Richie Sambora
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| Richie Sambora | |
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| Born | July 11, 1959 Perth Amboy, New Jersey |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Affiliation(s) | Bon Jovi |
| Years active | 1983 - Present |
| Official site | None |
Richie Sambora (born Richard Stephen Sambora on July 11, 1959 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey), is an American rock guitarist, singer and song writer who is the lead guitarist for rock band Bon Jovi. He also handles harmony and background vocals, and joins frontman Jon Bon Jovi in being credited as primary songwriters on most of the band's songs over the course of their twenty year run. He is also a solo artist and has released two solo albums, Stranger In This Town in 1991, and Undiscovered Soul in 1998.
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[edit] Background
Born of parents of Italian (paternal) and Polish ( maternal) origin, Sambora attended Woodbridge High School, in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He began playing the guitar aged 12 following the death of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix in 1970. From his early days Sambora was strongly influenced by blues and 60s rock 'n' roll and his most important influences were Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin and Joe Kmiecik. He was also influenced by Spanish classical music and began a life long love of the Spanish guitar
[edit] Career
Throughout his career as a guitarist, Richie has displayed an impressive knack for feeling out a guitar solo. His technique displays remarkable variety - his soloing in "Wanted Dead or Alive" is laden with artificial harmonics mostly found in the genre of death metal, whereas his riffing for "You Give Love A Bad Name" makes extensive use of palm muting similarily as those in punk rock music.
Developing his guitar technique in an era laden with wild soloing inspired by Eddie Van Halen, Richie developed a unique style of speed and precision but it took him a few attempts to impress Jon Bon Jovi. When Jon first saw Richie play he didn't think he was good enough; however, he soon changed his opinion after working with Richie. Richie was also one of the first 80s mainstream guitarists to make use of the talkbox. The talkbox was also used by other guitarists, notably Slash from Guns N' Roses, Jeff Beck, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, and Peter Frampton. The talkbox can be heard clearly in "Livin' on a Prayer","It's My Life" and more recently on "I Want To Be Loved".
[edit] Solo work
His first solo outing was "Stranger In This Town" in 1991, a blues-influenced album that was received well by many critics and guitar affectionados. Richie's life long dream came true when guitar legend Eric Clapton agreed to make an appearance on the album and played the detailed solo for the track Mr Bluesman. However, although the album featured all the songs of a highly talented song writer, it did not fare too well commercially which Richie later admitted was due to the fact that he was writing songs from an artistic point, rather than writing a radio oriented album. However, the album did consolidate Richie as a top rate guitarist, revealing a different side of him that was not widely recognizable during Bon Jovi's 80s heyday. His blues influences would later be present on some of Bon Jovi records as well, notably on 1995's "These Days".
"Undiscovered Soul" was Richie's second solo album, released in 1998. The album was produced by Don Was.
In 1999, Richie appeared as a guest vocalist on the Stuart Smith album "Stuart Smith's Heaven & Earth", performing a cover of the Deep Purple song "When A Blind Man Cries".
Richie played on a recently released album called Lessons from a band called "Message". The album was recorded in the early 1980s. His guitar work is also featured on the track Misery on Pink's 2001 album M!ssundaztood with Steven Tyler.
In 2004, Sanctuary Records released a self-titled album which had been recorded in 1978 by Shark Frenzy, documenting Sambora's first recorded material. The mix tapes had been damaged in a flood and it had taken band member Bruce Foster to remaster them for them to be released so many years later.
During this period Sambora worked closely with Eddie Van Halen Guitar producers Kramer guitars, known most well for the RS signature featuring a floyd rose tremelo and star inlays on the neck, headstock and body. These were produced in a variety of colours and a number of one-off guitars were also made for Richie (these can be viewed at www.vintagekramer.com) When kramer management broke down, relations with Richie broke off and he moved onto Fender guitars where a signature stratocaster was also produced, following this he moved to work with Gibson and now plays a custom built floyd rose guitar used recently on the Have A Nice Day Tour.
[edit] Musical talents
Sambora is also a talented self taught musician and plays a wealth of other instruments such as:
[edit] Equipment
Sambora has been known to use a wide variety of guitars and amplifiers throughout his career. In the 80's, Sambora mostly played superstrats and modified Les Pauls, including Kramer, Charvel, Jackson, Hamer etc. In early-mid 1987, Kramer put out a Richie Sambora signature model, which quit production in 1989. For a few years Sambora played various guitars, mostly vintage Fender and some Gibsons and his old Kramer signature models (which he used until the end of his Stranger In This Town tour, for songs such as Wanted Dead or Alive and Father Time). In 1991, Fender put out a Sambora signature model which featured a Floyd Rose tremolo system and a HSS combination of pickups. In 1998, the model was changed and had a vintage style tremolo and a SSS pickup combination. The model quit production in 2002, even though Sambora still plays a variety of Fenders (mostly vintage and custom shop models, such as the Telecaster doubleneck, which can be seen on most of the videos of Have a Nice Day). Nowadays, Richie mostly plays custom guitars built by his guitar tech Chris "Lumpy" Hofschneider, Zemaitis guitars, Floyd Rose guitars, vintage Gibsons and custom shop Fenders. One of the guitars built by his guitar tech actually features a fretboard made of both maple and rosewood, on a ash body with neck-through-body construction, with HSS pickups. The current rumor is that Gibson is going to make Sambora a signature model, based on the Gibson L5-S, but the project is currently on hold and it is unknown when or if the guitar is going to be made.
Sambora was famous for using Ovation electric-acoustic guitars from the beggining of the 80's until 1998. He played a custom made doubleneck (seen on Wanted Dead or Alive and unplugged versions of some other Bon Jovi songs) and a variety of other Ovations, such as Adamas. In 2000, Taylor started the production of two Sambora signature models, both a single and doubleneck. Since he has been known to use his favourite Martin acoustic on a lot of recordings, Martin guitars put out two of Sambora's signature models in 2006, a single and a doubleneck, based on his mentioned favourite 1930 Martin OM-45. Sambora also used some Guild acoustics, particularly an F-50 12-string, which the song Wanted Dead or Alive was recorded with. He got it straight from the Guild factory due to a finish flaw.
For most of the 80's and early-mid 90's, Richie used Marshall amplifiers, particurarly the JCM800 model with 4x12" speaker cabinets and a variety of rack units (including effects). For his Stranger In This Town tour, Richie added a Fender Bassman head. In 1995, Sambora started using Fender ToneMasters with Fender ToneMaster 4x12" speaker cabinets, following the These Days tour. For the studio sessions of his second solo album, Undiscovered Soul, Richie also used a Fender Bassman 4x10" combo and a Vox AC30. On the tour, he used his Fender ToneMasters and a few HiWatts. In 2000, Sambora started using the Marshall JCM2000 DSL series (both on the tour and recording sessions (among other amplifiers) of Crush), looking up to one of his biggest influences, Jeff Beck, who is famous for using them. He has also used the DSL series on the Bounce tour. Since their Have a Nice Day album, Sambora has switched to Diezel and Divided by 13 amplification and uses custom made 4x12" speaker cabinets made by Divided by 13.
He used a floor MIDI controller for most of his career, while on the last few tours he has changed to a more simple pedal setup featuring a Boss SD-1, a Framptone talkbox, and a few others pedals, including a chorus, compressor, Crybaby or Vox wah and an A/B switcher.
He uses .009 strings in the studio and .010 strings live, with the action set relatively high.
[edit] Personal life
He lives in California and married actress Heather Locklear in Paris in 1994. They had a daughter Ava Elizabeth on October 4th 1995. In February 2006, Locklear filed for divorce due to irreconcilable differences. The couple are currently in the process of settling custody arrangements for their daughter. Richie is now said to be dating actress Denise Richards.
[edit] Film and Television
He has appeared in several movie and TV cameos, notably playing Eric Clapton in the TV series American Dreams. The list continues with the film On The Line as 'The Mick', and the TV show Chris Isaak show as himself as well as appearing in Staying Alive as the guitarist in the band at the beginning of the movie. He contributed songs to the soundtracks of The Red Shoe Diaries, On The Line and Banger Sisters.
[edit] Other Ventures and Honors
Recent ventures have seen him compose television theme tunes for both Entertainment Tonight and The Insider. He is a shareholder of Philadelphia Soul, an Arena Football League football team.
Over the years, Richie has been an ardent fundraiser for many charities, such as Dream Street, the Steve Young Foundation and Michael J Fox's Parkinson's charity.
In May, 2004, Doctor Richie Sambora was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Kean University where he attended the awards ceremony and gave a speech of acceptance, even though he had attended Kean University as a freshman but then dropped out. In 2005, He had a guest starring role as a hippie type minister in the show with Jami Gertz, Still Standing.
In 2004, he appeared on American Dreams as a member of the New Yardbirds.
Links:
www.Richie-Sambora.net Home of the King of Swing
Samboraly Yours, The unofficial Richie Sambora Fan Club
[edit] Discography
with Bon Jovi
- Bon Jovi - 1984, Mercury
- 7800° Fahrenheit - 1985, Mercury
- Slippery When Wet - 1986, Mercury
- New Jersey - 1988, Mercury
- Keep The Faith - 1992, Mercury
- Cross Road - 1994, Mercury
- These Days - 1995, Mercury
- Crush - 2000, Island
- One Wild Night: Live 1985-2001 - 2001, Island
- Bounce - 2002, Island
- This Left Feels Right - 2003, Island
- 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong - 2004, Island
- Have A Nice Day - 2005, Island
with Shark Frenzy
- Shark Frenzy - 2004, Sanctuary
Solo
- Stranger In This Town- 1991, Jambco, Mercury, PolyGram
- Undiscovered Soul - 1998, Mercury
