Nuno Bettencourt's Apology To Richard Fortus Ended With An Invitation To Talk Together

Nuno Bettencourt (Instagram @generationaxe)

JAKARTA - Nuno Bettencourt - has been with pop superstar Rihanna for more than a decade - apologizing for his comments alluding to one of his colleagues, Guns N 'Roses guitarist Slash.

Although Slash did not respond, his colleague at Guns N 'Roses, Richard Fortus, defended the millly-haired guitarist by saying his best friend could play whatever he wanted, from various genres.

No doubt, Fortus' statement gave birth to Nuno's continued comments which actually seemed demeaning to Fortus. One of them: "My@4tus never played a single tone in my 56-year life and only knew your name from Rihanna's camp and as a substitute in Guns N 'Roses."

Yesterday, Thursday, in a video of his nearly five-minute apology, Nuno described the entire event with the word "conjol" and he was "full responsibility" for the "empty stuff" he said that gave birth to the debate.

"This is Nuno here. Just a short message, fast. Listen, this is a little what people say there is an argument between Richard Fortus and me and the comments I made and the posts he made and the nonsense I said about playing with Rihanna, that's ridiculous. I'm not that person. I don't want to be that person. I'm not interested in this nonsense. This really makes me sick," Nuno said on Instagram.

"I just got home and I saw my guy [Justin] Hawkins [of The Darkness] posted about this all, an episode [on his YouTube channel] and described who said what. It's ridiculous. The point is this is me. I have to keep my mouth shut."

"I got a question about Rihanna, and my answer was ridiculous - really ridiculous. I will take full responsibility for this and how difficult it is and how difficult it is for people to play different feelings. I tried to make it a point, and it backfired on me."

"I do a lot of interviews with the press, and occasionally you say stupid nonsense. You're asked stupid questions. So now I'm going to stick to Extreme, stick to what I know, stick to what I do to the guitar and what I do to Extreme. That way no one can go around with and get offended and [made] comments. Don't ask me about other people. Don't ask me about Rihanna. Don't ask me about Slash or Guns N' Roses or Richard Fortus, to whom I owe an apology."

"Richard, sorry, my brother. This is ridiculous. You have the full right to defend your brother. And even if it's the lightest way or whatever, you're right. I don't like hurting people. I don't like to talk bad about anyone. And this all comes from me, from a ridiculous Planet Rock interview, that is when someone asks me about Rihanna, as I said, I have to shut my mouth You know, talk about how difficult it is. I have my own reasons why I say what I say in the sense of what it means to me by playing all the different feelings (when playing with Rihanna), but obviously it looks very arrogant, it looks very offensive."

"People love this stuff and they eat it and all they do is create bad vibes for everyone in our community, in the guitarist community, when in the end, really, I really respect everyone. Everyone has a path and everyone has a place to do what they do. Whether I've heard Richard play before, what I didn't do, it doesn't give me the right to comment that I've never heard the tone he've played in my entire life, even though it's true."

"But it was [I] who was annoyed and I thought it was just me who was annoyed in general so I started this nonsense. So, another apology to Richard. He's obviously a great guitar player. He played with Guns N' Roses. He must be amazing. And, whoever out there likes this kind of watery nonsense, go away and take care of it myself and I will take care of my own business and keep that nonsense for myself, whatever I feel about how difficult everything is. But, as I say, friend, whoever knows me in the guitar community, all I do is really respect everyone who plays with me and I step out of my way for this one, really."

"And it's not a ridiculous apology in the sense that I'm backing down for anything. I'm really back and reading what I actually answered, and it was so stupid, and I made it too important for the show. It was stupid for me to mention it or especially Slash. I mean, I don't even know why Slash came out of my mouth during that time apart from me just using it as an example of us rock guitar players playing different nuances."

"In addition, I love all of you, 'play you guys', if you know what I mean. And to be honest, man, this is ridiculous. Let's stop this nonsense. I hope to be able to talk with Richard in the near future and laugh at this because it's stupid. It's ridiculous. We're all great players and there's no need for anyone to argue about stupid things like this. I reacted a bit hot because I might realize how stupid I am by saying what I said about Slash and playing with Rihanna. "

"That's enough. Before I ramble on and keep saying something else, I don't want to say it, man, I'll see you there. But I'm happy to see you all on the street. God bless you everyone. Peace. See you soon."

Responding to Nuno's apology and an invitation to talk together, Fortus wrote in the comments column of the Portuguese-born guitarist's video: "I contacted you to arrange the plan to talk together."

Listen to Nuno's full apology in the Instagram video upload below.