GnRsource.com interview with Richard Fortus

[gnr-4-ever]

Recently we asked Richard Fortus if he could answer some questions for us. He didn't feel comfortable answering questions about GnR, but in the following, he talks about how he met Frank Ferrer, Chris Pitman's status in the band, and how playing with Izzy was, among other things.

The questions were mostly put together by me, but with contributions from the other admins at the Source: Mango and jazjme. The interview happened thanks to jazjme, so on my behalf: thanks for that.

Most GnR fans may not know you all that well, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing this acoustic Love Spit Love video back in the mid 90s on MTV Europe, and I think it must've gotten quite high rotation as well. I realised this while listening to that Love Spit Love album, and I have to say it's a pretty cool album. How was it to record that album with Richard Butler? And how did Frank Ferrer get involved with that?

Richard: I actually did 2 records with Love Spit Love.  Richard Butler had asked me to help him write a "solo" record after we finished a Furs tour.  We began writing and after a while he decided that it wouldn't really be fair to call it a Richard Butler album, since the 2 of us had written everything together and it had more of a band feeling. After all of the songs were written we signed a record deal and started auditioning drummers.  We auditioned loads of drummers in NY. 

I was walking down St. Marks and ran in to Frank as he was closing up a shoe shop.  I remembered him from his old band the Beautiful.  They had opened for my old band (Pale Divine).  His band had just broken up, so I invited him down to audition and he got the gig.  So we did the first LSL record and then toured to support it.  After that, we switched record labels and signed with Maverick/Warner.  That label was really hot at that time, but they really dropped the ball on our record.  I thought that was a great record, but we toured and then Richard, Frank and I got together with John Ahston and Tim Butler and did a few more Psychedelic Furs tours. 

Actually, right after the last LSL tour, Frank and I had been playing with a couple of friends from the East Village in NY in a band called Honky Toast.  There was a huge buzz around that band in NYC.  We ended up in this huge bidding war.  All the majors were trying to sign that band.  It was a band we were just doing for fun. We ended up signing this big deal with Epic and doing a record.  We did a little touring, but we terrible management and we weren't a very healthy bunch at that time.  After that, Frank and I did some more stuff with the Furs.  Frank is a natural talent.  He's one of the best rock drummers i have ever had the pleasure of playing with.  We've played together so much, we know what the other is going to do before it happens.  A sort of telepathic communication.

You also played in Pale Divine prior to joining Love Spit Love.

Richard: Pale Divine was my first band.  We toured and became very popular in the midwest and eventually signed with Atlantic records.  We toured with the Furs and during that tour the Furs asked me to join them onstage everynight after our set.  I worked with Butler for the next 12 years.  When I moved to NY, i began doing sessions.  I did loads of different types of sessions.  Movie scores, tv ads, pop records, hip hop, country, zydeco, etc...  I love to play different styles of music. I love music and i love the challenge of playing styles I'm not as well versed in.  I worked with loads of different types of artists.  I just love to make music and I'm still amazed that I can make a living doing it.  I feel incredibly fortunate. 

You've also played with people like Britney, N'Sync and more recently Nena. How do you compare working with artists like these to playing with GnR, Pale Divine, Love Spit Love or any other of your own bands.

Richard: It's a very different experience when you go in to do a session.  It's great to be able to take someone else's song and add something to it.  it's very different than when it is your song.  I enjoy them both equally.

Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member?

Richard: I honestly don't know.

I saw you live with Izzy this summer and you two really seemed to hit it off live. Izzy wrote several of the songs you're playing, so from your view, how does it feel to have him walk into the band now, and how is playing with Izzy?

Richard: I really love Izzy.  He's a real talent and it's easy to see where a good 90% of the song riffs on Appetite came from after having played with him.  I had the oppourtunity of getting to know him while we were in Europe, and he's probably become one of my favorite people.  He's very genuine.  We have a lot in common and he is someone that i can really relate to. It's an honor to call him a friend.

Anything else you're currently up to that you'd like to share?

Richard: Recently, I've been working on the new Spiderman 3 video game score, writing and recording with Puddle of Mudd for their new record, i just played on a record by a new artist on Def Jam called Kerli, I'm doing some music for Apple, Red Bull and various commercials and hopefully i will have time to do some more recording with Crystal Method for their next record.

(Feel free to post this interview elsewhere, but remember to credit www.gnrsource.com.)

http://www.gnrsource.com/forum/

[Jimmy?]

Wow cool interview 

Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member?

Richard: I honestly don't know.

HUH 

[gnr-4-ever]

Wow cool interview?

Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member?

Richard: I honestly don't know.

HUH?

Yeah, the Pitman question is pretty weird. I don't know why did he answer that he isn't 100% sure about it.

[bringbackadler]

"Recently we asked Richard Fortus if he could answer some questions for us. He didn't feel comfortable answering questions about GnR"


Why is it that we hear these band members say this so often ?

There seriously better be something huge in the works for all this secrecy.

I don't get what's such a big deal they can't say what's going on. Unless, they truly have no idea.

That would be bad. ? ?


/bringbackadler

[Jimmy?]

Wow cool interview 

Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member?

Richard: I honestly don't know.

HUH 

Yeah, the Pitman question is pretty weird. I don't know why did he answer that he isn't 100% sure about it.

Well i thought Pitman was an official bandmember....obviously i was wrong 

[gandra]

cool interview,he is very busy man

[bazgnr]

In a certain light, this interview can go a long way towards fueling the "Axl + hired musicians" argument. ?I can't even begin to imagine all the legal ramifications and goings-on in the GnR world in terms of contracts, membership, etc., and quite honestly, I'm not going to put that much effort into it. ?I'm grateful to have the band touring and recording, to hear new music, and to have Richard as part of GnR.

[PJ]

thanx guys!

[Tommie]

Him refusing to answer any questions about CD seems weird. ?It sort of lends itself to the theory that the members (besides axl) really have no idea what is going on with Cd. ?In interviews they never seem to answer a question 100 percent. ?It reminds me alot of politicians when they try to evade a question.

[gandra]

what do you think,did izzy help axl in making of chinese democracy???

[samoice]

how can you be sure these interviews with diferent forums are true> there seems to be a lot of them lately .
uimean you never see them coming herere fora interview do you? the biggest forum of them all.

[src]

I see people here already question the members vs. Axl deal. I can't see any reason to put that much into his answer... the way he answered it, he only seems to really not know. I mean, I could probably follow up with a question of whether he's an official member, and I'm not sure he'd say he is.

When he said he wasn't comfortable with questions about GnR, I have a feeling that he just didn't want to say something wrong, and he's thus avoiding those questions. And that's fair. In the end, Axl would be the right person to ask about this.

samoice: If you don't want to believe it, then fine. But I have run a GnR songinfo page for 6-7 years, and I don't think I would want to risc that page's credibility by posting a made up interview. In the end, I guess the Fortus webmaster could get confirmation that it's real... it's no big deal and I don't care if people check it with him.

[green]

it's not like Fortus don't know what the fuck is going on with GN'R.Every current member knows the status of CD.He just don't want to reveal any information that might cause problem to him.Remember what happen to Ron when he stated that he was approached by GN'R couple of years ago...Thats why they don't want to take any risk which might jeopardize their career.

[MJ23]

Thanks for this great interview.
I don't see the point in not believeing that this is a genuine interview.

Maybe Richard can't tell if Chris is a member or not because he doesn't know what Chris' contract says.
But I doubt that the other band members do not accept Chris as a fellow member.

[BBF Rocks]

Thanks for this great interview.
I don't see the point in not believeing that this is a genuine interview.

not to toot my own horn or anything but i KNOW that this is a genuine interview, i know the interviewer and i got to know part of the answers richard gave directly after he had given the interviewer his answers, even before it was posted at gnrsource.com.

[live-metal.net]

Good Interview! 

Thanks for posting it!

[cineater]

Good interview--thanks.

[Jackamo!]

Wow cool interview?

Could you confirm that Chris Pitman is an official member?

Richard: I honestly don't know.

No Fortus just doesn't know- it's been said befote that he's official.
We asked him to describe Pitman's sound before and he said he didn't know.
That tells you alot about the band.

HUH?

Yeah, the Pitman question is pretty weird. I don't know why did he answer that he isn't 100% sure about it.

Well i thought Pitman was an official bandmember....obviously i was wrong?

[Chief]

pretty interesting interview, thanks for posting!!!

[Gargh!]

I think if Chris wasn't a fulltime member he wouldn't have played bass at the fashion show, they could have just got some random to do it and left Chris twiddling his thumbs.

Also, did he not write part of Maddy?