Though Phil X has been with Bon Jovi since 2013, there was a time when he was the go-to session player on the scene. He worked with everyone from Rob Zombie to Chris Daughtry, the latter of which X says, “led to a lot of people calling me for sessions.”
Given his chosen profession, X (born Phil Xenidis) has met a ton of iconic musicians through the years, and not just his current bandmate, Jon Bon Jovi, or the man he replaced, Richie Sambora. We’re talking the likes of Chris Cornell, Alice Cooper, Orianthi, and Triumph guitarist and vocalist Rik Emmett.
During a break from rehearsals with a resurgent Bon Jovi, and ahead of a recently announced tour with Triumph, X dialed in with GP to pull back the curtain on his exploits with all of these artists. The stories are fascinating and full of life, just like Phil himself.
“Man, if you’re doing your job, you’re having a blast doing your job, it’s the best,” he says. “I don’t get nervous when I go onstage, no matter how big the gig.
It’s all about what you tell yourself. If you tell yourself, ‘I got this. I’m a fucking rock star,’ then you are. But if you’re like, ‘Oh, my God… I’m so nervous,’ you will be. It’s all about that conversation.”
Chris Cornell
“[Producer] Howard Benson called me, saying, ‘We’re recording a track with Chris Cornell.’ [The track was’ ‘Long Gone (Rock Version)’] I was Howard’s guy, so we went into the studio. Chris wasn’t there, so I thought I’d missed my opportunity to meet him.
“But later on, he called me again, and said, ‘What are you doing tomorrow at eight o’clock?’ I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got this thing…’ He said, ‘That’s too bad because we want to do the solo for Chris’s song, and he wants to be there for that.’ I said, ‘Oh, I’ve got nothing. See you tomorrow!’
“So, I walk in, and Chris asks, ‘What are you thinking for the solo?’ I did this thing, which I call ‘bouzouki tuning,’ where I dropped the high E and put both strings in unison into the B nut notch. I grew up with Greek music, and it just sounds like shredding on a bouzouki. But when I hit it open, the metal rubs, so the strings have a sitar sound. It’s a whole bunch of voodoo.
“So I started paying and when I’m recording, I act like I’m onstage, and everybody in the room is the audience. Chris says, ‘That was great, but I think you need a little more gain.’
“And I said, ‘Yeah… but it looked good, right?’ And the whole room exploded with laughter. I was like, ‘I broke the ice with Chris Cornell!’ [laughs]
“But I still remember standing in the control room and hearing his voice on the guitars that I’d recorded two days before. The iconic voice of Chris Cornell married with my electric guitars, while he’s sitting there on the couch. Being in the same room with the iconic voice and persona of Chris Cornell was really incredible.”
Orianthi
“That was another Howard Benson thing. He said, ‘She loves what you did on the Daughtry record,’ which became a calling card. So I went into the studio, and she said, ‘I want to do all the rhythm guitars, and you do the solos.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, awesome. No problem.’
“It was really funny to watch her record. She’d be warming up, and I’d think, Wow. She’s good! But when we went into record mode, she got all nervous. I was like, ‘Hey, man, just chill out. Don’t look at the red light.’” After that, she eased up, and by the time we got to the end of the record, she had no problems.
“I’ve played live with her a couple of times, including with Richie [Sambora] when we played ‘Livin’ on a Prayer.’ I love playing with everybody, man, so that was a lot of fun, too.”
Alice Cooper
“I was working with Rob Zombie back in 2000, and he asked, ‘Hey, did Alice call you?’ I was like, ‘Alice who?’ He says, ‘Alice Cooper. I gave him your number last week.’
“I was like, Yeah, right. Alice Cooper’s gonna call me next week. I was such a fan. I was listening to Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits when I was in third grade, so all that stuff is ingrained in my brain.
“But a few days later, [producer] Bob Marlette did. He was working on Alice’s Brutal Planet record and he asked me to come and record on a couple of tracks, including the title track, which was the first single.
“I think Bob wanted to intimidate me to see what I was made of. He said, ‘I played all the bass and rhythm guitars myself, so I’m just looking for pixie dust. Go.’ Then, he pressed record.
“So I just went nuts. I did this thing with the Whammy pedal and had a two-note dissonant phrase because I was getting this evil note, heavy riff, and I just wanted to add something to complement it. I did that, he pressed stop, turned around, and goes, ‘That was great! Double it.’ I said, ‘Wait, I don’t know what I did. I need to hear it to double it.’ [laughs]
“Then we did the electric guitar solo, which is a crazy solo. To this day, [Alice Cooper guitarist] Ryan Roxie tells me, ‘I can play the first first half, but when I do the second half, I know it ain’t right.’ [laughs]
“I came back afterward and played on nine songs. I was just in invention mode. I did this one thing: I took a screwdriver and unscrewed the high E on the neck pickup, and I put the string under the head of the screw, tightened it, and tuned it to the note I wanted, which was F#. The whole time, Bob was watching me with his chin hanging down on his lap. [laughs]
“And at the end, Bob goes, ‘Hey, what’s your rate?’ I told him, and he goes, ‘I’m going to double it.’ Why doesn’t everybody do that? [laughs] And when someone like Bob Marlette doubles your rate, that becomes your new rate.
“After Bob did Alice’s Brutal Planet record, he was working on a record with Saliva. I was in the neighborhood, so I stopped in. Bob goes, ‘This is Phil X, ‘ and the singer goes, ‘The guy with the pickup and the screw?’” [laughs]
Richie Sambora
“It’s funny how outsiders look at the situation with me and Richie. We played at the fundraiser for the first responders to the L.A. fires in early 2025, and people were like, ‘They’re friends?!’ [Phil X replaced Sambora in Bon Jovi following his contentious departure from the band.] It’s like, ‘Yeah… and we’re adults.’ [laughs]
“I first met Richie in 2018 when we played Bon Jovi’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, and there were a couple of rehearsals before that. Now, if you’re playing an iconic guitar solo, like ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ or ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ you do not want to deviate from those solos. They’re legendary. But sometimes, when you see Richie play live, he will do something else, and go off the map, and do his thing. I registered that he could do that because he invented it.
“To me, if you’re going to fill in for a band member from the OG lineup, it’s about respecting the band and the player, as well as the fans, because there’s something they need to hear every night, and it’s your job to deliver it.”
Rik Emmett
“When I was recording with Triumph, it was a weird thing, like, How is this going to work without Rik? We only did 11 shows, and then the record got dropped by the label. It was bad timing, because grunge was exploding.
“I didn’t get to know Rik until June of this year. Rik and Gil [Moore, drums] were going to reunite Triumph to play three songs before this NHL playoff game in Edmonton, and they asked me to join them. I contacted Todd [Kerns, bass] and Brent [Fitz, keyboards], and — literally, the night before — we went into this rehearsal space, and played ‘Lay It On the Line,’ ‘Allied Forces’ and ‘Fight the Good Fight.’
“When we played at the game, the crowd went nuts, and we thought, ‘Wow, maybe we should keep doing this.’
“I gotta tell you, Rik has his phrases and is so funny, and he talks musically. He knows what he’s talking about more than I do. People go, “Is that Dorian?’ I’m like, ‘What?’ I don’t know anything. I just do it. [laughs]
“But that night in Edmonton was the first time we’d played together, and he played his ass off. It was so much fun, man. We’e going out for the 50th anniversary next year, and I’m so excited about it. I can’t wait.”
