Shot Through The Heart

RICHIE SAMBORA AND ORIANTHI JOIN FORCES TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE GUITAR TEAM AND ROMANTIC COUPLE IN ROCK.

- Joe Bosso

FOUR YEARS AGO, Richie Sambora was vacationing in Hawaii and was asked by his old pal Alice Cooper to join him onstage at his annual charity concert for the Maui Food Bank. The former Bon Jovi guitarist ha d no idea his life was about to change. “Before the show, I’m sitting in the audience with Alice while the main band is sound checking, and I see this beautiful girl onstage with a guitar,” says Sambora. “I said to Alice, ‘Wow, who’s that?’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s Orianthi. She’s in my band. She’s played with Michael Jackson—she’s really great.’ ”

While Sambora might have been first attracted to Orianthi’s obvious good looks, it was love at first shred the second he heard her play. “I was blown away, and so I was even more intrigued,” he says. “I was like, ‘All right, that’s somebody I wanna jam with!’ ”