On Everything From Smaller Digestion Periods To Positivity And Unity

The middle of December was a big time in the RSO camp. Within a couple of days, one half of the duo - Richie Sambora - was given a golden ticket into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as Bon Jovi were announced as one of the next lot of inductees, plus RSO released their second EP, Making History. This followed their debut EP, Rise, which was only released in September.

A frequent release schedule is something the duo is working towards however. "We wrote a lot of songs together, about 70, and we have about 25 masters, and the way this business exists at the moment, we felt like people could maybe digest five at a time," highlights Sambora. "It's all different now, the way things work. You can't beat people over the head and go to radio unless you're going to be a one hit wonder or the Justin Bieber of the day - Justin's doing a great job with his career, and a lot of people are doing a great job with their career, and I really admire the younger artists that have actually endured this music business."

"As Richie said, it's like giving people five songs to digest at a time because we have a lot of material that we've written and we're going to put out an album around, I think, February, but it's giving people a chunk at a time so they can digest it and we're really proud of every song," Orianthi adds.

RSO are keen to tour Australia, not only as it affords Adelaide-born Orianthi a chance to be closer to family, but it allows them to showcase fresh tunes here. "It's going to be beautiful weather, we've got a brand new album, we worked really hard on it. Richie and I are just really excited to play this new music for everybody in Australia because they haven't heard it yet," Orianthi says.

Their excitement extends to the fact that they kick off their Australian tour as part of Under The Southern Stars shows in the mid-north coast of NSW and the Morning Peninsula in Victoria alongside Jimmy Barnes, where both have a long history with him.  

"We played together a bunch," Sambora says. "He is, basically, Australia. When I think about Australian artists, I think about Barnesy. He basically set the bar. And then there's Orianthi after that. It's like get on stage with that's basically a legend at that point, and you're honoured to do the gig. It's great to come to Australia, with my girlfriend and her family. I don't know how many times I've been to Australia, I think it's about 50, and I think it's been one of my favourite places to play on earth. I've played the planets, man."

Orianthi laughs off being ranked number two behind Barnesy. "I'm just so happy to be coming back home with Richie and for us to be able to play this music together for you guys and to be up there with Jimmy. I mean, we love Jimmy, he's such a… growing up and listening to Cold Chisel, you know, that kind of stuff. I love it, He sings his butt off. I actually played a show at House Of Blues about 11 years ago opening for Jimmy. He's a very nice guy," she says.

There's also the Adelaide connection, with both Barnes and Orianthi having their formative years there. "He'd be playing around Adelaide all the time and my dad loved Chisel and my mum's a huge Jimmy Barnes fan, so was listening to his records all the time, they were playing in the house, so growing up with that. Yeah, I mean it's just amazing."

When RSO toured Australia in September 2016, there was a strong reaction to a couple of their performances, especially their Melbourne show and their appearance at the NRL Grand Final. Both Sambora and Orianthi highlight how such things are just part and parcel of performing live.

"I think as an artist, you go out there and throw down your sincerity and there was some stuff that… I don't know. I'm not really sure. All I know is that every gig that you go down… if you want to ask about my lineage, I'm just going to say fuck you. So, like, I've played 5000 shows in my life, every once in a while things might go awry, this, that and the other thing - so what? The fact that the body of your work, that's the way it goes. We're excited to come to Australia and it's been a great thing all the way through," Sambora says.

"You know what? I actually don't read reviews, but people told me something about the rugby gig we did at half time. 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."

"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," Orianthi explains. "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."

But it all comes back to the songwriting.

"You write songs that have authenticity and about how you're feeling and hopefully people will catch that vibe and get to that place," Sambora says. "That's the important part of it, and that's the reason why we're still doing this and we're still around. We're still trying to touch people. We're still trying to make people happy. Going out there, being entertainers, and taking the songs and making people have a good time, because that's what this world needs right now. But that's what the world needs all the time.

"Music has been a healing process for this world and this planet for ages now. So when you write a song that people actually get around, it's a beautiful thing, it's a blessing and you thank god. Thank you for giving us a little bit of that."

"I think as songwriters you write about hope. And that's all you can do really. People to come together and for it to be a better place," says Orianthi. 

"And that's all we can put into song, put that into people's heads, and when they come to shows, it's that feeling. We're going on a feeling and hope everyone feels something and they leave with something. Hopefully positivity and unity and all of that. That's what we try to do."