ORIANTHI talks about injury which forced her to cancel return to ALICE COOPER's band
17-02-2025
During an appearance on the Guitar Hang podcast, Australian guitarist Orianthi (ex Michael Jackson, ex Alice Cooper) spoke about the injury which forced her to pull out of her previously announced return to Alice Cooper‘s touring band for the legendary rocker’s January and February 2025 dates. Taking her place in Cooper‘s group was former GUNS N’ ROSES axeman Gilby Clarke. Orianthi said: “I’m recovering from a slightly torn hamstring and hip. And I had to cancel some Alice Cooper dates, which I felt terrible — really terrible about. But I felt this terrible pain and I was, like, ‘I don’t know, holding the guitar for two hours a night and not being able to move around.’ And I called Alice, actually, when I was in Saudi Arabia, and I said, ‘I’m in a lot of pain. I’m not too sure what’s going on.’ So I gave him a heads up, and I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening.’ Obviously I couldn’t go see a doctor there. So when I got back, yeah, they were, like, ‘Oh, you can’t really do this.’ So I was, like, ‘Man.’ I’d never canceled anything before. So it weighed heavy on me. But now I’m feeling better and all of that.”
She continued: “So it’s good. ‘Cause I’m playing this show at the end of the month to raise some money for the fires, with Sammy Hagar and a bunch of people. And I really wanna be able to stand up and do that, ’cause playing the 40th anniversary for PRS sitting down on a chair, it was so bad. I was, like, ‘Man, this is so embarrassing.’ And I’m, like, in a tracksuit and playing with Dany (Daniela Villarreal) from THE WARNING; she’s awesome. We played (AC/DC‘s) ‘Back In Black’. You should never play ‘Back In Black’ sitting down. It was just weird because they didn’t show me walking out. So my mother saw it. She goes, ‘Did they wheel you out? You just appeared on a chair.’ That was some weird shit. Whatever. Anyway. What can you do?”
Clarke was filling in for Cooper‘s regular guitarist Nita Strauss, who was unable to make the shows due to a scheduling conflict with her solo tour.
Orianthi performed while seated at PRS Guitars‘ 40th-anniversary show on January 24. On January 26, she posted a picture from what appears to be a doctor’s office where she was receiving treatment for her injury.
Orianthi toured with Alice from 2011 to 2014, along with longtime band members Chuck Garric, Glen Sobel, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie.
Orianthi recently spoke to Guitar Interactive magazine about her upcoming album, “Some Kind Of Feeling”, due later in the year via Woodward Avenue Records.
She said: “I’m really excited. Yeah, this record came together really organically with my band. We recorded it at Robby Krieger‘s (THE DOORS) studio out here in L.A. So we went down to Love Street Sound. And Robby‘s such a legend and him letting us use his space was such a sweet thing and I’m really grateful for that. And I produced half the record myself and then had legend Kevin Shirley produce the rest of it. So it was really cool. And I got my band in there, and it was, honestly, really easy — really fast, really easy. Most of the tracks have a really live feel to them, because they are pretty much live. We probably cut them three or four times and then chose the best one, and then added some backgrounds and whatnot and a few fixes and whatnot, but ultimately what you’re hearing is very live, and I wanted to keep it that way.”
Regarding the decision to title the album “Some Kind Of Feeling”, Orianthi said: “Everything was kind of going on a feeling. Every song is sort of a little different, like from ‘Ghost’ to ‘First Time Blues’ to ‘Some Kind Of Feeling’. They’re kind of a little different-sounding — not style-wise, but sort of in a way. Like ‘Some Kind Of Feeling’ sounds Motown — it’s sort of like blues, country, pop — and then ‘Ghost’ sounds like a pop ballad, and then you’ve got ‘First Time Blues’, which is like kind of rock blues. So I don’t know. It’s kind of like every song is going on a feeling. And I think that that kind of title sums it up somewhat.”
Asked if she enjoys working with outside producers, like Kevin Shirley, or if she prefers doing everything on her own, Orianthi said: “I produced my first record, so I learned how to produce and engineer when I was really young. So, I kind of wanted to do it again. And I love doing a lot of stuff here myself. And even when I’m in the studio working with different producers, I kind of do sort of co-produce; I’m very hands-on, like, ‘No, I want my tone like this. No, I wanna re-sing it like this.’ I’m kind of bossy in a way, so it has to be the right producer to work with me, because, unless I really respect them, I’m not gonna trust them, if that makes sense, to really make a record. I don’t wanna waste my time or their time, us going in together, because otherwise it just feels like… If it’s not gonna be the right fit, I kind of know straight off the bat, like when I meet them for dinner or drinks or whatever, and we chat about what we’re gonna do, I know if that person is the right one to produce my record — not only from their body of work from what they’ve done before, but as a person, their personality, they’ve got to be very alpha because I am. They have to be really opinionated in the sense of what they’re looking for, and that way there’s no wavering. It’s, like, I want them to tell me … ‘We need to do this. We need to get this miked this way. This drum sound needs to sound like this.’ I love that in a producer. I need that sort of situation.”
Orianthi‘s recording lineup includes keyboardist Ed Roth, bassist Justin Andres, guitarist Nick Maybury and drummer Jimmy Paxson, with those sublime background vocals provided by Jade MacRae, Justin Andres and Orianthi herself.
Orianthi previously had to step down from het reunion with the Alice Cooper band.
Orianthi performed while seated at PRS Guitars‘ 40th-anniversary show on Friday, January 24. On Sunday (January 26), she posted a picture from what appears to be a doctor’s office where she was receiving treatment for her injury.
Orianthi toured with Alice from 2011 to 2014, along with longtime band members Chuck Garric, Glen Sobel, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie.
Orianthi (Orianthi Panagaris) looks as much like a rock star as she does a supermodel. But it’s her extraordinary guitar chops that turn the most heads. She began playing professionally when she was thirteen years old before going on to perform and/or tour with Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Alice Cooper, Richie Sambora and Dave Stewart. She was hired by Michael Jackson for his “This Is It” tour before his untimely death and performed with the supergroup HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES (Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen). Orianthi‘s debut album, “Violet Journey”, was released in 2005 and she has issued five solo albums to date. She was featured accompanying Carrie Underwood during a Grammy Awards telecast, performed on “American Idol” and appears in Jackson‘s documentary concert film “This Is It”. Elle magazine named Orianthi one of the “12 Greatest Female Electric Guitarists” and she won the 2010 “Breakthrough Guitarist Of The Year” award from Guitar International magazine.
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