Richie Sambora & Orianthi On Criticised 2016 NRL GF Set: 'What Was Wrong With That?'

12 January 2018 | 10:05 am | Neil GriffithsMark Neilsen

We sat down with the musicians ahead of their Australian tour.

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Currently in Australia together for a headline run, Richie Sambora and Orianthi have responded to criticism from their 2016 tour, which included a performance at the NRL grand final slammed by some fans as the worst in the sport's history

Many criticised the duo's performance of Bon Jovi classics, Dead Or Alive and Livin' On A Prayer, while some punters also walked out of their Melbourne headline gig on the same tour.

"You know what? I actually don't read reviews, but people told me something about the rugby gig we did at half time," Sambora said in an interview with The Music.

"What was wrong with that? Take a look, there's nothing wrong. People had a good time, we did our job, we threw down our sincerity, and people doubt that. Okay."

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Orianthi added, "Well this is a whole new thing and we're really enjoying what we're doing and we lay it all down with every show we play and we hope people like it.

"That's all you can do as an artists, if there's technical difficulties, if there's anything going on, that's what happens, it's a live show. We're singing for real, we're playing for real. I think that's what it all comes down to. Some artists play to tracks, they mime, they don't really do it for real and there's so many out there that do that, and that's a safe way to do it.

"You're never going to get those problems. But we play live. We plug in our guitars, we get up on the mic and we sing. We lay it all down. So if there's anything that goes wrong, it's part of the show. You know what I mean? You can only do your best in the situation."

Check out our full interview with Sambora and Orianthi here. 

The tour continues in Sydney tonight, followed by Melbourne tomorrow; click on theGuide for more details.