10 Greatest Female Hard Rock Guitarists

Orianthi was always one of the more interesting case studies of the '00s. Arriving as one of the next dominant forces in the rock scene, she seemed gone in an instant after a few unfortunate circumstances pushed her out of the limelight. If you do some deep digging though, you'll see just how much kickass we were all missing out on.

Born and bred out of Australia, Orianthi took over the scene with some of the most savage six-string assaults of the modern age, almost like she was combining the bluesy soul of someone like Slash with the flashiness of Steve Vai. That kind of pure aggression was even able to get her a hit on the charts with According to You, which put her in the upper echelons of the mainstream.

However, if you knew anything about Orianthi, it would have had to be her influence on the King of Pop himself. As he was assembling material for his This Is It tour, Michael Jackson drafted this young superstar as his backing guitar player, filling the role that had been occupied by everyone from Slash to Eddie Van Halen throughout the years. Even though the eventual tour came to a halt due to Jackson's sudden death, there's still some genuinely great material in her back catalog that deserves so much more of your time.