaking of which, be sure to read "How the Bracket Was Compiled" at the bottom of this story.

Anyway, here are our 32 American bands, which are presented in alphabetical order. You also can check out the entire 32-band bracket below.

Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Styx, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, the White Stripes and ZZ Top.

We hope you've enjoyed our Best American Rock Band Ever Poll, which has been sponsored by Sweetwater!

The Final Matchup

Bon Jovi

One of the few hair metal giants whose commercial success outlasted that of the genre, Bon Jovi have proven to be surprisingly nimble over the past 35 years. From their stadium-sized blockbuster, 1986’s Slippery When Wet, the band moved to adult contemporary in the Nineties, then to country in the late 2000s. Though the band’s resident shredder, Richie Sambora, recently left Bon Jovi, they have continued strongly, selling out stadiums and fulfilling Jon Bon Jovi’s promise: “I’ve seen a million faces/and I’ve rocked them all.”

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Fronted by one of the greatest songwriters the U.S. has ever produced, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been crafting a uniquely American brand of rock and roll for almost 40 years. They’ve channeled Bob Dylan, country, blues, soul and the Southern rock of their native Florida into a swampy brand of music that's all their own. “American Girl,” “Refugee” and “Learning to Fly” are all radio mainstays to this day. Petty’s songwriting and Mike Campbell’s sterling leads simply never get old.

Vote Now!

Thanks for your many votes and many comments! This thing is done. Bon Jovi got more votes. We'll post a wrap-up story today.

Behold the Final Bracket!

Final

How the Bracket Was Compiled

Here's how the bracket was—very unscientifically—compiled.

We drew the artists' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a smelly Quebec Nordiques baseball cap) to help us create our bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of bands are ranked or come from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, genre might occasionally clash against genre, so you'll just need to decide which artist has (or has had) the most to offer within his/their genre, perhaps which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other live acts, etc.

As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll be posting match-ups pretty much every day of the month, sometimes more than once per day, just to give you an early warning.

When Labor Day came and went earlier this month, it reminded us of the American labor movement and the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the good ol' U.S. of A.

However, since we're Guitar World people, we couldn't help but apply those sentiments to music and the American people who made and make it—bands!

This, in turn, led to thoughts and theories about the greatest American band of all time, which led us to our latest readers' poll—the Best American Rock Band Ever! Yes, the gangs from Guitar World and Sweetwater want to get GW readers—you people!—involved as we attempt to crown the Best American Rock Band Ever!

Although we had thousands of bands to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to 32, which is perfect for a month's worth of intense—and fun (it's supposed to be fun, people!) matchups. All the bands were carefully selected by Guitar World's editorial staff (and one guy from sales).

Note that this poll includes current bands and bands that disappeared into the woodwork years ago. Also, if you're wondering why the Jimi Hendrix Experience aren't on this list, they weren't an American band. Hendrix was American, but he's not a band. Band of Gypsys were American, but they simply didn't make the cut based on the music released under the "Band of Gypsys" moniker. It's one of many tough sacrifices we had to make along the way. Speaking of which, be sure to read "How the Bracket Was Compiled" at the bottom of this story.

Anyway, here are our 32 American bands, which are presented in alphabetical order. You also can check out the entire 32-band bracket below.

Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Styx, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, the White Stripes and ZZ Top.

Enjoy our Best American Rock Band Ever Poll, which is sponsored by Sweetwater!

Today's Matchup

Bon Jovi

One of the few hair metal giants whose commercial success outlasted that of the genre, Bon Jovi have proven to be surprisingly nimble over the past 35 years. From their stadium-sized blockbuster, 1986’s Slippery When Wet, the band moved to adult contemporary in the Nineties, then to country in the late 2000’s. Though the band’s resident shredder, Richie Sambora, recently left Bon Jovi, they have continued strongly, selling out stadiums and fulfilling Jon Bon Jovi’s promise: “I’ve seen a million faces/and I’ve rocked them all.”

• Aerosmith

Merging showmanship, blues and hard rock, Aerosmith have become one of America’s most iconic bands. Seemingly dead in the water in the early Eighties, they began an astounding comeback with 1987’s Permanent Vacation. Their hit 1986 collaboration with rap group Run-D.M.C., “Walk This Way,” introduced hip-hop to a mainstream, rock audience and marked one of the first merges of the two genres. Combining Steven Tyler’s golden pipes with Joe Perry’s aggressive riffing, Aerosmith’s popularity as a live and studio act has endured for almost half a century.

Vote Now!

The polls are closed. Bon Jovi's fans got together to make sure Aerosmith, of all bands, did not advance to the next round. Interesting.

Behold the Latest Bracket!

Zooey Body

How the Bracket Was Compiled

Here's how the bracket was—very unscientifically—compiled.

We drew the artists' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a smelly Quebec Nordiques baseball cap) to help us create our bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of bands are ranked or come from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, genre might occasionally clash against genre, so you'll just need to decide which artist has (or has had) the most to offer within his/their genre, perhaps which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other live acts, etc.

As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll be posting match-ups pretty much every day of the month, sometimes more than once per day, just to give you an early warning.

When Labor Day came and went earlier this month, it reminded us of the American labor movement and the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the good ol' U.S. of A.

However, since we're Guitar World people, we couldn't help but apply those sentiments to music and the American people who made and make it—bands!

This, in turn, led to thoughts and theories about the greatest American band of all time, which led us to our latest readers' poll—the Best American Rock Band Ever! Yes, the gangs from Guitar World and Sweetwater want to get GW readers—you people!—involved as we attempt to crown the Best American Rock Band Ever!

Although we had thousands of bands to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to 32, which is perfect for a month's worth of intense—and fun (it's supposed to be fun, people!) matchups. All the bands were carefully selected by Guitar World's editorial staff.

Note that this poll includes current bands and bands that disappeared into the woodwork years ago. Also, if you're wondering why the Jimi Hendrix Experience aren't on this list, they weren't an American band. Hendrix was American, but he's not a band. Band of Gypsys were American, but they simply didn't make the cut based on the music released under the "Band of Gypsys" moniker. It's one of many tough sacrifices we had to make along the way. Speaking of which, be sure to read "How the Bracket Was Compiled" at the bottom of this story.

Anyway, here are our 32 American bands, which are presented in alphabetical order. You also can check out the entire 32-band bracket below.

Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Styx, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, the White Stripes and ZZ Top.

Enjoy our Best American Rock Band Ever Poll, which is sponsored by Sweetwater!

Today's Matchup

Green Day

Springing from the same West Coast pop-punk explosion that produced the Offspring and Rancid, Green Day evolved from a flash in the pan to one of the most astounding comeback stories in recent music history. Their backs against the wall and their commercial success on the decline, Green Day produced the confrontational, deeply political rock opera American Idiot in 2004. Topping the charts in 19 countries and selling 15 million copies worldwide, it reaffirmed Green Day’s status as some of the world’s foremost spokesmen for disaffected youth, a status they retain today.

• Bon Jovi

One of the few hair metal giants whose commercial success outlasted that of the genre, Bon Jovi have proven to be surprisingly nimble over the past 35 years. From their stadium-sized blockbuster, 1986’s Slippery When Wet, the band moved to adult contemporary in the Nineties, then to country in the late 2000’s. Though the band’s resident shredder, Richie Sambora, recently left Bon Jovi, they have continued strongly, selling out stadiums and fulfilling Jon Bon Jovi’s promise: “I’ve seen a million faces/and I’ve rocked them all.”

Vote Now!

The polls have closed! Bon Jovi have advanced to the next round. Be sure to check out the latest matchup at GuitarWorld.com.

Behold the Latest Bracket!

Cecil

How the Bracket Was Compiled

Here's how the bracket was—very unscientifically—compiled.

We drew the artists' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a smelly Quebec Nordiques baseball cap) to help us create our bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of bands are ranked or come from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, genre might occasionally clash against genre, so you'll just need to decide which artist has (or has had) the most to offer within his/their genre, perhaps which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other live acts, etc.

As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll be posting match-ups pretty much every day of the month, sometimes more than once per day, just to give you an early warning.

Yeah, they dressed funny and their lyrics often lacked the angst and agonized self-awareness that we’ve come to expect in this decade of the rock and roll sissy-band, but the pop metal acts of the Eighties produced some top-shelf albums during their short reign.

In chronological order, these are the 20 best records woven, steamed and blow-dried by the most esteemed members of rock and roll’s Hair Club for Men before they were abruptly given the hook.

Check out the photo gallery below—and be sure to join the conversation in the comments section below the story.

The first concert I ever attended was a Scorpions show in 1984. I remember this event because, at the time, I was excited about checking out the openers, a young, up-and-coming band called Bon Jovi.

Little did I know I'd also be bearing witness to what would become one of rock’s biggest juggernauts.

Tour photographer David Bergman has spent the last three and a half years working as Bon Jovi’s official tour photographer. With carte blanche access, Bergman has been able to travel the world with the band and document their activities—as well as their shows—with his camera.

Bergman has combined a collection of his photographs into one masterful coffee table book that's appropriately titled Work. The book, an over-sized, 5-pound, 210-page hardcover tome, offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's top touring bands.

In addition to being an in-demand touring and sports photographer, Bergman also runs tourphotographer.com, which lets fans go online and buy high-quality image prints shot at the shows they’ve attended.

I recently spoke with Bergman to find out more about Work and his time spent on tour with Bon Jovi.

GUITAR WORLD: How did this book project come about?

Since the beginning of 2011, I’ve photographed every single Bon Jovi live show, which is quite a lot when you think about it. Last year alone, they did 102 shows on six continents. After every show, I would do an edit and narrow it down to the best of the best from each performance.

Over time, I started to develop this massive archive, somewhere in the range of 800,000 images, many of which no one had ever seen. So I brought it to the band. The idea of doing a book was something we had been talking about for quite a while. They've done book projects over the years but nothing quite like this. By the end of this last tour, we decided the time was finally right and started putting it together.

Jon has said your photos are works of art. How would you describe your style of photography?

That’s a tough question. I've always considered myself an action photographer because of my sports/action background. Some of my favorite photos are of Jon when he's in mid-jump, those unplanned action shots that are mixed with the journalistic, “fly on the wall” moments. I take it seriously that I get to be the eyes of the fans and show them what I get to see.

One of the interesting sections of the book deals with Jon’s knee injury and subsequent surgery. Can you tell me a little about that series of photos and why you decided to include them?

I'm really proud of that chapter. Jon actually tore the meniscus in his left leg during a show; at first we weren’t sure how serious it was going to be. All we knew was he couldn't put any weight on his leg, but somehow he was able to power through the pain and finished the show. I remember when he came off stage and they started working on him, everyone had left except for a few of us, and it was really quiet. At that point, I went into instinctive photo journalism mode and just started documenting it.

The band didn't cancel a single show, and while we were in Ireland Jon decided to have surgery instead of waiting for the end of the tour. At the time, I remember asking him if it would be OK to take pictures of the surgery and he was fine with it. We figured no one would ever see the photos. But once we started putting the book together and Jon came up with the title Work, it all seemed to make sense.

The theme of the book is about how hard the band works and how their work ethic is second to none. I told Jon that the knee story really embodies what he's all about. He understood and said, "You know, if this inspires one kid to work through the pain and come out on the other side of an injury stronger than before, it's all worth it."

You began your career in music. What prompted your decision to transition into photo journalism?

While most of my friends were performance majors, I spent my freshman year of college at Berklee majoring in music production. So whenever they would perform, I would go along with them and take pictures. I later transferred to the University of Miami for music and one day walked into the school paper on a whim. The photo editor there handed me a roll of film and told me to go shoot, and if he liked what he saw, maybe he’d give me an assignment. From there, I started working regularly and eventually changed my major to photo journalism. That was the end of my music career and the beginning of my photo career.

How did you get involved with tour photography?

About half way through my stint at the Miami Herald I realized I could start generating my own assignments. So I pitched the idea of going out on tour with Gloria Estefan. It was something I had never done before. The Herald went for it and I spent an entire week on the road with Gloria and her family and just fell in love with tour photography.

Are there any other projects you’re currently working on?

Right now I'm now on a quest to bring respect back to the field of tour photography. It's become so democratized now; where we see a lot of images just come and go online that don't seem to have the impact they should. One of the things I've discovered with tourphotgrapher.com is that when people hold a real quality photo in their hands, there's a visceral reaction you don't get when something just flashes by on the screen. It’s something many of the younger artists who didn't grow up in the physical print world missed out on. The prints, and obviously this book, have so much value. My goal is to bring it to as many artists as I can.

What would you like people who read Work to take from it?

At the end of the day, this book is really about the quality of the band's work and their work ethic. The fact is, Bon Jovi have been around for 30 years. There are a lot of other bands that started out with them that have fallen by the way side, but these guys have continued to put out new music and stay relevant and at the top of their game. That doesn’t happen by chance. I've seen it day in and day out. They're all professional, organized and really know what they're doing.

Jon has often said he's the CEO of a multi-million-dollar corporation. It just so happens that company is a rock band. But he runs it just like any other big company. Every time Bon Jovi tours, they're the top-grossing act of the year, and it was a pleasure for me to be a part of that whole experience.

For more about Bergman, visit davidbergman.net and tourphotographer.com.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

Richie Sambora has posted a new song, "Come Back as Me," which you can check out via the YouTube player below.

The song, which the longtime Bon Jovi guitarist unveiled Sunday, July 28, features a pounding rhythm and some nice guitar work.

“What do you want me to say, I gave you everything I could give. But everything just wasn't enough, so I just let live and live,” sings Sambora.

As Asbury Park Press music writer Chris Jordan points out, Sambora was conspicuously not with his Bon Jovi bandmates at the band's July 25 and 27 homecoming dates at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

We don't know if the song is the precursor to an upcoming solo album; there's actually very little information available at this point — but we'll keep you updated!

For more about Sambora, check out his official website.

If you're into autographed guitars and helping to fight hunger, you're in luck.

The 27th Annual Hungerthon by WhyHunger is now under way, and up for auction this year are guitars signed by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora, Maroon 5, David Byrne and Mumford & Sons, to name just a few.

You can place your bids at this location, with all the winning proceeds going to raise funds and awareness for hunger and poverty relief.

WhyHunger, which was founded by songwriter Harry Chapin and New York City radio personality Bill Ayres in 1975, works to support more than 8,000 grassroots and community organizations aimed at fighting hunger.