2013.11.18 - Noise 11 - Interview with Richard

Richard Fortus, The Dead Daisies

by Paul Cashmere

Richard Fortus was a member of The Psychedelic Furs and went on to form Love Spit Love with Richard and Tim Butler before hooking up with Axl Rose in 2001 and becoming a member of Guns N’ Roses.

Richard played on GNR’s ‘Chinese Democracy’ and toured the world with Rose when he was asked to join Australian supergroup The Dead Daisies.

With The Dead Daisies, Richard has toured with Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Jane’s Addiction, Alice In Chains and Black Star Riders.

During rehearsals for the UK tour Richard Fortus caught up with Noise11’s Paul Cashmere to talk about The Dead Daisies.



Transcript:

Richard Fortus: Hi, I'm Richard Fortus, from The Dead Daisies and you're watching Noise11.

Paul Cashmere: And we welcome in Richard Fortus from The Dead Daisies. Feels good to say it [?], doesn't it?

RF: Yeah, it does.

PC; Well, you said it.

[laughter]

RF: Yeah, it feels good with you saying it.

PC: Welcome back to Australia again.

RF: Thank you very much.

PC: You've had a tour of duty down here quite a lot.

RF: My second home.

PC: Yeah.

RF: Yeah.

PC: How did it come to be that you became a member of The Dead Daisies and suddenly wound up in an Australian super group?

RF: Well, I like to blame Charley Drayton for that.

PC: Aha.

RF: Not just because he's standing right there, but because....Yeah, Charley called me about it a while ago and said, "What's your next year looking like?" And I mean, when Charley calls... Charley's like my... He's like one of my favorite musicians on the planet. Like whenever I play with Charley Drayton, I know I'm gonna walk away a better musician, you know? Seriously, he's that kind of player, you know? And now look at it. I mean, now we got Darryl [Jones, bass].

PC: So I would imagine it must be, you know, a lot of fun because you're talking about some extremely professional musicians in this band. And, you know, to get out there you you almost have a comfort zone knowing that everybody else really can carry this off.

RF: Yeah, it goes way beyond professional. I mean, these are really, for me this is sort of like a dream band. You know, I mean, Jon's [Stevens] voice is just phenomenal. And everybody's so great to work with. But Darryl's, you know, one of my favorite players, too. So yeah, this is amazing. I'm so excited about doing this tour.

PC: You've just been in the studio in Los Angeles with Darryl doing some new songs. Tell me about the new songs, how many were cut for this?

RF: For this we did 4 tracks. One of them is a cover and three new songs that we wrote, which I'm really excited about. Have you heard them?

PC: What? Not yet, no. Se're still waiting for the gig.

RF: It's very exciting.

PC: Yeah? What's the cover?

RF: Helter Skelter.

PC: Oh yeah. Which you've been performing?

RF: Yeah.

PC: Throughout the year. Yeah.

RF: And yeah, Jon sings the hell out of that.

PC: And the three new songs. All brand new song?

RF: Very different, very different than the last album. Because the last album was not this band, per se. It was Jon and David [Lowy]. And this is now, it's this thing and it's really cool. The new songs are great. Really. I'm personally really excited to play them and for people to hear them, like yourself.

PC: Well, you've you've had a history with Australia. When was the first time you came down here? It would have been five-six years ago? Probably even longer-

RF: I think I was here with The Psychedelic Furs a while ago. And then I was here with Enrique Iglesias. I was here with Rihanna. I've been here with Guns several times. Yeah.

PC: Yeah.

RF: Yeah, so.

PC: Well, Psychedelic Furs was up to around... it must have been 10 years ago, 10-11-12 years ago?

RF: More than that.

PC: 2000?

RF: Well, I mean, last time I was here with them was probably longer ago than that, yeah. Because I have played with them... Actually, Dizzy, and I did a tour with them in Europe. Which was fun.

PC: Wow. So you've had that [?]

RF: You know, I've been playing with the Furs and with Richard Butler since '93. Yeah, so long time. They's like family, you know? So whenever I can, I go out with those guys.

PC: Well, I guess, you know, Dead Daisies is a very active band and going into 2014, Guns N' Roses is still active and did the shows this year in Australia. What's the status on that?

RF: Working on new stuff now. So I'm trying to balance all this out. But so far it worked out alright, you know.

PC: For a 2014 release?

RF: So far everything is, you know, it's good. Actually, Guns wanted to be touring right now in South America, and I'd already committed to this so we had to postpone that to next year, but yeah, I'm hoping that we get an album out pretty soon.

PC: Yeah, well, it's been an exciting year. There's been the Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains tour, which I would imagine must have been a great time with all of those bands travelling for about six weeks across North America.

RF: Yeah, yeah, no, that was great fun. It's really great. Great bands. And Duff's band, Walking Papers, was on right after us, and that was great. They're really good. Really cool band. And I'd go out and sit in with them occasionally, so it's fun.

PC: And now, Marco [Mendoza] is no longer in the band but in Black Star Riders. Black Star Riders is the next tour for The Dead Daisies.

RF: Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen with Marco moving forward and what his commitments are with those guys. Yeah, there's gonna be more Stones dates so I think Darryl's... you know so.

PC: Yeah, but Black Star Riders is a great band, isn't?

RF: I love the record. The record was great. But I mean Scott [Gorham] and Ricky [Warwick] are two of my favorite people. That was, my time with Thin Lizzie was like, well, one of the highlights of my career. So yeah, I'm excited to play with those guys again.

PC: Oh yeah. How long were you in Thin Lizzy?

RF: I guess about a year. Did some shows in the States and in Europe. We did all over the UK and all over Europe. But yeah, I love that... that was for me as a guitar player to play with them [?]. It's hard to beat that.

PC: You must have quite a catalog in your head?

RF: Oh man, as we get older. It's amazing to me how, you know things come in and you've got to sit with that for a while and then other things sort of disappear from your catalog in your head, you know? Well, I think when I was a kid I retained everything, you know? Now it's like, I have to relearn songs, you know, which, yeah, even songs I wrote I have to relearn.

PC: Oh, welcome to old age. It's called classic rock.

RF: Indeed, yeah.

PC: Richard Fortus from the Dead Daisies.

RF: Thank you.

Excerpt from mygnrforum:
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Noise11: What's the status of Guns N' Roses?

Richard Fortus: Doing a new record. Working on new stuff now. So I'm trying to balance all this out. So far it's worked out alright. So far everything is good. Actually, Guns wanted to be touring right now in South America and I'd already committed to [The Dead Daisies], so we had to postpone that to next year, but I'm hoping that we get an album out very soon.

And done!