Richie Sambora Revealed as Contestant on U.K’s ‘Masked Singer’
John Phillips/Getty Images
Richie Sambora surprised many when he was revealed as a contestant on the U.K’s edition of The Masked Singer.
The former Bon Jovi guitarist was the character named “Jacket Potato,” which is what baked potatoes are often called in the U.K. His getup was even complete with silver clothing emulating aluminum foil. In the clip below, the judges were thrilled and stunned to learn Sambora was “Jacket Potato.”
During his time on The Masked Singer UK, Sambora unsurprisingly sang mostly rock songs. Among the songs he sang were Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” and Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.”
As with the American version of the show, clues were offered about each contestant. One of the video clues about Sambora showed him in costume holding a thermometer. Once he removed the thermometer, the temperature was 4,316 degrees Celcius. When converted, that’s 7800 degrees Fahrenheit, which was also the title of Bon Jovi’s second studio album. As far as clues go, that is very clever.
Sambora’s daughter, Ava, took to her Instagram stories and shared, “The secret is out! My talented daddio was on the Masked Singer UK and absolutely crushed it!” Richie responded via Twitter after a fan account shared her message saying, “I love u Ava so much.”
Richie Sambora's Guitar Face: The Good, The Bad & The Pouty
Richie Sambora celebrates his birthday on July 11, and in addition to being a prolific guitarist, he also has one of the best “guitar faces” in the game.
What’s a “guitar face,” you may ask? It’s the many facial expressions a guitarist makes while they’re playing guitar, whether it’s when they’re crushing a solo or bending a note. As far as “guitar face” goes, Birthday Boy Sambora’s is iconic.
Want proof? Just scroll through our gallery below and see for yourself!
But First: What’s New With Richie Sambora?
This past year has been a rather eventful one for Sambora. He notably was featured in the Hulu docuseries Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. As previously reported, Sambora said he believes Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story was Jon Bon Jovi’s “project” and “perspective” and noted he viewed things differently than the frontman.
Sambora told Allison Hagendorf in May that the four-part docuseries could’ve been “more of a celebration” of Bon Jovi’s music. He also said he would have cut the five-hour docuseries down to two hours.
When asked whether he would change anything about Thank You, Goodnight, Sambora replied, “Everything. There’s one thing that’s not in there, and it’s everything. Like I said, to me, this is Jon’s baby.”
Following the release of Thank You, Goodnight, Sambora shared a clip to Instagram that he captioned, “From the cutting room floor of #ThankYouGoodnight.” The clip shows an alternate angle of one of Sambora’s sit-down interviews from the docuseries. While some of the clip below was included in Thank You, Goodnight, some was cut from the docuseries.
Part of Sambora’s comments that were cut from the docuseries included him talking about a lack of compassion for what he was going through in his personal life, which included his addiction issues and other issues related to his ex-wife Heather Locklear, the mother to his daughter, Ava.
Sambora says, “I was in this organization for 31 ½ years, and everybody has their personal tragedies and things like that, but I didn’t receive a lot of compassion coming back for what I was going through. I believe everybody had their own perspective on fame and fortune. Everybody experiences that at different speeds. That’s how life can get whacked from one guy to the next and blah blah blah. I was essential because I spent more time with Jon than even his wife and was more honest.”
He added, “We spent a lot of time in a room with no windows for the beginning stages of just writing the material … I was a fan, too. I could be a fan of Jon and go, ‘I don’t want to hear you sing that.’ I wrote him from the song on up, also. ‘This is what I would like to hear from you, if I’m a fan in the audience,’ that kind of thing. I think that was one of my primary roles, besides being his right hand and an accurate mirror, so to speak.”
Erica Banas is a news blogger who's been covering the rock/classic rock world since 2014. The coolest event she's ever covered in person was the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Sir Paul McCartney inducting Foo Fighters? C'mon now!) She's also well-versed in etiquette and extraordinarily nice. #TransRightsAreHumanRights