Playing guitar for pop icon Rihanna is by no means an easy gig, says Extreme rocker Nuno Bettencourt, who’s performed with the star’s live band on every one of her world tours since 2009.
In a recent interview with Planet Rock, the guitarist claims that a majority of the electric guitar players he looks up to – even Slash – would not be able handle a set with RiRi given the demands of the gig. “When somebody like Rihanna reaches out to you to perform everybody thinks ‘oh, that’s cute. It’s a pop artist, whatever,’” Bettencourt says.
“Let me tell you something, what I had to do night after night… put on a reggae hat [for one song] with a reggae feel, and go into R&B, then go into some punk rock and pop rock that she did, and then club tracks. All sorts of [things], all those different feels.”