Rock fans watching this year’s Super Bowl likely experienced a jolt of unexpected delight when they caught a glimpse of one of their own – Nuno Bettencourt, ever-present Washburn N4 in hand – performing alongside Rihanna during her halftime-show extravaganza. But while his screen time was exceedingly brief – “about 1.5 milliseconds,” he jokes – Bettencourt’s partnership with the international pop superstar, as many now know, stretches back more than a decade.
If some fans believe it to be a strange place for one of hard rock’s most lauded six-string shredders to end up, well, there’s precedent (Eddie Van Halen’s star turn with Michael Jackson on Beat It, for one; Bettencourt’s guest appearance on Janet Jackson’s radio edit of Black Cat, for another). Even so, Bettencourt understands the concerns. “A lot of people were probably thinking, ‘Why is Nuno doing a pop thing?’” he says. “The truth is, and I’m not bragging here, I feel I was kind of made for the gig.”
