25/01/2023
“If I was going to pass the baton to somebody, she would be my first choice.” — Carlos Santana
Who is ‘she’? Singer/songwriter/guitarist Orianthi; born Orianthi Penny Panagaris on this day in 1985 in Adelaide, Australia.
Her father, who used to play in a Greek band, kept plenty of instruments around the house, and it didn’t take long before Orianthi strummed her first chord.
“Mastering the six-string came naturally. When I was 11, Carlos Santana came to play Adelaide and that show really affected me,” she recounts. “I begged my dad to get me a second hand electric guitar so I could be like Carlos, and that was it, no more acoustic.
After that, I would buy all of Carlos’ videos — on VHS! — which I kept rewinding to try and learn his solos. I totally wore out the tapes.” Some seven years later when Carlos Santana passed through Adelaide again, Carlos’ brother arranged a sound-check meeting between the guitar god and his young disciple after hearing some of her music.
A sound check jam evolved into an invitation to join him on stage where Orianthi played for about 35 minutes and took a solo in front of a hometown crowd.
A performance with Carrie Underwood at the 2009 Grammy Awards prompted Michael Jackson to call with an offer to be his guitarist for his This Is It tour. Although the tour was not to be, she is featured in the This Is It video.
Performances, tours, guest appearances and collaborations with Steve Vai, ZZ Top, Alice Cooper, Richie Sambora and Prince haven’t kept Orianthi from pursuing her solo career.
Before she received the call from the King of Pop, Orianthi had already released her own 1st album, Violet Journey, and had been hard at work on her 2nd album, Believe, on which she sings, writes and leads her own band. Three other albums followed including her latest one, Rock Candy, released in 2022
Craig Erickson (Mr. Chairman) of “Craig’s List” has enjoyed seeing her perform numerous times in Los Angeles. He took this photo during a charity event held in 2019 hosted by Robby Krieger.
Happy Birthday, orianthi!!!