Richie Sambora no longer wants to be known as 'Jon Bon Jovi’s sideman'
Richie Sambora says he’s hoping to shake off the perception of being ‘Jon Bon Jovi’s sideman’ with his new venture RSO.
The guitarist has been working on an album with girlfriend Orianthi under the RSO moniker for over two years and he admits he has something to prove.
“There’s not a lot of male/female duos going on in the world right now – especially two guitar players like us two,” Richie told news.com.au. “First of all the world doesn’t know how good Ori sings and writes. The world knows how amazing a guitarist she is, but she’s more amazing than people think.
“Then on the other hand you’ve got me. I’m just Jon Bon Jovi’s sideman for most people. That’s what they know me as.
“Now we’re together and we’re doing something that means something. We’ve got something to prove to people – we can do this too. Together I think we’ve reached something that is a new sound.”
Speaking about the direction of the album, Orianthi said it’s highly eclectic: “The album has a lot of duets, songs that Richie sings, songs that I sing. It’s a little Fleetwood Mac in parts, there’s so many different sounds. Some songs lend themselves to country but it’s not completely a country record.
“I’m a big country fan, I grew up with my mum playing country music around the house, I love the storytelling. As well as a lot of blues from my dad, a lot of Greek music, I’ve got diverse tastes. But the album has stuff for pop radio, for rock. It’s very diverse.”
She added: “We’ve taken time to make this record, it was important to make it the best it can be. You can rush a record through in a month but it’ll be quite generic. We wanted to take time to make it perfect and artistic and mould a sound.”
Richie also confirmed that Bon Jovi songs will feature on the duo’s upcoming tour dates – including their shows supporting Bad Company next month.
“Of course (we will play Bon Jovi). I wrote them. They’re my songs too. I get to play them, I get to do them the way Ori and I do them now,” Richie explained.
“It’s a different incarnation but when you write a good song, if you’re fortunate enough to write something that gets to a global audience you really can’t mess it up too bad. You can’t mess Livin’ On a Prayer, Wanted Dead or Alive or I’ll Be There For You up. It’s all gonna come out good.”
Tickets to the Bad Company and RSO tour are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now. It takes in the following dates:
OCTOBER 2016
Leeds First Direct Arena – Sat 15th
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena – Mon 17th
Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Wed 19th
Birmingham Genting Arena – Fri 21st
Manchester Arena – Mon 24th
Glasgow The SSE Hydro – Tue 25th
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Thu 27th
London The O2 Arena – Sat 29th