It's a truth universally acknowledged that a torn hamstring is no fun – and Orianthi can attest to that. Having had to pull out of Alice Cooper's tour due to the injury, the guitarist has revealed how a torn hamstring and hip have disrupted her immediate plans and touring schedule – forcing her to approach AC/DC's Back in Black from, let's just say, another angle.
“I'm recovering from a slightly torn hamstring and hip,” she explains on the Guitar Hang podcast. “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.’ When I got back, yeah, they were, like, ‘Oh, you can't really do this.’ I'd never canceled anything before. So it weighed heavy on me. But now I'm feeling better and all of that.”
Despite the obvious consequences such an injury has on a musician with a schedule as packed as Orianthi, she's hopeful she'll be able to stand up for the upcoming shows – something she wasn't able to do at PRS' 40th anniversary concert.
“Playing the 40th anniversary for PRS sitting down on a chair, it was so bad,” she admits. “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 Back In Black.
A quick tip from Orianthi? “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. Anyway. What can you do?”
Aside from her link-up with Dany, Orianthi also treated audiences to a performance of First Time Blues – and surprised The Warning guitarist by gifting her the custom guitar she played that night.
