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Richard Fortus is immensely overrated


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Everyone around here seems to love Fortus, or at the very least, he's the only member of NuGNR outside of Dizzy whose existence is tolerated, even by people who aren't really fans of NuGNR.

Why? Is it because he looks like Izzy?

I think Richard Fortus is perhaps the most overrated person ever to be in Guns N' Roses. He's all style and no substance. He only is tolerated because he has a "rock n' roll" image and isn't totally terrible live.

Fortus has been in nuGNR 13 years and he doesn't have a single songwriting credit to his name, he's an okay guitarist live nothing special, his major work outside of Guns has been simplistic riffs in pop songs...Yet, I see some people, even classic GN'R fans, saying he'd be an acceptable road replacement for Izzy in a reunion.

Why?

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People with musical talent recognize that he is incredibly versatile and talented. The dude is a monster of a guitar player, albeit with a shitty guitar tone in my opinion. And a hell of a showman. Don't know what else one could ask of him.

What's he done though, outside of Psychedelic Furs and pop musician session work? He's never done anything for Guns except look pretty and play his parts competently. That's kinda the bare minimum for a rhythm/lead guitarist in what's supposed to be an A-List band. Not exactly anything necessarily meriting the love he's gotten. He only looks good because the other guitar players were so shit.

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No he looks good because he's an incredibly talented musician. From what I've seen, he would have no trouble with Bucket's parts. How is he supposed to get songwriting credits when no music is ever released?

Yeah but what did he add to CD even? I mean even Bumblefuck got some chops and solos in on that record.

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I can only speak from my own experience, but I never really noticed him or gave two shits about him until I got to see the band close-up in 2012.

Previously I'd only seen them from way back in big arenas, and couldn't really even tell who was who, aside from Axl.

Seeing them up close, you can actually see that Fortus is a good player and has stage presence without being a complete doucher like Ashba or a pathetic wanna-be like Bumblefoot. I thought he was the most interesting of the 3 touring session guitarists in that iteration of Axl's live band.

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He both benefit and suffers from not having a massive outlet of his potential talents to listen to and explore, Finck had his NIN contributions which weren't exactly a gold mine because Reznor is the brains there obviously, at least we could hear him play live though, I've always dug his whacky, wild playing. Buckethead... well let's just say impressive and productive, immaculate and quite the experience onstage. Bumblefoot, interesting, again, very productive guy, calm and soulful one minute, all over the place playing some frenetic whizzbang whirling dervish of a flourish the next - hmm, both he and Bucket had a bit of a lull in GNR for some reason and then back to their usual outputs. Ashba, well his offerings outside of GNR were generic diluted rock n roll by numbers, he had potential with his solo sections and his actual solo album was okay, but nothing extremely offensive just not good enough for a band of GNR's caliber, then again he never got a chance to step up his game for a record, he wasn't atrocious live, just not brilliant. 4TUS... I must say the guy was chased by fucking BOWIE I seem to remember, can't be that over-rated... session player though we're talking, give the man a bigger spotlight, he's done his time in the background, can't be worse than DJ.

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Listen to the second Dead Daisies album and listen to his lead parts and THEN come back and tell us he's nothing special.

I suppose people like Slash, Bowie or Trent Reznor must be tone-deaf for thinking he's special too.

Slash - music legend. Bowie - music legend. Reznor - music legend. All like Fortus.

Dude on internet that doesn't play instrument thinks nothing special. Fortus must suck.

Seems legit.

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If anything he is underrated.

Richard is probably one of the most interesting and fascinating session guitar players out there in the genre, and there are quite a few.

He stands out because he actually has a great tone - the man spends lots of money on vintage guitars, amps, pedals and stomp boxes and nothing about his gear can be used with a poor tone. He knows his shit... and his collection of material is incredible and def from someone who really loves playing and knows what he wants in a vintage tone.

On top of that he's a great musician. His background isn't the same as Slash so you have to understand the player and where he's coming from in order to actually put down his musicianship. His playing has influences of Hendrix, Stevie ray, curtis mayfield. His rock approach, to me sounds very british rock oriented, which i like to hear in Guns because it's different. His sense of timing is really good as well.

All together It does sound different, because he doesn't just play the minor pentatonic in his runs, the techniques he uses and how he uses them actually make him stand out. he switches a lot between fingers and pick while soloing, his legato technique is great, but it doesn't sound like slash, slash is a little more melodic in the notes he chooses and he doesn't play chicken picking style, i think, at least he isn't known for it.

Bottom line, Rich is great but even if he might not sound like what some people would initially think a guy replacing slash might sound, it doesn't make him any less of a player - His work with the Dead Daisies, playing with Thin Lizzy and other major acts makes him a very sought out session player and that speaks for his talent.

Tell me this guy can't play. Shame on you

Edited by Ifdworld
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Listen to the second Dead Daisies album and listen to his lead parts and THEN come back and tell us he's nothing special.

I suppose people like Slash, Bowie or Trent Reznor must be tone-deaf for thinking he's special too.

Slash - music legend. Bowie - music legend. Reznor - music legend. All like Fortus.

Dude on internet that doesn't play instrument thinks nothing special. Fortus must suck.

Seems legit.

It's called having an opinion. Sorry I forgot I'm not allowed to have one cause you said so.

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Listen to the second Dead Daisies album and listen to his lead parts and THEN come back and tell us he's nothing special.

I suppose people like Slash, Bowie or Trent Reznor must be tone-deaf for thinking he's special too.

Slash - music legend. Bowie - music legend. Reznor - music legend. All like Fortus.

Dude on internet that doesn't play instrument thinks nothing special. Fortus must suck.

Seems legit.

It's called having an opinion. Sorry I forgot I'm not allowed to have one cause you said so.

You're allowed to have all the opinions you want, just expect people to tell you when you're wrong.
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underrated. But I'm surprised it's taken this long for some sort of backlash. When it was him alongside Bumble and DJ he was the golden boy, now that the others have flew the coup he's on the dinner plate. Basically, Richard is a bad ass guitar player, great look, attitude and showmanship. The reason he isn't criticised and not crossed off the list for a possible semi reunion gig is because he can play the hell out of the songs, he plays them authentically and confidently. He has just as much right to be on stage as Gilby (nothing against Gilby of course! but he was just hired help at the end of the day).

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Listen to the second Dead Daisies album and listen to his lead parts and THEN come back and tell us he's nothing special.

I suppose people like Slash, Bowie or Trent Reznor must be tone-deaf for thinking he's special too.

Slash - music legend. Bowie - music legend. Reznor - music legend. All like Fortus.

Dude on internet that doesn't play instrument thinks nothing special. Fortus must suck.

Seems legit.

It's called having an opinion. Sorry I forgot I'm not allowed to have one cause you said so.

The problem is Miser you are talking about the specifics of music and/or the playing of a musical instrument and the styles therein without very much knowledge of understanding of that stuff...and in some instances with people who are quite profficient with said instrument by all accounts (meaning Axlisold), it's sort of like the difference between a half baked opinion and knowing what you are talking about.

I know this because I fall into your category too :lol: I can say very broad sweeping general things about music and musical styles and sounds but I'm not gonna get into guitar specifics with someone like Axlisold because he has the ability to probably make me look a cunt when discussing such things, cuz he knows what he's talking about and i don't :lol:

Edited by Len B'stard
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Everyone around here seems to love Fortus, or at the very least, he's the only member of NuGNR outside of Dizzy whose existence is tolerated, even by people who aren't really fans of NuGNR.

Why? Is it because he looks like Izzy?

I think Richard Fortus is perhaps the most overrated person ever to be in Guns N' Roses. He's all style and no substance. He only is tolerated because he has a "rock n' roll" image and isn't totally terrible live.

Fortus has been in nuGNR 13 years and he doesn't have a single songwriting credit to his name, he's an okay guitarist live nothing special, his major work outside of Guns has been simplistic riffs in pop songs...Yet, I see some people, even classic GN'R fans, saying he'd be an acceptable road replacement for Izzy in a reunion.

Why?

Because his hairline still the same after 13 years

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Listen to the second Dead Daisies album and listen to his lead parts and THEN come back and tell us he's nothing special.

I suppose people like Slash, Bowie or Trent Reznor must be tone-deaf for thinking he's special too.

Slash - music legend. Bowie - music legend. Reznor - music legend. All like Fortus.

Dude on internet that doesn't play instrument thinks nothing special. Fortus must suck.

Seems legit.

It's called having an opinion. Sorry I forgot I'm not allowed to have one cause you said so.

The problem is Miser you are talking about the specifics of music and/or the playing of a musical instrument and the styles therein without very much knowledge of understanding of that stuff...and in some instances with people who are quite profficient with said instrument by all accounts (meaning Axlisold), it's sort of like the difference between a half baked opinion and knowing what you are talking about.

I know this because I fall into your category too :lol: I can say very broad sweeping general things about music and musical styles and sounds but I'm not gonna get into guitar specifics with someone like Axlisold because he has the ability to probably make me look a cunt when discussing such things, cuz he knows what he's talking about and i don't :lol:

But I don't think one needs to be a guitar wiz to have their ears determine if they think someone is good or not.

Take Bumblefoot. He's an amazingly skilled guitarist by technical and guitar player accounts. Some of the best guitarists in the world like Joe Satriani have spoken of his talent. Yet, just because someone is either technically good, or because their "more well-informed peers" praise them, that doesn't mean they're necessarily objectively good or that I have to like them. With Fortus it's similar. Is he an okay guitarist? Yeah, sure, makes for a nice rhythm player. But I think because of the horrible quality of some of the post-1996 guitarists like Robin Finck or Ashba, Richard's greatness is exaggerated. I don't care that Slash praised Fortus, because Slash also thinks Fergie is a great artist and thought Eric Dover was a good enough singer to cut a record with. Even musicians' sentiments are fallible, even if they technically "know more" than me. I think Fortus is good at being what he is: An Izzy look-alike and a session player. But not a great guitarist overall.

Fortus replaced Tobias who replaced Gilby who replaced Izzy. He's so far removed from the original band that there's no trauma associated to him; if anything he was an improvement.

But then, why was there no trauma with Bumble or Ashba? Both of those guys were pretty far removed from the original band, and Bumble is objectively a good player too, even if I dislike him and his music as well.

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You can't even compare Richard and Gilby or Izzy from a skill perspective. Richard is a straight up virtuoso. Now, songwriting? That's different, but his raw skill with the instrument is insane. He is a guitar master, and is underrated not overrated

Edited by ZoSoRose
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