Nuno Bettencourt

Overview

Submitted by guitar-list on Sat, 2006-11-25 08:35

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photograph of Nuno Bettencourt

Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born on September 20th 1966 in the Azores, Portugal) is a Portuguese guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, composer, and record producer, and is being cited as an influence by many guitarists from the 90s and onwards and one of the pioneers of the Funk Metal style.

He became known as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme. He has also recorded a solo album as well as having founded bands including Mourning Widows, Population 1, DramaGods, and The Satellite Party. In 2007, he also reunited with Extreme to record new music and tour.

He made albums with several different projects. His discography with Extreme includes: Extreme (1989), Pornograffitti (1990), III Sides To Every Story (1992), Waiting For The Punchline (1995).

In 2008, Extreme reunited for a world tour and new album, Saudades de Rock.

Solo albums Nuno made include Schizophonic (1997), Mourning Widows (1998) and Furnished Souls For Rent (2000).

In 2002 Nuno formed Population 1 and released Population 1 and the EP Sessions From Room 4 in 2004. In 2006 he released Love with his new band, DramaGods.

Other works
In 2008, Bettencourt was featured on the soundtrack for the motion picture Smart People. Bettencourt is credited on the cover on the soundtrack as well. The soundtrack also features the Gary Cherone track, "Need I Say More", and Baby Animals selections. The album was released by Hollywood Records and is available on iTunes. The following year, Bettencourt was featured in a song and video called "Best Night Ever"[6] by Marshall Eriksen, a character on How I Met Your Mother. The video was a parody of Extreme's "More Than Words" video, in which the entire main cast of How I Met Your Mother made appearances.

In 1990, Bettencourt played rhythm guitar on the single version of Janet Jackson's "Black Cat," which was his first pop collaboration and a number one hit.

In 1991, Bettencourt produced Dweezil Zappa's release on Barking Pumpkin Records, Confessions. On this record Bettencourt also sings lead vocals for the first time, on a semi-ballad entitled "The Kiss", as well as playing guitar and singing background vocals on some other tracks. Extreme members Gary Cherone and Pat Badger also contributed.

In 1993, Bettencourt co-wrote and produced "Where Are You Going" for the Super Mario Bros. movie. He also joined Robert Palmer in the studio to record Palmer's album Honey. According to former Journey lead singer Steve Perry, Bettencourt has teamed with him to write and arrange songs. He also has writing and recording engagements with Maverick Records' Tantric (Bettencourt co-wrote Tantric's hit single "Hey Now"), Hollywood recording group BB Mak, Toni Braxton, and numerous others.

Bettencourt has also collaborated with singer Suze DeMarchi and with all of her Baby Animals bandmates. On Baby Animals' second release, Shaved and Dangerous, he produced a few songs and co-wrote "Because I Can". He also contributed to the writing, recording, and production of DeMarchi's solo debut from 1999, Telelove. In 1999, Bettencourt produced the album Magnolia, for the Portuguese singer and actress Lúcia Moniz. He also featured as singer and guitarist in the song "Try Again", which was included in Magnolia.

In 2006, Bettencourt along with his band DramaGods contributed their song "S'OK" to the album project Artists for Charity—Guitarists 4 the Kids, produced by Slang Productions to assist World Vision Canada in helping underprivileged kids in need.

In November 2009, Bettencourt announced that he would be touring with Barbadian singer Rihanna on her Last Girl on Earth Tour as lead guitarist, having appeared alongside her in several TV shows and other performances. He has since performed as Rihanna's lead guitarist on every subsequent tour, including her Loud (2010), 777 (2012) and Diamonds World (2013) tours.

In July 2011, Steel Panther reported to Loud magazine that Nuno would be "coming in to do something" on their then-upcoming release Balls Out. The collaboration resulted in the track "It Won't Suck Itself", which also featured Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. Read more about Nuno Bettencourt on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Gear used by Nuno Bettencourt