Nuno Bettencourt on playing with Rihanna: "I’m sorry, most of the guitar players who I admire could not in their lifetime play that gig"

Nuno Bettencourt is most well-known for his electric guitar acrobatics with Extreme. Heck, his dizzying guitar solo on the band's explosive 2023 track, Rise, is not only one of 2023's best displays of lead guitar acumen, it's regarded by many to be one of the best solos of the 21st century so far.

Bettencourt's most publicly visible gig, however, came with pop superstar Rihanna, with whom he embarked on a number of tours in the early 2010s, before re-joining the singer once again earlier this year at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show.

The Washburn-wielding virtuoso has, on numerous occasions, spoken about the musical challenges of the gig, assuring skeptics that, musically, his time with Rihanna was a lot more demanding than it might have looked to outsiders. 

In a recent interview with Planet Rock, Bettencourt took things one step further still, maintaining that “most of the guitar players who I admire could not in their lifetime play that gig.“

“When somebody like Rihanna reaches out to you to perform everybody thinks ‘oh, that’s cute. It’s a pop artist, whatever,“ Bettencourt said.

“Let me tell you something, what I had to do night after night – put on a reggae hat (for one song) with a reggae feel, and go into R&B, then go into some punk rock and pop rock that she did, and then club tracks. All sorts of (things), all those different feels.

“I’m sorry, most of the guitar players who I admire could not in their lifetime play that gig,“ the guitarist continued. “I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Slash is one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time but I guarantee – and he’d be the first to tell you – that if he jumps up and he’s got to play a clean intro to Rude Boy [by] Rihanna, it ain’t happening.“

Rihanna - Rude Boy - YouTube

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Bettencourt also discussed his time in Rihanna's band in a recent interview with Guitar World, paying particular tribute to the chops of the group's other members. 

“All the funk shit and everything we were doing, it was crazy,“ Bettencourt said of his time with the group. “And then I’m playing with some of the greatest musicians I’ve ever played with. 

“These were player’s players – our drummer did a Stevie Wonder tour, for fuck’s sake. It was like having the R&B version of Neil Peart next to me. The fusion and the jazz and all the jams that were going on, it was beyond belief.”

To read Guitar World's full chat with Bettencourt, pick up the August issue of the mag over at Magazines Direct.