The famous guitarist Orianthi started very young in the world of music and played with many talented musicians, from Steve Vai to Carlos Santana, but she knew the consecration at the beginning of the year 2009, when she was recruited as Michael Jackson’s guitarist for his This Is It concert series, which was to take place the same year.
Although the King of Pop sadly passed away before the start of the tour, Orianthi nevertheless spent several months playing with him during the preparation for the tour, and participated in the documentary entitled This Is It, which retraces the rehearsals.
Orianthi recalled her experience working with Michael Jackson during a recent appearance on Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White’s show.
When asked if the iconic singer was involved in his guitar playing and sounds, she replied: “Yes quite. In fact, I changed my amps several times. […] There was a lot of attention to detail. And [Michael Jackson] heard everything. And even when it came to the dancing, the outfits – just everything – he was on top. It was a crazy show of epic proportions.”
She added: “It was amazing, just being able to work with him for… I think it was like two or three months, something like that. It was pretty crazy, I got to watch him work with the musicians, and he gave me advice. He was supporting everyone, he wanted everyone to get involved and do their job.”
When Jeremy White remarked that people often overlook what a detail-oriented musician Jackson was, Orianthi replied: “He was really [un homme de détails], that’s the thing. He might hear everything I was doing – ‘Oh, might you change your amp settings’, he said to me at one point, and I said ‘Sure’; he wanted the sound to be thinner on this part, so that certain things would stand out better in the mix. And so yeah, it was great.”
Orianthi will release their live album titled Live From Hollywood on July 15 via Frontiers Music SRL.
