2017.03.30 - Honky Tonk - Interview with Richard

Transcript:

Beginnings in music

Richard: When I started I was young, I was like four, so I don't think I had a whole lot of choice in the matter, you know. And I remember my grandmother had bought me a drum kit much to the chagrin of my parents who were not very excited about that. But I really getting started... I started playing violin when I was, I guess, five and I played violin all through school. There were always guitars around my house but I didn't start with guitar until later. I think mainly because I was intimidated by, it had six strings instead of four, and, you know, it's so large, the neck was so long and I was used to a short... and I had a lot to with just a small, I couldn't imagine and then all this playing chords, that just intimidated me. So it wasn't until I was 12 that I picked up the guitar. But at the age of five I wasn't really inspired by musicians, you know, there wasn't anybody, it wasn't until I was about seven or eight years old that I started to hear The Beatles and the Rolling Stone and, you know, bands that were popular then were Thin Lizzy, bands like Styx, Foreigner and things like that, Foghat, I remember Aerosmith was huge, KISS was huge. Those were big bands for me when I was seven and eight years old. KISS and Queen was a huge band. And then I started getting into, I inherited my aunt's record collection because she became very religious and found Jesus and decided to give away her record collection to me because she didn't want to listen to... It really developed my passion for listening to music and searching albums out and wanting to listen to albums.

An eclectic guitarist

Richard: I think I have very mixed taste because what I listen to is very eclectic, it's all over the place. You know, the music on my phone or on my computer is so varied. And I've always liked many different types of music, you know, I was never listening to just one type of music. So for me to be a session musician, to be able to play on many different types of albums, you know, in different sessions, including film scores and TV commercials, you know, it was great and it was very exciting for me because you learn so much about different genres and playing with different bands.

Interviewer: You have to adjust?

Richard: Yeah and I love that. I love that challenge and trying to emulate different classic [?].

Soundtracks compositor

Richard: Well, I was doing a lot of sessions in New York and I was playing on a lot different movie scores and a lot of, especially TV commercials and TV music, so then I started being asked if I would be interested in composing and so I started doing that and I started my own company and studio and then I was doing that all the time, doing a lot of TV stuff, a lot of ads, a lot of film music and video games and as well as still playing sessions, I was doing people's records, you know. But yeah, that's how I got into it and I really it came very naturally because I was...

Activision, music for video games

Richard: I did a lot of stuff for Activision. I liked doing video game because it's a lot... working with video game companies is much easier than working with
movie directors because they love everything. And they have budgets but they let you do what you do and they're not... You know, so many movie directors have a very specific idea of what they want the music...or what they think they want the music to be. And it's much more uptight, you know, there's so much more tension, you know, it's very high pressure, and then there's so many people involved who want to throw in their opinion. It is much harder than, you know, the video games are like. And it's a lot more free, you know, that's what I like about doing video games.

Finger style

Richard: It's not something I consciously do, I switch back and forth all the time. I think it's just...there's something really expressive about playing with your fingers, just your finger on the string is just so direct, you know. And it takes out... I don't know, it's more expressive to me, it feels more personal, because there's so many different sounds you can get with your fingers, you know, as opposed to the pick.

Guns N' Roses and the return

Richard: I've been in the band for 14-15 years. You know, we were preparing for this tour, we knew how important this was going to be historically, you know, this is a big deal and we had to make it as perfect as we possibly could. And we really put a lot of time in rehearsing and more than we'd ever done before, for this tour. We knew how important it was. There's an air of importance. We knew it had to be great, the world was watching. And it's been amazing, it's been so great. It's been really fantastic. It's beyond my wildest dreams. I never thought it would be as crazy as it's been as far as the the reception, you know, the fans, it's been really overwhelming [?]. And  it's such an honor to be a part of this, you know, to be... And you know Axl's very loyal, you know, and he really is very generous and very... He likes to have, you know, people who have his backing, he wants to feel like feel like... within the band it's great, it's better than it's ever been since I've been in the band. And some of my best friends have been in this band, you know. Tommy and Dizzy and Robin, you know, those are really close friends of mine. But now the vibe is better than ever, you know, everybody gets along great.

The first audition to enter Guns N' Roses

Richard: I was actually on tour in Europe and I got a call asking if I would - from Tommy - and asking if I would come audition. And so I had, I think I had three days off in the middle of the tour. So I finished at Albert Hall, had a car waiting, went off stage and went strict to the airport, flew to LA, went straight to the audition, you know, played with everybody. Axl came down and hung out, you know, played, and then I hung out with him, listening to music and then talked and then went back to the airport. And funny thing happened, I had gone to LAX, to the airport, and I was sitting at the airport ready for my plane and a guy came up to me, said, "Excuse me sir, are you who I think you are?" I said, "Probably not." He said, "You're not Izzy Stradlin?" It was the weirdest, nobody has ever said that to me before, ever! Nobody has ever said that to me. And this guy, right then. And I thought, "Where's the hidden camera? This is too weird." Those crazy coincidences follow this band. I remember one of the first shows I played with the band was in... Osaka, Japan, and it was outside, an outdoor stadium, and it was full of people, just crazy, and I remember we're playing the show and then we get to November Rain and all of a sudden it started pouring, like the skies opened and it just started pouring rain, on November Rain. And I looked at Tommy, he looked at me, and we're both like... it felt like a joke, it felt like somebody was pouring buckets of water.

Richard: Greetings Honky Tonk fans, this is Richard Fortus and I play with the band called Guns N' Roses and this is Honky Tonk, the Brand of Rock.

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
-----------------------------------

Richard Fortus says that being part of Guns N' Roses' "Not In This Lifetime" tour has been "beyond [his] wildest dreams." [...]

Fortus, who joined Guns N' Roses in 2001 and became the band's longest-serving post-Slash guitarist, tells Honky Tonk (see video below): "I've been in the band fourteen, fifteen years and it's now… When we were preparing for this tour, we knew how important this was gonna be, as far as historically. This was a big deal, and we had to make it as perfect as we possibly could. And we really put a lot of time into rehearsing — more than we'd ever done before — for this tour, because we knew how important it was. So there's an air of importance of… We knew it had to be great. We knew the world was watching. And it's been amazing. It's been so great. It's been really fantastic. It's beyond my wildest dreams. I never thought it would be as crazy as it's been as far as the reception [from] the fans. And it's such an honor to be a part of this."

Fortus also praised Axl as "very loyal" and "very generous," explaining that the reclusive singer "likes to have people that have his back."

According to Fortus, the feeling in the Guns N' Roses camp is more positive than it has been in a number of years. "Within the band, it's great," he said. "It's better than it's ever been since I've been in the band. And some of my best friends have been in this band — Tommy and Dizzy and Robin... Those are really close friends of mine. But now the vibe is better than ever. Everybody gets along great."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/richard-fortus-being-part-of-guns-n-roses-not-in-this-lifetime-tour-is-beyond-my-wildest-dreams

Finished transcribing this.