Orianthi Speaks on Difficulty of Having Professional & Private Relationship With Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora, Addresses Santana Connection

“There’d be comments on YouTube or whatever the hell it is, or Instagram.”

During an appearance on The Eddie Trunk Podcast, Orianthi talked about her musical collaborations and personal relationship with classic Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora.

Orianthi and Richie had a project called RSO. The act has two EPs and one full-length album under its belt, 2018’s “Radio Free America.”

Orianthi is promoting a new record titled “O,” you can check it out here via Amazon.

When the interviewer said, “The RSO thing, I’m curious with that – from a musical situation looking back on that, do you look at that fondly? Did you enjoy working with Richie Sambora?”, Orianthi replied (transcribed by UG):

“I got to say, we’ve been talking – as I said, we’re in a good place, we’re great friends, we write together, we collaborate on stuff still and support each other.

“He’s got a record coming out and he’s heard mine and loved it, and we’ve been writing together too. I guess back then, with the RSO thing, we were really proud of that record, and we were just talking about that the other night actually, leaving the door open for future for collabs and everything – absolutely.

“I do look at that experience as like – working with [producer] Bob Rock and Richie on that record, we spent a long time on that and we’re really proud of it and everything, and yeah, it got to a point where – OK, he wanted to make a solo record, I want to make a solo record, it just got there and now we support each other and everything’s really cool.”

Check out the music of RSO here via Amazon.

Is it safe to say that it’s a difficult thing to have a public relationship, and also work professionally with somebody as you did at that time?

“The thing is – everyone has something to say about that. There’d be comments on YouTube or whatever the hell it is, or Instagram… And some people loved it, some people hated it, but honestly, at the end of the day, we were really proud of it.

“It’s like, we love each other and we still do, everything’s cool but it’s a difficult thing when you work together and you live together, you’re in the public eye and all that stuff’s going on, it was crazy for sure. It’s all cool now, though.”

When you guys came and did my show together – if you recall, afterward Richie said, ‘Get in the car,’ and I sat and he cranked a bunch of music that at that time you worked on. What you guys played me, to me, it was not what ended up coming out. Did something change?

“Yeah, I think you heard the demos, I think you heard the mix before they were done, and we wrote so many songs for that record, so I think you heard the stuff that Bob Rock just put early, and we just cranked it. I do remember the guitar and cranking up some heavy stuff that you heard.”

What you’re saying is that it’s not entirely impossible some things that didn’t make it can are revisited – you said you are thinking of making music again together…?

“We were talking about the other day – we leave the door open to that, of course, and I said, Richie’s got his album, his solo record coming out, I got mine coming out November and we support each other in our solo endeavors and all that.

“And you know, it’s all cool now. Things happen and whatever publicly, I mean – it’s all good, it’s all good.”

Did you not end up working with Santana in some capacity?

“Yeah, well, Carlos Santana, I’ve known him since I was, like, 18 years old when I first met him in Australia. He got me on the stage and we played for like 15,000 people, and he kept me on stage for like 45 minutes.

“I bought all of his albums, played all of his solos, worn out the VHS, I just paused it and tried to learn it, so he took that video of that performance and sent it to Corey Smith and a bunch of other people.

“And I got invited over at the NAMM show, so Carlos really helped me a lot, I’m very grateful for that support.”