NUNO BETTENCOURT BEFORE A GIG

[Music] how you doing doing what's going on I guess it's happen hello look at this yeah how you doing good good yeah it's not too loud not too loud but we want it loud that's what this is all about is it I know we almost got arrested last night cuz it was too loud uh welcome to casino ballroom man the uh historic historic spot legendary the fact that Zeppelin in 69 was on this day it's not bad going is it that'll do it that'll do it so what's the evolution of the N4 the letters on my guitar were not because of the model they were letters that I numbered through the years the guitars that were important to me so by the time was want to do the model uh the next when they gave me the first one I put the N4 sticker on it I used to buy him at truck stops on tour actually when I retired my N4 I I I was carrying it a lot and it was almost stolen three times I I tried to find the exact models of that that year that were made production wise and I literally they were signed I I would buy these from fans that would come into meet and grease I think I might have gotten this from in the UK actually okay and then uh like I would signed it to this person what 99 97 whatever it says there and I and so I could at least feel it but when I wanted to sticker it I couldn't just rename it and for because there was only one so I I I thought it would be the Bizarro twin brother of it this guitar it looks it's quite is it small or is that just me imagining I'm just a big [ __ ] dude yeah that's what it is no it's smaller it's smaller and it's actually obviously like a strat shape but a normal Strat would have been about that much more all the way around but because I was a smaller dude I always whenever I played this even though it's my favorite body type I always felt like it was a little bit didn't fit suit me so I wanted to kind of do it for you know we have clothes like small medium large why can't we do it with guitars so yeah but but it's always this you know it's it's it's the scale but and obviously the you know the Cutaway is unique but uh yeah it is [Music] smaller this is quite amazing I mean how does it make you feel when you come out and you've got your guitar on like this when you put that guitar on does it give you that kind of confidence and a an element of you could just like Take On the World with this guitar oh without a doubt it's a super it's a superpower what you have to know is that the second you pick up a guitar and you play you are invincible nobody can stop you nobody can call you nobody can tell you you're uncool whatever it is like guitar is the ultimate sexiest [ __ ] coolest [ __ ] thing you can do period sorry 100 so what's what um songs will you play this guitar all of them I'm a one guitar man that's just for a backup in case in case that goes down which never does that probably happen tonight you got your 12 string there 12 and I got the six string which is like for Midnight Express and more than worse but I've always played it's an acoustic but I've always played the solid body one that washer made me years ago and I haven't been able to not play it I don't even know if they even make them but uh yeah why did you go with Washburn it's not an obvious choice is it I went with Washburn because when I was very very very young first album of extreme was coming yeah it was always you know it was always the Gibson Fender you know like the pretty much and everybody else in between ianz ianz Kramer at the time but they wanted me nobody else did I was the youngest 10 kids in my family we were on welfare pretty much and I said all I wanted to do when I went away I was like all I want to do is take care of paying my mom's rent and making sure she has a home home and I'm like they were like how much is that I forget how much it was I don't know 300 a month 500 a month whatever it was I said you pay me that and I'll do it and they're like we can't do that we've never set a set of presidents rep pay on then I'm like okay bye they like wait wait wait wait said so you pay you you send me that to my mom every month and and also I don't want to play any of your guitars they're like what I go I want to play mine mine was made of parts with no paint the reason there was no paint is because I couldn't afford to buy a guitar a proper guitar that's was painted so I would and got body parts so I got a neck a neck separate body and they were raw they had no paint they were warmouth parts so that's how I cut it together brought it in to a friend of mine and had it shave it down and that was it was boring there but and it never had paint because it was because of I was poor but what happened is once I started doing paint on my guitars I hated the way they [ __ ] sounded they don't sound as warm and as that's the paint is really brittle it adds a really weird sound to it so and I like the way and I wanted the sweat and everything and everything that you did through the years I wanted the guitar to change with you and to grow with you so whatever you wherever you played hard Wherever You Sweat wherever there was blood on the back of the guitar it went into the wood and that was all your personalities on your guitar so you basically become the guitar becomes you I've been using this thing since I was like 15 oh I think I read about and all it does they they have stopped making him like decades ago I don't really use him that much I they like everything you hear me play for 95% is is just straight into the am straight in that's cuz you're good at playing isn't it well it's all here it's all here in the nail polish it's [Music] good one thing I've noticed about you is you always have your left hand painted polish that is not correct look what are you talking about you haven't got it now oh why but how come why do you always do this uh aside from arrest of development um you see it's when I was uh much younger back in the 1900s um we I was obviously obsessed with queen and queen and arosi especially were what like two of the two of the kind of rock bands that were really influenced me a lot and both of Freddy Mercury had his nails painted black and Tyler as well did they just do one hand as well no that's where I took it to the next level that's how you that took them and the Michael Jackson one glove and thought man this is this is like this is historic iconic yeah two this is I'm a righty and I couldn't do my right hand with my left hand that's that's that's what I wondered about it why you only did one you tried it and you well you know what I actually to be honest with you yeah it was always hard to do do this with my left hand uh but I also realized that as a guitar player nobody ever saw my right hand anyways the nails and and when I did try to do it it would um it would destroy them within like a song they'd be gone three songs I'm like this is a waste of time yeah sure so you know it's and uh and then I was just like okay this is a good phase I went through that phase and I liked it and then I I was over it you know and this is and then but then I had this moment where I uh a moment of panic I was gotten so used to when I was playing guitar that I looked down if you look at you know your fingers are very kind of pale and neutral color and they just look like these fingers yeah I was getting so used to seeing those dots these black dots and it was like as if I was following some sort of I don't I don't even know how to describe it they were guiding you they were guiding me like I knew where they were going wherever they were going on the neck they it was a clear when I did a cord when I went did a note like I could I could see what I was playing not just not just like finger it but actually see these kind of notes yeah and um and I started like sucking a little bit more than normal when I didn't uh when I didn't have them painted I mean this is for real I'm not I'm not joking I was just like what the [ __ ] what what's happening here so I didn't experiment play without it and then I did it kind of with them and it was just like I was like oh it was like I it was like I got my bearings back so ever since then to the point that if I forget to paint them like I almost forgot tonight and you're coming to save the day obviously because I I'm going to paint your nail you going to let me do it yeah absolutely I mean nobody's ever painted my nails before so I figured like this is like you know this is that's you know what what better place than do it here and I I sometimes to the point that I panic if I'm on stage and I forgotten I grab a black Sharpie for my guitar tech and I paint him with the Sharpie right before I go on because I don't even think I can play without it anymore oh my God it's it's crazy have you tried different colors cuz you normally have black don't you what color have you got now with us oh it's it's it's it's it's the this is called the none more black it's the spinal tap uh series The none more black like the AL black and uh and then I've used like you know when I tore the Rihanna I think I was using white can't use black with Rihanna it's not going to work I'm going to do the wrong hand we have to swap don't we cuz I can't paint this here what do you mean are you a lefty or ready I'm ready but we're going to oh you're ready this this wasn't in the deal this is a lot of work this is all right we're just we're having fun I hope you're good at this what about if you have the best show ever then it's going to be like you need me you're coming on tour as my my private nail uh nail specialist oh my God can you imagine so have you ever let anyone else paint you now so you never let Rihanna do this no what was it like touring with her I was amazing actually I I was uh surprised that it was what it was you know cuz normally when you when somebody uh hits you up if you want to play guitar with a you know quote unquote pop artist everybody thinks it's just like the track nobody's really playing and I was really pleasantly surprised I was like well why why would she want me there why you know there's no guitars on it and they said that's why she wanted to do the the tour make it a bit heavier Make It Rock a little bit and uh and I said so is there parts do I do I get to do he goes no you get to do whatever you want and you know ruin those ruin those amazing hits and those classic songs and so I got to really do treatments with it and then the biggest surprise was the the band was insane you know these are guys that play with Stevie Wonder and every other artist and uh the amount of jams that we did at sound checks and even when we did I think it was 320 shows at o02 in a row whatever it was maybe it was 10 or 11 I don't know but we had a a spare room where we actually started setting up gear in this room on tour and we had these we would play after hours till 4 in the morning have these jams full-blown Fusion crazy free form the whole band Keys everything and sometimes Rihanna would pop in sometimes we' do a Bob Marley track or something but it was just like an Afterparty that we would just do in this massive dressing room for ourselves and whoever was there so it became like an incredible um I learned a lot especially like playing i' had never played as a sid man so so to speak I was always in my own band and I remember um Everybody kind of looked at it at first is like oh you know what are you selling out a little bit you're playing you know it's a gig a cushy gig and I'm like come to the gig check it out and um everybody was always blown away at how musical it was and and not difficult but yeah you know it wasn't it was complex there's a lot of layers and a lot of different stuff to play [Music] any artist who's told you looked you in the eye or that camera and said I do it for the fans it's full of [ __ ] every single one of them every single one of them is full of [ __ ] [ __ ] you doing it for yourself you're doing it for yourself you do it for yourself and what that means is that's okay you you love your fans you love the relationship you can't do this without them but you have to the fans will know if you're not doing it for yourself and the day I learned that is like one of the tours we did in clubs back in the day playing for nobody in the room was with Allison Chains and it was the first tour extreme did together with like kind of a a national we're doing clubs nobody's there it was like we called it a roadie convention like we we would ask our road crew to go out and be in the crowd so we could actually have an audience there and but I remember I remember being in the first gig we did the tour we started with was in in Mexico right over the Border in Tiana right and it was a place called iguanas okay and it was a [ __ ] we were all [ __ ] holes we were playing but they were you know badass [ __ ] holes right like Club Rock clubs we're playing nobody there and I remember Alison chains walking up and seeing them at sound check and I remember Lane Staley the singer they rocked up they did their sound check and their stuff is very like it was very kind of like already just midtempo and really [ __ ] Airy and I'm like wow I was watching I'm like this is cool this is different and I'm like great that was sound check then they came out to do the show you know and when they were at sound check I'm going to get up Lane comes up and he's just like grabs his his mic and he closes his eyes and he did that's a typical Lan and he did his thing at Sonic I thought cool when he came up with the show he grabbed his mic did this thing and he closed his eyes and he sang pretty much the whole [ __ ] show with his eyes closed and I remember just I couldn't take my eyes off at to to that point I used to think oh you had to [ __ ] run around and jump around and like entertain and be [ __ ] if you're not moving if you're not [ __ ] putting on a show you're boring and it's like you're not really Allin I used to think that's what Allin meant right and then I realized when I saw Lane singing and I could it so magnetic and there was nothing really physically happen like concrete shoes were on but I remember a couple of people maybe none of my band or crew and friends coming up and goes they watch me like I don't get it man I like I'm like you you don't get it I had like chills watching this band because I learned that night that I want to go where the [ __ ] he's going he's not here and and that's when it clicked for me that's when I learned the math of a live show is you're not here to be the clown to entertain the audience or put on the show the audience is coming in here to go with you yeah Bas notes in between [Music] it all this thumb stuff so let me let me try the the first little bit I'll give it back to you cuz I know you're practicing so it's shitty gig T next I won't be warmed up yeah I know it's my fault if I put it in the right yeah yeah yeah something like that yeah but the thing is is when you go to the next note it's got to be clear it's got to be there yeah but it's Bond you don't do the top yeah that's it that's the that's the first bit the first bit second bit is no they're together are they no no no it's not together no yeah then you change chords you stay where you are stay no no no stay yeah do as I tell you no here we go that's oh it's still there right got your say there they just come down so and then then I go down this is this is why trying to take the gain off so I okay of to get a bit [Music] cleaner oh [ __ ] this is why I we should do it when my brain this got so it's the three the three and you kind of it's two it's two just two it's not three I don't know I have to play it I don't know I don't pay attention cuz you just do it so naturally I'm going to let you practice this I don't want you it's just it's [Music] just same thing I never knew I did that until just now I never knew I went from two high strings to two low ones I've never never known I did that I'm making you analyze it all got coming in but such a beautiful chord progression that it's quite simple but there's just the combination of the C with the way that you're picking it and I think the best parts are that are the part that was always unpredictable yeah these parts [Music] here right [Music] here and then it's you miss no what it was somebody was at the [ __ ] door was that what that was no yeah so I decided to keep it in there was like um your now polish looks good by the way are you happy with it it's interesting it's different you definitely did it more in the uh the female touch to it it's just right it's more like in the center like you definitely know how to not do the edges where when I do it it just seeps all the edges which is good I think people are going to notice they're going to be look at these girly fingers not maybe not visually but they'll hear it check out the full interview and a load more on Access TV

Channel: Kylie Olsson

Views: 295,266

Keywords: music, rock, metal, journalist, presenter, interviews, nuno bettencourt, extreme band, rihanna, guitar, guitarist, more than words, sexy blonde

Id: -92AXnxyF3Q

Length: 17min 55sec (1075 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2024