Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme joins Rihanna for world tour
Here’s an interesting rock news item. According to this morning’s press release, guitarist extraordinaire Nuno Bettencourt has agreed to be part of Rihanna’s live band. Talk about a head scratcher. But I guess in this economy, even a “rock guitar god” has to seek out these types of opportunities in order to pay the bills. Evidently, playing in Rihanna’s band is more lucrative than doing another tour with his main band, Extreme. Ya can’t blame the guy for trying to earn some bank … but really, with Rihanna? I’m not hearing a lot of scorching guitar leads in her music, at least in my mind. who knows, maybe Nuno’s presence in her band will completely change her sound…
here’s the official announcement – November 16, 2009
Guitar virtuoso, Nuno Bettencourt, has joined forces with Rihanna and will be her 2010 world tour lead guitarist. The unexpected combination of Grammy Award winning R&B artist, Rihanna, and Rock guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, has in fact become what Nuno says, “A great opportunity to blend our talents to create a high energy experience”.
Nuno is best known for his work in the multiplatinum rock band Extreme, where they were Grammy nominated for their Billboard Chart topping hit, “More Than Words”. Nuno has worked on many projects including, multiple solo albums, film scores and has also worked with notable artists such as Janet Jackson, Perry Farrell, Robert Palmer and many others.
Rihanna’s choice to have Nuno in her band is a great surprise, and Nuno assures that her live sound is really complimentary to his “style”. When he heard the direction Rihanna wants to go in a live setting Nuno said, “Wow, this rocks! It’s heavy and funky, and it hit me that this is ‘my’ thing, this is ‘my’ style…”
Once Nuno and Rihanna blended their talents and began the first round of rehearsals, Nuno stated, “…it did not disappoint. Even better than what I expected because she also has the most incredible band, and I get the privilege to add to their wall of sound. It’s gonna be fun. Come see and hear it for yourself!”
Streaming Live from London, November 16, Rihanna and Nuno will be performing tracks from her album, Rated R, to a free online audience. Join in on the largest free music event of the year at: nowplaying.nokia.com/join-us/. Rihanna’s latest album drops November 23rd.
Nuno’s new endeavor as lead guitarist for Rihanna has just been one of many significant events for him in 2009. The renowned guitarist recently wrapped up dates of the Extreme reunion tour and just recently made a music video for the CBS hit comedy, “How I Met Your Mother”. In addition, Nuno celebrated his twenty year anniversary as an endorser of Washburn Guitars with the debut of his signature N4XX and also released a signature Randall half stack, the NBKING100, both to critical acclaim.
It is clear Nuno has been one of the most influential rock guitarists of our time, and will continue to do what he does best, perform. As for the future of Extreme, Nuno explains, “NO… this is NOT the end of Extreme. We have a live DVD and CD coming out in early 2010 and we will be writing new material throughout the year. We had a great run across the globe on Saudades de Rock… and we’ll be back.”
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. Their 1992 release 
was a well-crafted rock classic so I’ve been looking forward to hearing this new release. Fortunately for fans the band sounds reinvigorated and ready to prove that they can indeed still rock. Songs like “Run” and “Comfortably Dumb” show that Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone can still write great melodic hooks on top of heavy, meaty guitar riffs. The bulk of the tunes on the album kept my interest for the most part but I have to say that the weak link in the band is Cherone’s obnoxious voice. Frankly listening to his voice is like shooting needles into my ears. It wasn’t as noticable back in the early nineties but sadly the tone of his voice has gotten worse with the passage of time. Bettencourt along with bassist Pat Badger and new drummer Kevin Figueiredo sound tight and the instrumental portions of the album are top notched. It’s just Cherone alone that grates on the nerves. The problem is most evident on “Last Hour” where the vocalist carries the first half of the song. The whole time, I’m just begging for Bettencourt to mask Cherone’s horrid sound with a distorted marshall amp turned up to “11″. something, anything but Cherone’s voice. please! and when the rest of the band does kick back in, Cherone starts screaming the words like some poor soul being choked to death. my God! oh the humanity!! The song should be required to come with a warning label. It’s that painful. In fact, here ya go. listen for yourself.
