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Orianthi

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Australian guitarist who moved from Michael Jackson's final rehearsals to Alice Cooper's band and her own records — shredding attached to plainspoken pop-rock songwriting.

Orianthi Panagaris grew up in Adelaide, the daughter of a Greek father who steered her from piano at three to acoustic guitar at six and electric guitar at eleven. She left mainstream schooling to focus on music in her teens, playing in bands from fourteen and taking her first real stage show alongside Steve Vai at fifteen.

At eighteen she jammed with Carlos Santana after a soundcheck in Adelaide and was invited onstage that night. Santana later introduced her to guitar maker Paul Reed Smith. By then she had already self-released her debut album, Violet Journey, in 2005, playing most of the instruments herself. She moved to Los Angeles and signed to Geffen Records in 2006.

A 2009 Grammy Awards appearance as Carrie Underwood's guitarist led Michael Jackson's management to call her in for This Is It, and she was present through all the rehearsals before his death, later playing and singing at his memorial. Extended stretches in Alice Cooper's touring band and work with Richie Sambora followed.

Her solo material sits between hard rock, blues rock and radio pop-rock, built on direct verse-chorus songwriting with extended lead guitar worked into the arrangements rather than bolted on. "According to You" reached No. 3 in Japan, No. 8 in Australia and No. 17 in the US, and in 2009 Elle named her one of its twelve greatest female electric guitarists.

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