Nuno Bettencourt denied rumors that Rihanna was prevented by her record label team from making a heavy metal album. The current Extreme has performed with the singer on several occasions, such as at the Super Bowl .
“That’s a complete lie. It’s fabricated. It’s so incorrect. I swear to you on my children’s lives that those words never came out of my mouth. It’s a good story — and I think that’s why it was written — but it’s not true at all,” the musician revealed in an interview with Classic Rock (via Ultimate Guitar ).
“What happened was that they contacted me because they said they wanted a guitarist and they wanted a killer show, and they saw some of my stuff online. I said, 'Why do you want me if there's no guitar in many of the songs?' And they told me they just wanted me to be myself, to add guitars to songs like ' Umbrella ' and everything else, with heavy chords and riffs. And I thought, 'Wow, that's very exciting for a guy like me, who loves all musical styles.' That's how this story began. But she didn't want to make a heavy metal album.”
The rumors began with a 2009 Daily Star “When I spoke to Rihanna, she was totally willing to transform herself into a heavy rock girl. She was listening to Led Zeppelin , as well as younger bands like Paramore , and said that was the direction she wanted to go, so I agreed” (via Rolling Stone ).
Recently, the Extreme guitarist told Herman Li's about the experience of performing alongside the pop singer. “I also thought it wouldn't be that difficult when I decided to try. But I was very wrong. If you really listen to Rihanna's material, which you should, you'll notice it goes from reggae to a club track, passing through trap. You have to change your mindset between songs to really make it sound good. The musicians you play with on a project like that are no joke. They are the musicians' musicians, the greatest in the world” (transcription via Igor Miranda ).
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