She was 24 years old and she was nervous.
Her name is Orianthi, a guitar player from Australia. A few weeks earlier she had played lead guitar for country star Carrie Underwood at the 2009 Grammys, in front of the whole music world. Not long after that, the phone rang. Michael Jackson’s team wanted her to come in and audition.
It turned out Michael had been watching her play on YouTube. He already had his eye on her.
So she showed up, picked up her guitar, and played him one solo. She didn’t pick just any song. She played the guitar solo from “Beat It,” one of his most famous tracks of all.
Here’s that very solo, the one that came alive again when she stood next to him.
Orianthi ripping through the “Beat It” guitar solo beside Michael
Watch her face while she plays, because this is the kind of playing that made Michael pick up his phone in the first place.
She later admitted she was “very nervous” the whole time. Who wouldn’t be? This was the King of Pop sitting right there, listening to every note.
But Michael had a gift for calming people down. During the rehearsals that became the “This Is It” film, he leaned over to her and said five simple words. “This is your time to shine.” He also told her to “project and not hold back,” to let the music be as big as it wanted to be.
You can see that side of their partnership in this next clip.
Orianthi’s big solo moment during “Black or White”
Turn the sound up and listen to how much room Michael gives her to let loose on that stage.
Now, back to the audition.
When Orianthi finished playing that first solo, Michael didn’t just nod and say thanks. He did something she never saw coming. In her own words, “Afterward he was so happy he got up and grabbed my arm and started walking up and down the stage area with me.”
Can you picture it? The biggest star on the planet, so pleased with what he’d just heard that he got up, took her by the arm, and walked back and forth across the stage with her like a proud friend.
And he hired her that same night.
For a 24-year-old guitarist who had been watching him her whole life, it was the moment everything changed. One solo, one walk across the stage, and she was in his band.
Not bad for a night that started with a case of nerves.