Richie Sambora Says His Album With Orianthi Is ‘Sonny and Cher on Steroids’
While Bon Jovi is looking to have their next album, This House Is Not for Sale, out next month, their former guitarist has been prepping his own record. Richie Sambora and his girlfriend Orianthi talked a bit about the music they've been working on for about two years.
Speaking on the red carpet at the Billboard Power 100 in the video above, Sambora said, "It's basically Sonny and Cher on steroids. We looked back on our career and saw the different styles of music that we did and, when you make a record, obviously, you have to own it. After 40 years in this business I know if we owned it or not."
"I can't wait for everyone to hear it," Orianthi, who has shared stages with Alice Cooper, Steve Vai and Carlos Santana, said. "We've been working hard on it and [we're] finishing it up really soon, so something should be out in the next few months. I'm hoping, you know. We have to decide on a single, but it's a really big-sounding album and I can't wait to play it live, too [...] Richie's singing his butt off, playing his butt off and writing with him, too, has, you know, been really great -- a lot of fun."
Sambora talked to Ultimate Classic Rock last year where he said that the couple had "started recording right at the beginning of January," and they had stockpiled about 60 songs in the 11 months prior to that. "We hit a nerve about probably 20 songs in that we knew we were onto something. I think those 20 are really good songs," he added, "but stylistically we started to hit our vein around 20 in and it just kept getting better and better and then we were just bouncing [songs] off of my producer friends, Dave Stewart, Bob Rock, Michael Bearden — just great people."
See Bon Jovi and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '80s