Richard Fortus's Story About John Sykes, Who Had Auditioned For A GN'R Guitarist

John Sykes (Instagram @johnsykeslegend)

JAKARTA - Early Guns N 'Roses deserves to be labeled' legend '. However, there were some impressive musicians who played in the band in the period when Axl Rose brought down a mostly new line-up.

It didn't stop there, in fact, there were several musicians of star caliber who auditioned but never joined the GN'R line-up.

According to Richard Fortus, one of the outstanding musicians who left an impression but ended up missing out on was John Sykes of Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy.

Fortus, who was part of the Chinese Democracy album and remained part of GN'R during the Not in This Lifetime reunion, told Tone-Talk Sykes came around in 2009, seeing an opportunity to fill the void that would eventually belong to DJ Ashba.

"We auditioned a lot of people and John Sykes was great," recalls Fortus.

The guitarist added, "I remember Tommy Stinson coming in, and we were walking into the studio for rehearsals, and we saw John (Sykes) there. Tommy turned to the tour manager, and he said, 'Dude, tell him to come home. Why are we doing this. ?

"Dan (tour manager) said, 'This is John Sykes, man. He's learning GN'R songs. The least you can do is listen to them.' So Tommy said, 'All right. Fine.' So we walked into the room, and within two minutes, Tommy was looking at me, like, 'Oh my God!' I mean, it was incredible - incredible. And he just plugs his guitar wire into the amp, and he mastered the tunes to perfection. The tone is incredible. "

Fortus was really impressed and stated, "John's reputation is undeniable. But personally I got along with him, and I kept in touch with him. In fact, I kept in touch with him until I joined Thin Lizzy (as touring guitarist), and then he wasn't. call me again. (laughs) But I think he's great. "

Sykes split from Thin Lizzy in 2009 and earlier this year the guitarist released the song Dawning of a Brand New Day. This song will be included in the Sykes solo album which is scheduled to be released later this year.