Richie Sambora has used what some might see as a slightly unfortunate analogy when asked for his advice for aspiring guitarists.
This came in a video posted on Sambora's own YouTube channel, in which the ex-Bon Jovi guitarist answered questions from fans. Sambora began by saying: "Good listening habits… Try to have one in your hand as much as possible, maybe more than girls. Because if you really look at a shape of a guitar, it's really like a woman, you know what I mean?"
Sambora isn't the first person to refer to the guitar in feminine terms – you'll find plenty of Reddit threads out there lampooning the many others that do, too – though there's a certain irony in the fact that the standard guitar shape is one that many women actually find uncomfortable to play. This actually inspired St Vincent to design her Ernie Ball Music Man to better fit the female body shape, and this found a fan in Olivia Rodrigo, who used it on her Guts world tour.
“I read an interview about it, and she made a guitar that's specifically designed for women, because she plays her guitar really high up,” Rodrigo told the Music Makes Us podcast last year. “And it's cut so that you can have boobs and play guitar, which is so awesome.”
Anyway, back to Sambora, because fortunately, the rest of what the 67-year-old guitarist had to say was rather more interesting. “`Just play. Learn the fundamentals first,” he said, before talking about his main inspirations.
“For me Jimi Hendrix was the epitome of improvisation. That was what I wanted… I listened to those records, especially the live ones like Band Of Gypsys over and over and over again. Then I moved on to Texas blues with Johnny Winter and the Allman Brothers. And then moved backwards to Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Albert King, BB King.”
Moving off the subject of guitarists, Sambora also found time to praise Rod Stewart. “I went to see him the other night and we were catching up and we had the greatest time. I looked at him and said: ‘every time I hear your voice, every time… it just makes me happy.'”
The guitarist hasn’t released any new music since Radio Free America, his 2018 collaboration with Oranthi under the name RSO. In recent years, though, he has had a good excuse – he spent a period of time caring for his octogenarian mother, and in 2025 sustained a double fracture of his hand after playing touch football with his neighbours, an injury which required surgery and a lengthy recovery.
