During an appearance on the Guitar Hang podcast, Australian guitarist Orianthi spoke about the injury which forced her to pull out of her previously announced return to Alice Cooper’s touring band for the legendary rocker’s January and February 2025 dates. Taking her place in Cooper’s group was former GUNS N’ ROSES axeman Gilby Clarke. Orianthi said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m recovering from a slightly torn hamstring and hip. And I had to cancel some Alice Cooper dates, which I felt terrible — really terrible about. But I felt this terrible pain and I was, like, ‘I don’t know, holding the guitar for two hours a night and not being able to move around.’ And I called Alice, actually, when I was in Saudi Arabia, and I said, ‘I’m in a lot of pain. I’m not too sure what’s going on.’ So I gave him a heads up, and I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening.’ Obviously I couldn’t go see a doctor there. So when I got back, yeah, they were, like, ‘Oh, you can’t really do this.’ So I was, like, ‘Man.’ I’d never canceled anything before. So it weighed heavy on me. But now I’m feeling better and all of that.”She continued: “So it’s good. ‘Cause I’m playing this show at the end of the month to raise some money for the fires, with Sammy Hagar and a bunch of people. And I really wanna be able to stand up and do that, ’cause playing the 40th anniversary for PRS sitting down on a chair, it was so bad. I was, like, ‘Man, this is so embarrassing.’ And I’m, like, in a tracksuit and playing with Dany [Daniela Villarreal] from THE WARNING; she’s awesome. We played [AC/DC’s] ‘Back In Black’. You should never play ‘Back In Black’ sitting down. It was just weird because they didn’t show me walking out. So my mother saw it. She goes, ‘Did they wheel you out? You just appeared on a chair.’ That was some weird shit. Whatever. Anyway. What can you do?”Clarke was filling in for Cooper’s longtime guitarist Nita Strauss, who was unable to make the shows due to a scheduling conflict with her solo tour.Orianthi performed while seated at PRS Guitars’ 40th-anniversary show on January 24. On January 26, she posted a picture from what appears to be a doctor’s office where she was receiving treatment for her injury.Orianthi toured with Alice from 2011 to 2014, along with longtime band members Chuck Garric, Glen Sobel, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie.Orianthi (Orianthi Panagaris) looks as much like a rock star as she does a supermodel. But it’s her extraordinary guitar chops that turn the most heads. She began playing professionally when she was thirteen years old before going on to perform and/or tour with Carlos Santana, Steve Vai, Alice Cooper, Richie Sambora and Dave Stewart. She was hired by Michael Jackson for his “This Is It” tour before his untimely death and performed with the supergroup HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES (Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen). Orianthi’s debut album, “Violet Journey”, was released in 2005 and she has issued five solo albums to date. She was featured accompanying Carrie Underwood during a Grammy Awards telecast, performed on “American Idol” and appears in Jackson’s documentary concert film “This Is It”. Elle magazine named Orianthi one of the “12 Greatest Female Electric Guitarists” and she won the 2010 “Breakthrough Guitarist Of The Year” award from Guitar International magazine.[embedded content][embedded content]