Interview with Richie Sambora
Certainly, from a casual perspective, Bon Jovi's guitarist/songwriter/singer Richie Sambora is living the life few would reject. As a member of Bon Jovi, he has sold tons of millions of records, tours the world playing before thousands of adoring fans, is married to a Hollywood star with a beautiful, healthy daughter the result of that union, is quite financially comfortable - thanks in part to a level business head - and, from a guitar point of view, possesses a collection of instruments most would surely envy. Yes, life has been good to the guitar player from New Jersey, and rightfully so. For all of this comes not from luck but hard work and dedication to his craft, pursuing a singular vision for himself and his band. As Richie himself says, if it all ended today, it's been one hell of a ride. But with the band's latest release, Crush, topping the charts worldwide and plans for the band to continue touring through Thanksgiving 2001, the ride doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
Speaking with Sambora this far along in such a successful career, one must pause a moment to remember this is not a young kid with his first record climbing the charts, but a seasoned veteran of rock and roll whose enthusiasm and energy levels burst at you unbridled, happy to be working, happier to be successful and happier still with all that life has given him. There are no pretensions, no ego, no casual dismissal of all that has come his way, simply a guitar player in a bar band that made it to the big time who is thrilled to be where he is.
We spoke with Richie during a break (one day, actually) while the band was touring Europe about the new album, Bon Jovi and some of his most recent guitar acquistions.
TCG: Well, we finally get together. We've been chasing you all over Europe. You should be exhausted.
RS: Well, two words come to mind. Hard work and happiness. I'm just very, very happy to be doing what we're doing. Tomorrow night we are playing at this place in Germany and it's 76,000 people coming. And, there's no package, it's just us. We recently sold out two nights at Wembley Stadium. This whole tour has done very well. Twenty-one stadiums sold out with an average of 50,000 people per night.
TCG: You guys have always had amazing success in Europe and the Wembley shows were rather historic this time around.
RS: Yeah, it was the last concert ever to be held there. They are going to raze the place and build another stadium. It's weird to me because it is such a great sounding place. I think they are going to make it bigger. We had 71,000 people there a night. It was nuts. Isn't that big enough? It's been great. For us to come back and be contemporary again is a big thing.
TCG: It's been awhile since you've been on the road.
RS: Yeah, I guess since around 1996.
TCG: That's a long time. Don't you risk losing your audience?
RS: The thing is, it seems like a long time but with a band like us, we tour so many different countries. The last tour was forty-two different countries. It takes a while to get around the world. In the old days, we toured very uncivilly, by that I mean we would go out for sixteen and a half months and take two weeks off after eight months.
TCG: It's a bit tiring.
RS: Oh man, you come home and you are a shell of the man you once were (laughs). You have no real life that way. You come home after a year and a half and your friends have got new friends and it's a whole other thing. This time, we know how to tour the right way. We've taken some control in the destiny of the band. We don't want to let anything get in the way of our personal lives. For guys like use, if that happened, it would be the end of everything. We started this tour in Japan and did six domed stadiums which lasted for two weeks. Then we came home for two weeks off, came home to see the wife and kids and enjoy ourselves a little. Now we've been here for five weeks and then we go home for a couple of weeks. Then we'll do a VH-1 Storytellers and some radio shows and start the North American tour sometime around October 20th. We'll stop around December 1 for a little while and then it is back to Europe for a week to do some promotion on a new single. From there we'll go to the Persian Gulf and play for the troops. Next year starts the remaining territories of South America, South Africa, Canada and some more North American dates as well as Australia, the Pacific Rim and then back to Europe next summer. This tour will go through next Thanksgiving, on and off. But, the pacing will be good so we don't lose our minds.
TCG: The new record (Crush) is doing well also.
RS: Yes. It entered the charts at number one in ten countries and in most countries in the top ten, including America. It's just really working.
TCG: Again, it's been a while since you had an album out as a band and it's really selling.
RS: Killer. It's been out now for three months and we've sold 5.5 million copies as of last week.
TCG: The album is out on Island/Def Jam records which is a part of the Universal Music Group. I just heard on the radio this morning that Universal has won a lawsuit against MP-3.
RS: I read about that this morning. I think this is important because this whole MP-3 and Napster thing really affects us all as musicians. No matter what level of musicianship you are at, whether you're selling five million records or working in a club, these people are definitely taking the food off your table. They're saying that music is worth nothing and it should be shared by everyone for free. That's wrong. It's not right. Basically that breaks down the whole mechanism of what this business is about. Whether you're a songwriter or a guy who works at a record company or an engineer who works in a recording studio or whether you own the studio, whatever you do, they're breaking down the structure of a global business that has a lot of sub-mechanisms also. It's really a shame that these people are trying to lie so bad to get away with this stuff because it's breaking down a lot of people's lives.
TCG: I hear arguments from the other side which directs much of the angst towards the record companies themselves. Why are CDs $16 and $17 apiece instead of $6 or $7? They are, of course, taking out of the equation that the people who create the music have to earn a living.
RS: Exactly, and that's the problem. Everyday, I wake up and I'm really happy that I'm a working musician, that I get to do what I love for a living. It's a blessing. I understand that I'm also very lucky to have been in a successful band, but it's not fair for technology to creep underneath the justice system and do this to the young musicians. You know, guys like me, even if you got my music off the net at this point, it's not going to break me, but it could break the backs of the guys coming up. If you are going to spread the word about what you do as a musician, you've got to go on the road and get out there and play for everybody. It costs a lot of money to do that and you have to pool all of your resources to be able to do that. These people are basically taking your livelihood away. If you contine to do that, the quality of what people will get will suffer. People will not be able to make a living in music anymore. It will just become a hobby instead of an art form. It really is pretty disheartening.
TCG: I was surprised that Napster got the reprieve they did and the judgement against MP-3 was something along the lines of a quarter of a billion dollars. I can't imagine they could survive something like that.
RS: Yeah, shouldn't they be broke? That's how rich they are and that's what is really messed up.
TCG: Yeah, the musicians aren't getting any money, yet they have that kind of money.
RS: The thing is, too, that the technology of MP-3 is fine if you are going to pay for that song. I have no idea what that should be worth, I haven't really thought about it. But, sure, you can download it, but be fair. Why should a musician go out and make music if he is not going to get paid for it. I don't want to come off like a stuffy idiot, but this could really wreck things.
TCG: It was interesting that when Stephen King put chapters of his latest book on the Internet, something like 75% of those that downloaded the work, paid for it. I think people are willing to pay for something they want, the mechanism just needs to be put into place. At the same time, if it is offered to people for free, they're going to take it for free.
RS: Absolutely. And what's going to happen is there is going to be a cultural desert.
TCG: I understand that you've been going a little crazy on the guitar front lately.
RS: A little crazy? Well, not too bad, actually. I've got a bunch of stuff going on. Obviously, for this new record I came up with a couple of new things.
TCG: What are you playing on the record?
RS: Just about everything, as usual. I've got a '60 Les Paul and a '59 Les Paul that I've been playing around with. My wife bought me a '58 Stratocaster that looks brand new that I've been playing a ton. I've also been using an old 6120 a lot as well as the old Martins, a 000-42 and OM-18, I have. I've also been playing the Taylors a lot. I have a new Signature Model Taylor out.
TCG: I did notice that you seem to have severed the relationship with Ovation.
RS: Yeah, I just lost contact with them. We had a good relationship over the years and did a lot of business and then it seems that my taste lately has been moving towards more vintage stuff. Even my Signature Series at Fender is more towards vintage. The Floyd is gone and it's a more vintage setup. I've been kind of going that way more and I think Taylor is making the best new acoustic out there for any money. I don't know a better sounding or playing instrument that I can think of. There's a Signature model and we already sold out the first run. It's made of Koa and has a cutaway. It's absolutely gorgeous and they sound tremendous. They've also made me a couple of double-necks and they are stupid, stupid instruments. They're great.
TCG: How did you hook up with Taylor?
RS: What happened was they put that acoustic wood and steel album out every year and they called and asked if I wanted to participate this year. I wrote an instrumental for it, Don Was played bass and Jose Feliciano did the percussion. It was really a nice thing. The record went to number 7 on the New Age charts. Obviously, I had to use a Taylor and it was the first time I had tried one. I loved it. Old Martins are one thing. I just bought a 1902 parlor guitar from Norm (Norm Harris, Norm's Rare Guitars) but if you're going to buy a new acoustic instrument, get a Taylor. They sound the best, they play the best, they record great. So far, it's been a wonderful relationship.
TCG: You've also made some significant changes to the Sambora model Stratocaster.
RS: Absolutely. As I mentioned, the Floyd is gone and it is definitely geared more towards the vintage feel. It also has all single coil pickups and the bodies are lighter. I use those every night, too.
TCG: You have to.
RS: Well, it's not that I have to, but the Custom Shop has made me four really killer guitars. One is modeled after an old '58 beater I had. I also did one in Sonic blue, one in Shoreline gold and one that looks like Buddy Guy's Strat. They're all "relic-ed" out so they feel and sound and play like old guitars.
TCG: Do they still have stars on the fingerboard?
RS: Yeah, but smaller ones. I would have probably preferred to take the stars off altogether, but it makes the guitar a unique instrument. But now they're a little less instrusive. And, I'm playing Marshalls again.
TCG: Which ones are you using?
RS: The 2000.
TCG: Isn't that a killer amp?
RS: Oh yeah. I use it all over the record. I'm just thrilled. On stage, I use a couple of 2000s and a couple Vox AC-30s. I'm really into the English amplification. Those two amplifiers really respond to almost any instruments. On the record, I also used my old tweeds, Supers, Bassmans and old Marshalls and Selmers. When you are doing a record, you are painting a picture with the sound and you have a chance to experiment. I probably used forty different guitars and twenty different amps.
TCG: But those 2000s are so versatile. There is little they can't do.
RS: And that's what's so good about them live. You are not going to get a tweed personality out of them, obviously, but when you play live they do respond to whatever instruments you use. On the road, I do take a few vintage instruments with me, some old Teles and some old Pauls.
TCG: So, you do take some of the old guitars out with you.
RS: I do. Not a lot, but some. The thing is, you fall in love with these guitars and you think, "why the hell aren't I using them"? My collection is stuff that I actually use. I don't buy something because it looks good. It's got to stay in tune and sound good, it's got to record well. It has got to have all of those redeeming factors. I take a long time to pick and choose the guitars I really want to get. There are a certain number of guitars I have that I'm just dating, I'm not sleeping with yet (laughs). Some guitars you can really get close to fast, with others, it takes awhile to get to know. Right now, I have about ten that are "on deck."
TCG: What's in your chain now from guitar to amp?
RS: I'm totally away from all of that MIDI stuff I use to do. Now, I just plug into a Wah-Wah pedal and into the amp. That's it. Right into the Marshall, no wireless, can't afford the sonic loss.
TCG: On the first single from the new album, you reprieve the Talk Box. Is it true you are using a Framptone?
RS: That's right. Peter sent me one, and it sounds phenomenal. It's so much better than the Heil. It has more power, it almost blows your mouth out.
TCG: Jon's acting career is going very well. Are we going to see you on Spin City anytime soon?
RS: Probably not! It's funny, I get offered more acting jobs than probably most aspiring actors, but I haven't taken any of them. Personally, I enjoy the music business and there is still so much more to do as a songwriter, producer, solo artist and guitar player.
TCG: Are you playing tonight or do you have the day off?
RS: We didn't have the day off, we flew in from Cologne where we did a TV show. We flew in to Cologne from Holland where I was mixing sound from a live DVD we did the night before. This morning I woke up in Holland, flew to Cologne, did two TV shows and got back on a plane and flew here to Nurenberg. We get tonight off and play tomorrow night.
TCG: I'm tired just hearing about it.
RS: You know what? It is amazing to be a working musician and I respect it and I don't take it for granted one bit. This is going to buy us another four years in the marketplace. I think people really like live music and we're essentially a glorified bar band. Our songs are about people and their situations and people like us and the way we grew up. Our New Jersey work ethic still carries through. I think with what has happened in our lives, we're happy to be working. It's not about the bread, I've got enough money to do what I want to do, but it's really about the pleasure of going out there, entertaining people and making music.
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