Known for his work on Extreme, Nuno Bettencourt reacted to the rumor that the singer wanted to record a heavy work, but would have been prevented
One of the greatest pop artists of our time, Rihanna has flirted with several genres throughout his career. Never with heavy metal though.
In 2009, an article from the British tabloid Daily Star saying that the singer would like to make a heavy sounding album, leaning towards metal. According to the newspaper, it would have been for this reason that she hired the guitarist Nuno Bettencourtmember of extreme and one of the most skilled musicians on the instrument within rock. However, executives of his label would have vetoed the initiative.
The text even presents a declaration that would have been made by Nunosaying: “When I spoke to Rihanna, she was totally willing to transform into a hard rock girl. she was listening Led Zeppelinas well as younger bands like Paramoreand said that was the direction she wanted to go, so I took it.”
Since then, a huge urban legend has been created around the supposed desire to Rihanna in recording a work oriented to heavy metal. She released five albums in this period — Rated R (2009), loud (2010), Talk That Talk (2011), unapologetic (2012) and Anti (2016), but nothing heavy sounding.
Rihanna and the alleged heavy metal album
Ultimately, according to Nuno Bettencourt, this whole story was nothing but a big lie. The guitarist said, in an interview with classic rock (via Ultimate Guitar), which not only Rihanna never planned to record a heavy metal album, as well as such a statement to Daily Star it was completely fabricated.
“That is a complete lie. It’s manufactured. It’s so incorrect. I swear to you on my children’s lives those words never left my mouth. It’s a good story — and I think that’s why it was written — but it’s not true at all.”
But in the end, what did Nuno be hired to join the band of Rihanna — even if only for concerts, with no studio commitments? The guitarist said:
“What happened is they reached out to me because they said they wanted a guitar player and they wanted a killer show, and they saw some of my stuff on the internet. I said, ‘why do you want me if there’s no guitar on a lot of the songs?’ And they told me they just wanted me to be myself, to add guitars to songs like ‘umbrella‘ and everything in between, with heavy chords and riffs. And I thought, ‘Wow, this is really exciting for a guy like me who loves all styles of music.’ That’s how this story started. But she didn’t want to make a heavy metal record.”
No cakewalk for Nuno Bettencourt
Accustomed to playing complex guitar lines on extreme — who will release a new album, Riseon June 9th, and will play at Best of Blues and Rockin São Paulo, seven days before —, Nuno Bettencourt may give the impression that you are performing an easy job with Rihanna. After all, they are less complicated songs to perform.
Nothing. In another interview, now to the herman li at the YouTube (via website Igor Miranda), he assured that it is much more difficult than it looks. “I also thought it wouldn’t be that difficult when I decided to try. But I was so wrong. If you really listen to the material from Rihanna, which you should, you’ll notice goes from reggae to a club track, through to trap. You have to change the reasoning between one song and another to really make it sound good. The musicians you play with on a job like this are no joke. They are the musicians of the musicians, the greatest in the world.”
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
