Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)

Name: Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt
Born: 20th September, 1966 (Praia da Vitória, Terceira, Azores, Portugal)

Profile: He is a Portuguese guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for his role as the lead guitarist of the Boston hard rock band "Extreme" whose hits include the acoustic ballads "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted".

History: Nuno grew up in a very musical family. Initially, he had little interest in music, preferring to spend his time on sports. His first instrument was the drums, bass and keyboards, he played them exclusively until his brother, Luis, began to teach him how to play guitar.

While Nuno was slow to adopt the instrument under his brother's tutelage, his skills quickly developed when he began teaching himself, practicing upwards of 7 hours a day. In his junior years of high school, Nuno dropped out of sports so he could focus on playing guitar.

In mid 80's he formed a metal band called "Sinful" - unable to make a dent in the music world he then left the band and in 1985, he joined "Extreme" and released the band's debut album in 1989, which rose him to international prominence as a guitar player.

In 1990, "Extreme" released their most critically acclaimed album, Pornograffitti, which included the hits "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted". The band followed it 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 1996, "Extreme" disbanded after releasing the album, Waiting for the Punchline, - when Nuno expressed his desire to follow a solo career.

He has since recorded a solo project called Schizophonic as well as with bands he founded including "Mourning Widows", "Population 1", "DramaGods" and "The Satellite Party". In 2007, he reunited with "Extreme" to record new music and tour with the original line up (with the exception of drummer Paul Geary).

Since 1990, Nuno 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.

Influences: Eddie Van Halen, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Brian May (Queen), Pat Travers, Paco de Lucía, Vito Bratta, Al Di Meola and Aerosmith.

Axology: Washburn guitars N-Series

Link(s):

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=cCgxCNNFm-k&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIiLvg58SY