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Re: New 4tus interview
Originally published here. Guns will kick off the next US tour leg in St.Louis and Fortus, a townie, was on local radio to promote it.
AUDITIONING FOR GUNS ('02)
I was actually on tour, believe it or not, with Enrique Iglesias. So I was in Europe... In the middle of the tour, I got a call... Tommy Stinson's a friend of mine. Brain was... Actually, was it Josh Freese? Anyway, I played with those guys and worked with them, doing studio work, and they called, saying 'Hey, would you be interested in auditioning with us?' 'Sure.'
So, I found a three-day window, and after I finished the last show at Albert Hall, had a car waiting and went straight to the airport. Flew to LA, did the audition... Everybody in the band [was there], including Axl.
Then I hung out with Axl all night, talking, listening to music in his car, and stuff like that - and had to go back to Europe to finish the tour... He pretty much told me that night [that I'd get the gig]... We spoke about it and he said, 'We're gonna start rehearsals in two weeks.' I said, 'I'm in a middle of a tour'. He looked at me, like, 'Are you kidding?'
[Axl] thought about it for a second, and went, 'Y'know, we'll wait for you, because I know you won't do it to me.' Axl's always been great with me. We've always had a great relationship and he's always been a solid dude. I know he has a sordid history with St. Louis, but he's always been good to me.
I got the gig, I went back and finished the Enrique tour... Actually, on my way back to the UK, I'm sitting at LAX and this guy comes up to me and he says, 'Excuse me sir, are you who I think you are?' And of course I said, 'Probably not.' And he said, 'You're not... Izzy Stradlin?' Nobody had ever said that to me before. I looked around, like, is this a joke? Then, I said, 'No, I'm not, but I think I just took his gig.'
THE NEXT ST.LOUIS SHOW
I've met people that were hurt [in the Riverport riot], I've met people, who've lost their jobs because of that. I get it, but he's definitely a different person and it was a long time ago.
[Axl] wanted to play [in St.Louis for a long time]. There's always different reasons. St. Louis is tough as far as [tour] routing [is concerned]... A lot of people don't play here. It's sort of become a tertiary market... A lot of shows are during the week, whereas Chicago is gonna get the shows on the weekend.
[Guns] announced [a St. Louis show in 2016] for one day, right? It was in the video and... Man, that was so bad. Basically, everybody thought it was an April Fools joke. It wasn't, we really wanted to do it. We couldn't work it out routing-wise, and they kept adding shows... Chicago got two shows, which moved our St. Louis show, and we weren't able to get the venue, one of the stadiums...
Axl really wanted that to happen, but it doesn't make sense financially. It'd be a huge mistake for us, because we'd have to ship everything from the West Coast, where we were ending, and get everyone out... It's just difficult. It wasn't good routing. And he really wanted to do it, and that's why St.Louis was either going to be the first show, or the last show.
It wasn't just him, because they were trying to work out the logistics to make that happen. It's not the place to start a tour or end a tour, usually. You usually start on one coast, or the other. They were trying to talk him out of it, but it was important that this [show'd] be the first or last.
I'm sure [Axl has some trepidation over coming back to St.Louis], but I know it's been very important to him [to do it]. And that's why it's the first show. We were trying to make it the last show of the last tour, and it didn't work out.
There's no drama [with the July 2017 show in St.Louis]... It's the first show of that US leg.
REUNITING WITH SLASH
I don't think [the money] was a motivating factor to anyone. The stars just seemed to align - we didn't have a bass player, we didn't have a guitar player. That's how it sort of happened.
I think, Slash had been trying to get a hold of [Axl] for a while. They sat down and Axl was like, 'Ok, let's just talk it through.' They sat down privately, went through their laundry list of issues and were able to put it behind them... And here we are. It's been really great, incredible, actually.
...We've been going on with Axl on time years before [the reformation]... There was a time when a lot of shows were late. It's been great, and is [money] the motivating factor for him? Absolutely not. Never seen that guy motivated by money, as long as I've known him. Otherwise, this reunion would've happened a long time ago.
[In Guns, Slash and I] clicked really quickly... It was a trial period, and we were checking it out. Duff and I'd played together before. It really clicked quickly and easily. We have a great rapport. We come from very similar backgrounds, the classic rock and the punk rock stuff.
[As Guns,] we communicate all the time. Between Slash, Duff, Axl and myself, it's this text going back and forth, every night, once we're back to our hotel rooms. We hang out, we all travel together, on the same plane...
I had actually been asked to join Slash's band a while ago, at a Thin Lizzy show. We were playing a festival and his manager came out to me and said, 'We'd love to steal you.' I couldn't do that to my friend. That would be such a slap in the face, y'know?
AXL/DC
[Axl/DC] was incredible. I was absolutely blown away. I flew up to Detroit to see it, and it was absolutely, devastatingly good. He really killed it... He texted me, 'Hey, I haven't told anybody yet, but I'm gonna go play with AC/DC, to see how it goes'. I was thinking to myself, 'Man, that's a tough one, I don't know, man.'
Then, everybody got back to me and said that he went to the audition and saw it [through] and [they] said he was just amazing. When I saw it, I was just blown away.
I know Angus does want to [make new music with Axl]. I don't know. Cliff is out... I was in a band like that. They're still feeling it out, I think.
LIVE SHOW & CD
[The current live show] is definitely different than anything I've ever been involved with. Every night's different, on some nights we throw in more or less [CD songs], but we always play at least a couple. Chinese Democracy and Better, off that album, get played every night - and This I Love, actually.
So, three songs every night and then there's four songs off that album we'll sometimes do... Almost every song on [CD] was done before I came into the band. And there was one section [in Better], that [Axl] was like, 'Hey, do you have anything for this?' And that just happened.
...Touring with GNR is supereasy, because when you're playing stadiums, you have to have a few days in between. So we only play three to four shows a week. That gives us plenty of time off.
SECURITY
This band is such an American band, that [abroad] it's sort of a target for terrorism or anything like that, if you want to hit a large group of people. So it's always something that's in the back of our minds, but you can't live your life in fear. I think playing in St.Louis would fall into that category.
[In Brazil,] Axl had everybody sing Happy Birthday to me [turning 50]. That was nice, 40.000 of my closest Brazilian friends.
NEW MUSIC
We are messing with ideas every day. We do at least an hour of soundcheck and we'll play through different ideas, new ideas, put stuff down on tape, yeah. It's really organic and it's the same with rehearsals. We're always putting down different ideas and getting stuff together. Getting ready for that, yeah.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
- Intercourse
- Rep: 212
Re: New 4tus interview
remember when Ashba was doing the same thing at soundchecks.
How quickly that guy was forgotten!
Re: New 4tus interview
I think Fortus is a real gem to have in the band. I admit I really, really wasn't into him when he joined the band. I was like, what the fuck? some nobody who played with pop acts? and I wasn't impressed too much during 2002 tour.
but gradually, he won me over. especially in 2010, the Prague show was horrible - after Danko Jones, nothing was happening for a whole hour (altough we knew the band was there - we saw them even before Danko started! I guess only Axl was missing), people were starting to be pissed off. then the announcer said the show will start during the next hour. eventually it was almost 2 hours late, because Axl was late as always. the performance was quite mediocre, as a day and night compared to the explosive 2006 show. also the band seemed a bit bored, especially BBF looked uninterested. BUT, Fortus was shining. he played like a motherfucker and his face looked like he was possessed. he won me over during that show 
- dalethirsty
- Rep: 20
Re: New 4tus interview
Glad to hear they are at least jamming new ideas for songs. Whether or not we ever hear them is another thing... but a man can dream and this is a step towards better news in the future!
yeah, that was really great to hear, actually. i mean, i know this is a fortus interview and all -- after years of "oh, the album's coming this year!" quotes, i just kind of naturally started taking everything he said with a grain of salt going forward. but the fact that he's gelling so well with slash/duff and regularly coming up with new ideas with them is a really good sign. there's definitely some natural chemistry there, and we all know slash and duff are passionate about releasing music -- so maybe once the tour is finally over, they'll have a bunch of strong ideas or even full instrumentals that they can take back to the ax man for review/vocals.
you know, i'd really like to think that axl sits in his oxygen room during the slash/fortus duets and thinks "WOW! i need to get these fuckin' monsters in the studio together!" then again, he could just as easily be spending this time counting his stacks from the tour.
as a side note, richard's guitar skills have come a long way since we first heard him. i never thought he'd be able to pull off some of the bucket stuff that he's playing with ease these days. he'd make a great lead player in another band in some bizzaro universe.
all in all, i'd love to see what he could pull off with those guys in the studio. just trying to not get my hopes up.... again.
love the forum, by the way. been spending ungodly amounts of time lately going through old threads trying to fill in the "dark years" when i had (temporarily) moved on from following the cd saga. accidentally got hooked back into everything when i started a record collection and picked up cd on vinyl. weird thread to make my first post on, but what the hell.
Re: New 4tus interview
as a side note, richard's guitar skills have come a long way since we first heard him. i never thought he'd be able to pull off some of the bucket stuff that he's playing with ease these days. he'd make a great lead player in another band in some bizzaro universe.
no need to go to a bizzaro universe, my friend 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Daisies
- dalethirsty
- Rep: 20
Re: New 4tus interview
good call -- been meaning to check them out.
just listened to a few jams on youtube. pretty standard stuff, but fortus shines and has a great tone. it's great to see him in an actual music video.
this locked & loaded song w/ slash is pretty dope. doesn't look like fortus is on the song, though. crazy to think slash and fortus played on the same EP just a few years before they'd be trading leads in a reunited guns n' roses.
Re: New 4tus interview
yup, it seems Fortus joined the band only after Slash recorded LNL parts in the studio and they never met in the studio back in the day.
and Fortus (and Frank!) left the band a year ago, before the GNR reunion show. so now the lead guitarist is some other guy (just listening to the last album, it keeps the quality high, which is great!)
for me, both the first album and EP, and the second album, are really great to listen, of course nothing groundbreaking, but a decent portion of quality rock, I like it
