Extreme guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, recently chatted with SiriusXM host Tommy London on SiriusXM’s Hair Nation. During their conversation, Nuno unveiled his method for recording at home studios, and the monumental day when Eddie Van Halen showed up while recording Extreme’s new song “Rise".
You can check out the interview anytime on the SXM App. An excerpt follows, courtesy of SiriusXM’s Hair Nation / SiriusXM’s Tommy London.
Nuno Bettencourt: "When 'Rise' came up recently, I've been doing a lot of press recently. And I was doing a guitar magazine and they were, because it was a guitar magazine, they were talking about 'Rise', and they talked about the beginning of the solo, “Hey, the beginning of the solo feels like, kind of like 'Eruption' or that picking that Eddie did. And I'm like, “Absolutely.” And then I literally froze and I was looking above the screen and the guys thought, he thought Zoom froze. And he goes, “You still there?” And I go, “No, no, I'm good.” And then it hit me that the day I was recording, like the math that crashed on me, and the day I was recording that solo for 'Rise', um, I record everything on my own. And I don't like, I think I mentioned earlier, I don't like any assistance from anybody in the room.
I really black out when I kind of record my guitar stuff. I like to be like emotionally in that head space. I try not to be too technical and “Okay, let's get this right.” I just, I stand up like you see in the video and I try to rock the shit out and do a few passes and see what happened. And Gary knows this. Everybody knows this about me from all the old records. Everybody goes home, leave me alone, don't walk in there. Don't ask me for a cup of coffee, don't ask me if I'm okay. And all of a sudden my phone's blown up. I'm up in my studio, this is my living room. I'm upstairs in my studio. We recorded at six and it's Gary and he's calling me and he said he was going to lunch, but he knows better than to call me while I'm playing.
As a matter of fact, that was the first time Gary's called me in three years, I think, let's just get that outta the way. But he, all of a sudden he's calling me again, I'm not answering. Then he starts texting me and I'm literally playing the soul of 'Rise' that is on that album right now on that song. And I just had played, I remember it was the end of it because it was just something I went for. And that part where it's kind of quick and I'm doing this thing and I'm like, “I like that.” Like everybody thinks I calculate. I'm like, “No, what is that? What did I just do?” You know, just feel. So I'm kind of trying to figure out almost what I did, you know, like what was that thing that was inspired by what we were talking about, the rhythm section.
And he text me again, I grab my phone, I'm like, “Dude, leave me alone.” And he says, “No, you gotta come down now to the front of the house. Somebody's here to see you.” And I'm like, “No, I'm not coming. I'm recording a solo.” He's like, “Come down now.” So I'm like, Jesus Christ. Like Gary's never like, reacted like, what's happening? It takes me a while. My house is weird in Hollywood. It's like, it's not a big house, but it takes a while to get down from my studio. I get down, I open the door and I'm about to yell at him and it's Edward. Edward's out there. Yes. And this was just not too long ago. This is around two, you know, 2019 when, you know, we were finishing up the album and um, and all of a sudden I'm like, “Okay, that's a good reason.”
And Edward's like, “You know, what's up man?” Big hug, big kiss. We talked for a minute. As we are standing there, like right away this car came speeding around where I live up in the Hollywood Hills the roads are kind of very narrow. This car comes flying around the corner, there's no sidewalks. And this guy all of a sudden passes us and going around the corner, skids turns the wheel, skids stops the car, the car's still running and gets out of the car and runs over and sees me and Edward. And he just bows down. He literally gets on his knees and he's like this. And he's bowing. I'm sure it was for Edward, not me, but like, he probably thought he was seeing things. And he's just like, “What has happened?” He goes, “Hey Edward, hey, Nuno.” And then he got in his car and he left.
Didn't ask for a photo, didn't ask for an autograph, just wanted to come out and just acknowledge that he was seeing what he was seeing. So that happened as well, which is nothing to do with the story. But then Edward’s, you know, he was playing Gary and he's playing us some of Wolf's new stuff, which we all know now was coming out. And he was like a proud papa saying that, like he played all the instruments and he did that and everything else. And then he said something really cool, he was like, “Hey, just between us, I'm like, I wanna let you know, like Van Halen's coming back and we gonna go out the way we came with Michael. We're planning a run, and we're gonna go out the way we came in like a farewell tour, but like, do it old school.”
And I'm like, “Amazing. Overdue, way overdue.” He was even saying, like, “You know Wolf, he's the one who's like, he's reaching out to Michael.” It was like a really cool thing, right? And then he is like, “Well what about the new album where Gary told me, you guys, you know, it's a pretty, you know, sick album.” And then he goes, “I gotta hear it.” And I'm like, the Virgo in me, and the idiot is like, “No, I gotta, it's almost there, but I wanna play it for you.” And that's, I'm regretting now for obvious reasons instead of having come up and listened to whatever the 'Rise' solo was then, or whatever it was. Because it was very inspired by him as always. He goes, “All right, I'll come back, let me know when it's done. We'll come back. Gary. Take care.” Big hug, goodbye. And of course he never made it back for obvious reasons, cuz he passed away shortly afterwards. It was that day that 'Rise' you know, it was so weird that I kind of not blocked it out, but I just forgot."
Extreme - Gary Cherone (vocals), Nuno Bettencourt, Pat Badger (bass), and Kevin Figueiredo (drums) - will release their new album SIX, on June 9 via earMUSIC.
On SIX, Extreme swing between unapologetic fits of fret-burning hard rock and intimately introspective balladry. For the recording of the Bettencourt-produced 12-track album, the members buckled down at his home studio in Los Angeles to channel the electrifying eclecticism that defined their seminal output with a 21st century twist.
This dynamic affirms the iconic Boston quartet as one of rock’s most unpredictable, undeniable, and unbreakable groups whose songs course through the very fabric of popular culture. They’re the rare band whose music has appeared in an actual cult series a la Bill & Ted as well as the Netflix juggernaut Stranger Things. They’ve sold 10 million records, topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1, packed major venues on multiple continents, memorably performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in London, and regularly average over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. However, their dynamic approach hits harder than ever on their 2023 full-length offering, SIX.
Pre-order SIX here.
SIX tracklisting:
"Rise"
"#Rebel"
"Banshee"
"Other Side of the Rainbow"
"Small Town Beautiful"
"The Mask"
"Thicker Than Blood"
"Save Me"
"Hurricane"
"X Out"
"Beautiful Girls"
"Here's To The Losers"
"Banshee" video:
"#Rebel" video:
"Rise" video:
Extreme will bring SIX’s music to audiences across the globe on the “Thicker Than Blood Tour”. The tour will see the band visit North America from August 2-29 and Australia from September 6-13 where they will be joined by special guests Living Colour.
Extreme will also continue to bring the “Thicker Than Blood Tour” to audiences in Japan from September 17-26.
Tour dates:
April
29-May 4 - Cape Canaveral Trailer Village, FL - Monsters of Rock Cruise
May
6-7 - Columbia, MD - M3 Rock Festival
June
2 - Sao Paul, BR - Best of Blues and Rock Festival
August
2 - Portland, ME - State Theatre #
3 - Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom #
5 - Boston, MA - Roadrunner #
6 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount #
8 - Reading, PA - Santander Performing Arts Center #
10 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom #
11 - Hartford, CT - Webster Theater #
12 - Glenside, PA - Keswick Theater #
14 - Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall #
15 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater #
17 - Gary, IN - Hard Rock Live #
18 - Minneapolis, MN - Skyway Theatre #
19 - Cedar Rapids, IA - The Paramount #
21 - Denver, CO - The Ogden #
22 - Albuquerque, NM - Revel Entertainment Center #
24 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues #
26 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency #
28 - Portland, OR - TBD #
29 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox #
September
6 - Perth, AU - Regal Theatre #
8 - Adelaide, AU - Hindley Street Music Hall #
10 - Melbourne, AU - Forum #
12 - Sydney, AU - Enmore Theatre #
13 - Brisbane, AU - Fortitude Music Hall #
17 - Sendai, JP - Sendai Gigs
19 - Yokohama, JP - KT Zepp Yokohama
21 - Tokyo, JP - Hitomi Memorial Hall
25 - Nagoya, JP - Shimin Kaikan Hall
26 - Osaka, JP - Zepp Namba
# with Living Colour
(Van Halen photo - Leah Steiger; Extreme photo - Jesse Lirola)
