When we think of the great guitar players associated with Guns N’ Roses, it’s only natural to envisage Slash and Izzy Stradlin first - given how their incendiary dynamic made Appetite For Destruction and the Use Your Illusion I and II albums such an unimpeachable goldmine for six-string enthusiasts around the world. But all these years later, it’s Richard Fortus who actually stands as the storied group’s longest serving axeman, having joined in 2002 and remained for every tour since, including the Not In This Lifetime reunion that stole headlines thanks to Slash’s return to the ranks.
By his own admission, Fortus is there to support his co-guitarist as best he can and ultimately serve the song. Not that he knows which song will be coming next on any given night, mind, due to the way that singer Axl Rose runs the show…
“Set list, you say!” he laughs, talking to TG from Saratoga Springs, New York, during the band’s ongoing We’re F’N’ Back! Tour. “It varies night to night and there’s no list. Basically, Axl will just call out the songs. Quite often there are groups of songs that we all know go together, but it’s all up in the air. Axl will call it as he feels it!”
Today, Richard talks about his journey in Guns N’ Roses, from his involvement on 2008’s criminally underrated
Chinese Democracy to those recent tracks on which he features alongside Slash – Hard Skool, Absurd and recent release Perhaps. As an avid collector of gear, he reveals his favourite tools
