RICHIE SAMBORA Says He Has More Than Two Albums’ Worth Of Solo Music ‘Sitting In The Can’
Former BON JOVI guitarist Richie Sambora is the featured guest on “Howie Mandel Does Stuff”, the podcast co-hosted by the comedian and his daughter Jackelyn Shultz. You can now watch video of Richie‘s appearance below.
Sambora, who in recent months has shared a slew of new singles, including “I Pray”, “Livin’ Alone”, “Songs That Wrote My Life”, “Believe (In Miracles)” and “We’ll Get By”, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “The writing thing for me, that’s the most fun, I think. Because you’re kind of making stuff up out of thin air and it materializes into a sonic painting.”
Elaborating on his songwriting process, Richie said: “It happens all ways, but usually it starts with a title. I need a story… Because the story is gonna give you a fabric and then the lyric, you’re gonna color it almost like it’s a movie soundtrack, ’cause there’s a sound for hope. You’ve gotta go dig around and find them, but that’s half the fun.”
Regarding the decision to release a batch of singles as opposed to a full-length album, Sambora said: “It was an interesting way to do things. This is the first time I’ve ever done it this way.
“People don’t have the time for the album experience anymore,” he explained. “So I just started going, like, ‘Okay I’m just gonna release one song at a clip and see how it’s going.’ And so I think in the month of July I released four songs, and then about three weeks ago, I just released a song called ‘We’ll Get By’, which I think is very, very timely for what’s going on now. And I’m lucky because I got, like, two albums on ice, kind of thing, sitting in the can… I mean, I have way more than that, actually.”
Sambora can currently be seen in “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story”, a four-part, all-access docuseries chronicling the life and times of one of the most iconic and recognizable bands in the world, which premiered in April exclusively via Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ around the world. A four-decade rock ‘n’ roll odyssey, the series follows the group’s extraordinary history through 40 years of personal videos, unreleased early demos, original lyrics, and never-before-seen photos that chronicle their remarkable journey from Jersey Shore clubs to the biggest stages on the planet.
Sambora is a true rock ‘n’ roll icon, best known for his award-winning, multi-platinum-certified work as lead guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer in BON JOVI. Sambora, with BON JOVI, released 12 studio albums, five compilations, and two live albums, with total sales now in excess of more than 130 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. Among his credits as co-writer and performer are such worldwide No. 1 albums as the RIAA diamond-certified “Slippery When Wet” (currently boasting U.S. sales over 12 million) and the seven-times-platinum-certified “New Jersey”, along with four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits — including “You Give Love A Bad Name”, “I’ll Be There For You”, “Bad Medicine” and “Livin’ On A Prayer”, the latter of which recently surpassed 1.5 billion worldwide streams via Spotify alone — as well as the Grammy Award-winning “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, which peaked at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs, making history as the first-ever rock band to have reached the top spot on both the rock and country chart.
In addition, Sambora has released a series of acclaimed solo albums boasting total sales now in excess of two million worldwide. A seasoned collaborator, Sambora has joined forces with artists spanning Bo Diddley and LL Cool J to Leann Rimes and Cher, for whom he co-produced 1987’s RIAA platinum-certified “Cher”. In 2021, Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi were both honored at the Ivor Novello Awards in London with the Special International Award for their decades of songwriting excellence. Last year saw Sambora unveiled as “Jacket Potato” on the U.K.’s hit singing competition series “The Masked Singer”, eliminated in the semi-finals of the series’ fourth season having regaled British audiences with versions of Elvis Presley‘s “Viva Las Vegas”, Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah”, THE PRETENDERS‘ “Brass In Pocket”, SANTANA Feat. Rob Thomas‘s “Smooth”, FLEETWOOD MAC‘s “Go Your Own Way” and more.
