Michael Jackson's Guitarist: Orianthi

Welcome to Young Hollywood. com. Hey guys, Oriswa here for Young Hollywood, and today we are interviewing Orithi. She was hand-picked to be Michael Jackson's lead guitarist for his This Is It tour. You were kind of plucked out on MySpace.

I know. I didn't think it was for real at first, and um, my manager reached out and it was for real. So it was just crazy and it was from Mike Bearden, and he just said that he wanted me to come in and play for um, Michael, and he wanted me to learn Jay Diana, Beat It, and I want to be starting something. I knew those tracks. Never been that nervous in my whole life. I was like praying to God I didn't hit any dumb notes.

When you trade out for him, he grabbed you and made you walk with him to see if you could do it and walk at the same time. What exactly went through your head at that moment when he gets there and grabs your arm and says, walk with me.

Okay, okay. Um, and he asked me if I could play the solo I just played at that walking at that pace with him. And I didn't know if I could, but I said totally. And when I got home, I started practicing, playing the Beat It solo, prancing around the apartment and driving my sister crazy. She was like, enough. And I think the neighbors actually thought that it, you know, Michael Jackson fanatic moved in next door with a really loud guitar out. Cuz I was playing all of his songs. I was learning them all, you know, and I had my amp cranked up.

Now, what's one thing that people don't know that you got to see firsthand. What was he like just, you know, hanging out?

He loved to joke around, you know, might be at on the uh, music director always cracked jokes. Him like, who's that? You know, just say that to him and he would crack up and it was funny. And and just little things he would do and um, you know, he was, he just liked to have fun, and you could see that he was just like a big kid. Such a kind person too. Like really giving, wanted us all to have our moments, and he gave me extra solo in in Black or White, which is awesome. And he actually said to me, this is your time to shine. I want to give you this moment and to play the audience, and that was just something I'll never forget.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of rumors out there. Are there any that you personally were touched by and would love to put to rest?

That he wasn't wanting to do the shows, you know, cuz I think that every time, every time he came into rehearsals, he was so full of energy and seemed just really into it and wanting to do it. So just focused and in in in command, in control and the leader, you know, and um, I think someone that truly didn't want to do the shows or do it at all would be like, just whatever. You know, but he was, when he was there, he was very present.

Tell me what the name is, Orithi. Where did it come from? What's the story?

It came from my grandma. She's uh, I'm half Greek. Okay. So um, I'm named after her and she's from this small island in Greece.

Tell me a little bit about your music, your sound.

Well, the record is uh, you know, sort of rock, pop, commercial record. For me, I'm such a guitar head that, you know, we just light up the guitars in the choruses and and um, there's actually a guitar uh, instrumental uh, song on the record. Um, and it's a duet between me and Steve Vai. Steve Vai is my idol, so getting to work with him was just incredible. And I think there's, you know, hopefully something for everybody on it. You know, there's some bluesy songs, jazz songs together. There's like chill song like with uh, drive away. There's, you know, upbeat kind of Hendrix vibe of what's it going to be. My iPod is so diverse that I'm just like inspired with all different types of music.

Because Michael Jackson changed your life, how are you taking that experience with you in your music and going forward now?

I'm into the '80s. I love the '80s. I wish I was born in the '70s so I could have enjoyed the '80s. So next best thing to that is to make a record which is very '80s now with believe. And um, you know, this this record is just like covering guitar solos and and uh, big choruses and and hopefully I can inspire more young girls to pick up the guitar.