Orianthi sadly did not have had the opportunity to play live with Michael Jackson but she says the “surreal” experience of rehearsing with the King of Pop for his 2009 This Is It residency at London’s O2 Arena taught her how to be a better performer – and gave her a first-hand view of his exacting standards.
Jackson hand-picked Orianthi to be his guitar player for his London residency, where 750,000 people had tickets to see him play. Jackson died just 18 days before opening night.
Speaking to MusicRadar in December, the Orianthi said there was no detail that escaped Jackson’s attention. He would even offer feedback on her electric guitar tone.
“He was such a perfectionist, attention to detail, every part,” she recalled. “It was pretty wild because even when it came to my guitar tone he would be like, ‘Could you try a different amplifier? Maybe try this.’ Or whatever. Not that I didn’t think he would be paying attention that much, but he really was in tune with every single part of every song, and he knew it all.”
It’s a lesson for any session player; bring a guitar that can cover all the bases. Jackson would orchestrate it all in the studio. If he had a sound in his head, it was up to the session players to deliver it. “I had to really [be ready] for that, and to change up guitars and tones,” said Orianthi.
On this occasion, Jackson wasn’t hearing what he needed for the Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’ – he wanted a Stratocaster tone. Orianthi didn’t have one with her but she did have a PRS that could do the job.
“I was using my PRS and he wanted it sounding more like a Strat, more like a rhythm sound, so Paul [Reed Smith] had this guitar that actually had more of that kind of cutting-through tone for the rhythms,” she said. “I have it in the other room [now] but I used it and it really did kind of sound like a Strat.
“It really did lend itself to that rhythmic clean tone that he was looking for, and when I picked it up and played it he was like, ‘Perfect! Great!’ It was Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’, just for that rhythm part and I remember him being enamoured with that.”
Jackson had no notes on Orianthi’s lead tone. That was the PRS going through an EVH tube amp, with all the juicy drive needed to replicate Eddie Van Halen’s Beat It solo live.
“The lead tones and whatnot, he was pretty happy,” she said. “I was using EVH amps at the time for that because high-gain and all that stuff, and I wanted it especially for the Beat It solo, Dirty Diana, and all those tracks.”
Preparing for a show on this scale was a learning experience like no other. “Pretty daunting” is how she describes it. Everything was geared towards the show.
“He was one of the greatest showmen on the planet,” said Orianthi. “He taught me how to be a better entertainer, and there were a lot of aspects where it was all choreographed, like running over to meet him with the steam coming out of the floor and whatnot.
“It was all crazy, awesome, but ultimately what I learned from him was just give 110 per cent. Just go out there and do everything you can, and always try to better yourself.”
“It was a crazy, wild time," she continued. “I made a lot of friends out of it, too, Judith Hill [vocals], Michael Bearden [keyboards, music director]. We’re like family and we’ll never forget that experience together. And we catch up for dinner every other week out here in LA. He definitely brought people together and I thought that was incredible. Yeah, I will forever remember that time.”
Orianthi is currently working on her forthcoming studio album, Some Kind Of Feeling, which is being produced by Kevin ‘The Caveman’ Shirley, and she will rejoin the Alice Cooper band for a string of dates in late January and February as she sits in for Nita Strauss.
She also has not one but two signature Orange amps out on the market, her Oriverb 2x12 combo and a Orange Crush practice amp version – a $219 1x8 combo that she admitted she used to play live on TV for a watching audience of millions.
