Nuno Bettencourt said this:
“When somebody like Rihanna reaches out to you to perform everybody thinks ‘Oh, that’s cute. It’s a pop artist, whatever,'” Bettencourt originally told Planet Rock. “Let me tell you something, what I had to do night after night… put on a reggae hat [for one song] with a reggae feel, and go into R&B, then go into some punk rock and pop rock that she did, and then club tracks. All sorts of [things], all those different feels.
“I’m sorry, most of the guitar players who I admire could not in their lifetime play that gig,” he added. “I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.”
“Slash is one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time but I guarantee — and he’d be the first to tell you — that if he jumps up and he’s got to play a clean intro to ‘Rude Boy’ from Rihanna, it ain’t happening,” Nuno added.
If you’re not biased, there’s one way to read this, right? Slash couldn’t do the Rihanna gig – “it ain’t happening.” Because “most of the guitar players” he admires “could not in their lifetime play that gig.”
So then Richard Fortus disagreed and said he played with Rihanna and he knows Slash and Slash could do the gig. Nuno Bettencourt went off the rails at this news and hurled insults at Richard Fortus. Nuno… read what you said. You DID imply Slash couldn’t do the gig. You were bragging, you shot your mouth off, and now you’re doubling down. Why? You don’t need to brag about how tough your gigs are. We all know you are a great player. And yes, this is my opinion on my small website, but the truth doesn’t require a large fan base. It requires your statements to be true.
