Orianthi Speaks on How Nikki Sixx Acted During Collab + What Her Relationship With Richie Sambora Is Like Now

“Alice Cooper introduced us ages ago,” the guitarist said.

During an appearance on Let There Be Talk, Orianthi talked about collaborating with Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx on her latest album “O,” while also discussing her relationship with classic Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.You can check out Orianthi’s latest album “O” here via Amazon.

When the interviewer said, “I see that you worked with my boy Nikki Sixx. He’s a good friend of mine, that’s pretty damn cool,” the musician replied (transcribed by UG):

“Really cool, big fan. I actually didn’t know Nikki that well. I actually met him – because I left Alice Cooper just before the Motley Crue tour, and joined with Richie [Sambora], my partner, at RSO at the time.

“I had to leave because it was full-on touring. About two years ago, or a year and a half ago, Alice was playing the Hollywood Bowl, and Nikki came with his wife.

“They were hanging backstage and ended up just hanging out with him. What great people, what cool people. We just got chatting and talking about different things, changing numbers.

“We just kept in contact with the text and talking whatever, and I mentioned to his wife, ‘Oh, I’m making a record, I’m having some guests and probably just writing. If Nikki’s down to write something, it’ll be awesome.’

“And she goes, ‘Yeah, I’ll ask him.’ And then the next minute, he texts me and said, ‘Hey, just send me some ideas and I can write some lyrics or whatever.’

“And he was round and sent me these amazing lyrics, and I was with Marti [Frederiksen, producer] when I got the email, it was called ‘Streams of Consciousness,’ and it was just painting a really dark picture of L.A. but in a really cool way – kind of like dark Bowie lyrics.

“And we just wrote some music around it and sent it back to him, and he really dug it. I was just, ‘Thank you so fucking much for doing that, dude. That’s so awesome!’

“He’s super busy and he’s freaking writing for Motley Crue. But wow, I was really blown away, what a super nice person and nice people. I’m just really proud of the song, people dig it.”

Do you date Richie Sambora or you guys just play together?

“We’re together, for years.”

The reason I’m asking is on the songwriter basis, being around this guy… this guy wrote some of the greatest tunes with Bon Jovi – ‘I’ll Be There for You,’ I think is one of the greatest ballads done in that era. A masterpiece of songwriting.

“Absolutely. He’s amazing.”

When you’re around him, did you learn a lot of songwriting tricks and crafts? I know they wrote a lot with Desmond Child and stuff, so I’m sure they learned a lot from that guy on how to create a perfect hook, the ultimate chorus. They just had so many massive hits and it’s fantastic – his songwriting and guitar playing.

“Oh yeah, he’s an incredible guitar player, incredible songwriter, all of that. We have a blast working together, we still write a lot now, and everything.

“He’s awesome and his new rack was awesome, it’s coming out. The thing is with the RSO project, and as the music industry, is just crazy a lot of things were going on time and whatnot, and we took a break and all that.

“But working with him, Alice Cooper introduced us ages ago, and we started jamming, and then we ended up writing a few songs together, and was like, ‘This it sounds great!’

“And I definitely learned a lot from him, he’s written insane songs, they’ve reached so many people around the world. Just a real talent for sure. I work with Desmond Child as well, we’re all written together

” When people have that gift, and Richie is an incredible lyricist too, he doesn’t just write. People are like, ‘Oh, he’s a guitar player and he writes some stuff.’ But he writes amazing lyrics. It was awesome to be able to create a whole album with him and tour around.

“We opened for Bad Company, and we played a ton of shows for years and did all that. And it was fun, it was great. I’m really proud of that RSO record, people listen to it.

“We actually wrote so many songs for that album that didn’t even make the record. That was a fun experience, and working with Bob Rock as well, and everybody.”

Bob Rock – what a master! That guy was, especially on the Metallica ‘Black Album,’ he’s incredible!

“Yeah, he’s incredible. He just knows how to get great tones and sounds. Really has a good sense of just music.”