Richard Fortus

Richard Fortus is the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses. He has been the member of the band since 2001. Why is he still in the band? Richard said in an interview that Axl Rose was loyal and generous. That’s why he’s still in the band until now. He was the guitarist of the album Chinese Democracy which was released in 2002.

Richard learned music instruments since he was 4 years old. His grandmother bought him a drum stick. He started playing violin when he was 5 and playing guitar when he was 12. The musicians that inspired him were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Kiss, and Queen.

His aunt gave him all her record collections because she became very religious. She did not like music any more. Richard liked listening to different types of music, so he enjoyed playing music for TV commercials, films, video games and with different bands. He gets lots of experiences. That is challenging for him.

Before the Not In This Lifetime Tour began, Guns N’ Roses put a lot of time in rehearsing more than he and the previous members had done before. They knew how important it was. It was really a big deal. They had to make as perfect as possible they could. “It’s been fantastic. It’s been great. It’s beyond my wild dream. I never thought it’s as crazy as it’s been”, Richard said.

One of his memorable moments during the tour with Guns N’ Roses is when they performed in Osaka, Japan. It was pouring rain on the song November Rain. It was just like the sky opened and then rained.