Former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora won’t rule out a return to the band in the future – but he says he has something to prove first.

He’s gearing up for the release of his album with girlfriend Orianthi under their RSO banner, which he hopes will demonstrate that there’s more to both artists than the public currently believe.

Sambora said in a recent interview, “There’s not a lot of male/female duos going on in the world right now – especially two guitar players like us two. First of all the world doesn’t know how good Ori sings and writes. The world knows how amazing a guitarist she is, but she’s more amazing than people think.

“Then on the other hand you’ve got me. I’m just Jon Bon Jovi’s sideman for most people. That’s what they know me as.

“Now we’re together and we’re doing something that means something. We’ve got something to prove to people – we can do this too. Together I think we’ve reached something that is a new sound.”

Orianthi, who rose to fame as guitarist with Prince and Michael Jackson, says: “We’ve done a cover of Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe. We did a heavy version of that. The album has a lot of duets, songs that Richie sings, songs that I sing. It’s a little Fleetwood Mac in parts, there’s so many different sounds. It’s very diverse.”

Sambora left Bon Jovi under a cloud in 2013, to be replaced by Phil X – but he says it’s all water under the bridge now. “We just talked a week ago. Everything is cool,” he reports. “They’re on a different trajectory, I’m on a different path. Plus I wanted to go out and sing.”