Nuno Bettencourt has admitted that unveiling his own guitar brand at Black Sabbath’s farewell show may not have been the smoothest exit strategy, especially considering how his longtime partner Washburn had no idea he was about to walk away.
Speaking about the launch of Nuno Guitars and his decision to end a 35-year relationship with Washburn, the Extreme guitarist reveals that the high-profile onstage debut of his Dark Horse model at Back to the Beginning earlier this year was, in fact, not part of a planned rollout.
“To be honest with you, it probably wasn’t a good idea to play that guitar at all,” Bettencourt tells Premier Guitar. “I’d been thinking about this for a long time, and Washburn didn’t know I was leaving. So for them to see not only a guitar they’d never seen, but then to see not their name on the headstock – to see mine – was probably a really fucked up thing to do. [laughs]”
That said, the guitarist explains that his long-standing arrangement with Washburn was never bound by a formal contract.
“I didn’t really have a contract with them. It was more of a gentleman’s agreement that had been up for so long,” he says. “After a while, especially after [Extreme’s last album] Six came out, I just felt nothing from them. Guitars were back ordered, no press, nothing.”
“But the reason I pulled the guitar out that day is because when I got it, I played it and was like, this feels like the best N4 I’ve ever played. I was super excited. I just wanted to play it onstage. It wasn’t marketing or teasing. I was just authentically excited. I was blown away by how the neck felt. It just felt right.”
Bettencourt also shares that starting his own guitar company was something he’d “always wanted to do”.
“Without sounding like a hippie, it was time. Everything was happening organically – the Six album, the attention with Rise, that solo, the Back to the Beginning concert – all these dominoes were tipping,” he says. “I felt like the universe was saying, ‘Here are a few opportunities for you. You’ve worked your ass off, you’ve hustled for 40 years. This is it.’”
The post Nuno Bettencourt admits debuting his guitar brand at Black Sabbath’s farewell show “was probably a really f**ked-up thing to do”: “Washburn didn’t know I was leaving” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.