Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Samborais an American rock guitarist, producer, singer and songwriter who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Bon Jovi for 30 years. Sambora and lead singer Jon Bon Jovi formed the primary songwriting unit of the band. He has also released three solo albums: Stranger in This Town in 1991, Undiscovered Soul in 1998, and Aftermath of the Lowdown, released in September 2012...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth11 July 1959
CityPerth Amboy, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
Songwriting is something that's very daunting until you have your first successful song, I think.
When you're making a record, you try to achieve stylistically what fits on you. Like a good old coat, you know what I mean?
I was the lead singer in a lot of the bands I was in. You have to be comfortable. You gotta get up there and sell the song. You have to get up there and sell the lyric. You gotta be able to feel it.
I might have been a psychologist. It interests me.
The Army guys were kind enough to give us their big theater they have there, and at the end of the rehearsals, we're going to do a show for all of the (soldiers) and their families, ... It's not open to the public. We're just doing anything we can do. Really, it's just any time you can give back to those guys who are out there fighting for our freedom, for God's sakes.
Guy can't get a job at the refinery, or guy hates his job at the factory, or guy lost his job at the refinery or the factory. Then he gets in his car and drives around. It's all so tongue-in-cheek, ya know? Most of New Jersey doesn't even have refineries. What is a refinery, anyway?
When you're sick on the road, it's the worst. That's when you become the most vulnerable and neurotic. You become scared. If I had a cold or a chest infection, and I had to sing all those high parts, there was stage fright.
There are a lot of really good guitar sounds and new kind atmospheres on the new Bon Jovi record. I think people are going to dig it, man. And it rocks hard.
That got me thinking. Bon Jovi kills in Jersey. Just kills. We did Atlantic City this past winter and man, you wouldn't believe the intensity in that crowd. Can I just talk for a minute about how amazingly hot Heather is?
I've had a very, very interesting view of the planet over the last 30 years, touring as excessively as I have. And music is the most evocative, transformative, connective force in humanity, man.
A band is like a marriage, and if you're in a marriage with someone, and you lose yourself in that marriage, the relationship is over, really.
I want the people of New Jersey to jump off a cliff like Kurt Vonnegut so I can show them how to fly. This way, nobody needs to grow any wings, which would be impossible anyway because we're humans and not some kind of bird.
Songwriting is a give-and-take process, and it can lead to some good, healthy debates.
At the end of the day, if you're going to buy a can of Coke, you want the real thing.