Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his role as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme whose hits include the acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted". The songs reached #1 and #4, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1991.He has since recorded a solo project called Schizophonic as well as with bands he founded including Mourning Widows, Population 1, DramaGods, The Satellite Party (headed by Jane's Addiction's then-former frontman and Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell), and then reunited with Extreme to record new music and tour.
Since 1990, Bettencourt has had his own line of custom guitars designed by Washburn Guitars. His line is known as the N-Series, and is currently promoting the Washburn N4.
Early years
Nuno Bettencourt was born on September 20, 1966 in Praia da Vitória, Terceira, Azores, Portugal, to Ezequiel Mendes Bettencourt and wife Aureolina da Cunha Gil de Ávila. When he was 4 his family, including brothers Luis and Roberto, moved to Hudson, Massachusetts. Bettencourt lived on Main Street in Hudson for 21 years.
Initially, Bettencourt had little interest in music, preferring to spend his time playing hockey and soccer. His first instrument was the drums and he played them exclusively until his brother, Luís Gil Bettencourt, started teaching him the guitar.
While Bettencourt was slow to adopt the instrument under his brother's tutelage, his skills quickly developed when he began teaching himself, and he has mentioned in many interviews that he would skip many school days to practice upwards of 7 hours a day. In his sophomore and junior years of high school, Bettencourt dropped out of sports so he could focus on playing guitar. He eventually dropped out of high school altogether, for the same reason.
As a guitarist, one of Bettencourt's earliest influences was Eddie Van Halen. However, as he developed his craft as a guitarist and songwriter, his influences expanded to embrace The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Queen, Pat Travers, Paco de Lucía, Al Di Meola.
ExtremeUnable to make a dent in the music world with his Boston-based hair-metal act Sinful, Bettencourt rose to international prominence as a guitar player after he joined the Boston-area group Extreme in 1985. Signed to A&M Records shortly after Bettencourt joined the group, the band released its debut record, Extreme, in 1989.
In 1990, Extreme released their most critically acclaimed album, Pornograffitti, which included the hits "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted". The album also has one of the most impressive guitar solos to date, The "Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee" an interpretation of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", which is the intro guitar solo to the Track "He-Man Woman Hater".
The band followed up with III Sides to Every Story in 1992. Nuno composed and arranged the brass and string sections for this album and the full orchestra on III Sides to Every Story.
In 1993, Bettencourt co-wrote and produced "Where Are You Going" for the Super Mario Bros. movie. He also joined Robert Palmer in the studio to record Palmer's album Honey.
In 1995, Extreme released the album, Waiting for the Punchline, but the band broke up in 1996 when Bettencourt expressed his desire to follow a solo career. Shortly after, singer Gary Cherone went on to become the lead singer of Van Halen.
In 2007, the band reformed with the original line up (with the exception of Paul Geary) to begin work on a new album, Saudades de Rock, released on August 12, 2008, and subsequent tour.
Guitar Wars
Nuno Bettencourt's playing has been featured at 2004 on the Universal/Japan CD and DVD release of Guitar Wars featuring solo and collective performances of Bettencourt with many others, including Steve Hackett (Genesis, GTR), Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Mr. Big/Racer X guitarist Paul Gilbert.
Personal lifeOn August 27, 1994, Bettencourt married singer Suze DeMarchi at the Igreja de São Miguel Arcanjo, Igreja Matriz de Vila Franca do Campo (São Miguel Island, Azores). They have two children together: Bebe Orleans (b. February 1, 1996) and Lorenzo Aureolino (b. August 12, 2002). DeMarchi moved to Sydney from Los Angeles with their children. She informed the greater public about their separation (as of 2009) in October 2011.
Bettencourt cites Italian food as his favorite cuisine. His guilty pleasures include Sushi and Butterfinger bars (Music Choice).
from various sources
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