Last Thursday (February 27), Phil X and Richie Sambora shared the stage with Matt Sorum and Orianthi for a fundraising performance of Livin’ on a Prayer during the Rock For Responders LA wildfire benefit concert.
The performance made headlines, and for good reason: it saw Phil X – the electric guitar player who formally replaced Sambora in the legendary rock outfit – team up with his predecessor – the man who, in turn, helped Bon Jovi actually write the classic track – as two eras of Bon Jovi combined on stage.
And, speaking to Guitar World writer Andrew Daly, Phil X reflects on the occasion, and recalls how the unexpected collaboration first came about – and how the show’s organizers were unsure whether it’d be something the pair would be happy to do.
“They called me a couple of days before,” the guitarist says. “They were like, ‘Hey, so Richie wants to come out and play Livin’ on a Prayer…’”
“I was like, ‘Hey, what a great song for the cause.’ They were like, ‘Is that going to be OK?’ Because nobody knows, right? That was a good question. But I said, ‘Yeah, we’re both adults. Yeah… it’ll be OK. It’ll be fun.”
“I had been playing all night,” Phil X continues. “Then, he [Sambora] finally got onstage, came over, and we started playing Livin’ on a Prayer. We had rehearsed it the day before, so he and Ori could play their parts, and I just played more of a supportive role.”
Indeed, Sambora took lead vocal and lead guitar duties for the song, and though the rendition ditched the talk box, it kept the solo, which Sambora took for a quasi-improvised spin.
However, it turned out to be a rather enlightening occasion for Phil X, who was able to observe up close the differences between how he and his predecessor both tackle the Bon Jovi hit.
“One funny thing is that he doesn’t do the modulation at the end that I do when I play with Bon Jovi,” says Phil X. “I just had to stay in my head. I’d be like, ‘OK, don’t do the modulation, don’t do the modulation.’”
It turned out to be a successful evening, and while the wider public perception may be that Phil X and Sambora are at odds with each other owing to the Bon Jovi connection, Phil X insists this isn’t the case.
“Man, we were buds before and after. It was really cool,” he goes on. “Like, it was a really amazing day. Hanging out with all those guys was killer. He [Sambora] was just one more guy hanging out backstage. I felt like, you know, I like to engage, and sometimes, I had to sit back and go, ‘Holy shit. Is this really happening?’ It was really cool.”
Sambora left the band officially in 2013, but Phil X had been brought onboard as a fill-in around 2011 for a number of tour shows. In 2016, he was minted as the official Bon Jovi guitarist, and in a recent interview with Guitar World, he confirmed new music and tour dates were in the works.
