Toronto Sun Interview

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/jane_stevenson/2009/03/06/8647951-sun.html

The airport dumpoff? Coke addiction? Didn't happen
J.D. Fortune says he never wanted to get into a "he said, she said thing" with his onetime bandmates in INXS.
In setting the record straight with Sun Media, he is clarifying
-- and even retracting -- some statements he made two weeks ago.
The 35-year-old Mississauga, Ont., native says the veteran
Australian funk-rock act will remain his favourite group "forever" --
despite the awkward manner in which they've parted ways.
Fortune became INXS's frontman by winning the Rockstar: INXS
reality TV show in September 2005. The new incarnation of the band
immediately recorded and released an album, Switch -- Fortune-co-wrote
the first single Pretty Vegas -- and then toured the world for 23
months, through summer 2007.
"INXS has always been and will always be my favourite band --
always," Fortune told Sun Media in an exclusive newspaper interview
leading up to the spring release of his new solo album, The Death Of A
Motivational Speaker.
The only times Fortune teared up during our one-hour chat was
when he was asked what he'd say to all five members of INXS if they
suddenly joined us at the Liberty Village restaurant in Toronto.
" 'Can I buy you a drink? How's it going?' Really. I mean, those guys changed my life," he said.
What Fortune did clarify was that he was not fired by INXS via
a handshake at a Hong Kong airport, as he earlier told Global's ET
Canada, which broke the story of Fortune saying he was penniless
(having poured all his money into making Motivational Speaker) and
homeless since leaving the band.
"To set the record straight, I was never given a handshake at
an airport and said, 'Thanks, a lot,' " said Fortune, who replaced
original INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, who died in 1997.
'MISQUOTE'
"That was sort of a misquote (on my part). It was the
proverbial handshake. Nobody really said, 'Thanks a lot, kid.' I
thought we were going to see each other again. It was kind of like,
'Hey, hey, I'll catch up with you later.' "
Fortune said he returned to Canada thinking there were still two more legs of the INXS 2007 tour to complete.
But when those tour legs were cancelled and none of the band
members would return his phone calls after 10 months, he had no choice
but to think he was no longer in the group.
"It was very ambiguous, very cryptic. 'We'll get back to you,'
" said Fortune, who claimed his relationship with INXS had been
"fantastic" up until that point.
"I thought this was a bit strange, because I had based my
entire being on being with these guys for the rest of my life. But I
started to feel really alone. I started to feel maybe like I was a
sports car that they were going to put a tarp on and take a tarp off
any time they wanted to. So as an artist, I couldn't really do that."
In an interview last week with The Daily Telegraph, INXS
spokesman Chris Murphy said the band was shocked by Fortune's
allegations that he had been let go, and that the group had not ruled
out Fortune's return.
Murphy even told The Telegraph he was just about to phone
Fortune about a future INXS project when the ET Canada story broke, and
that as a result the phone call was no longer necessary.
Just this week, Fortune heard unsubstantiated rumours that
INXS, who were dropped by Epic Records in September 2006 and who signed
with Petrol Records in December 2008, might be looking at another
Rockstar: INXS contestant -- third runner-up MiG Ayesa -- as their new
frontman.
Regardless of his replacement, Fortune said Murphy's statements were jarring.
"You go from being an unknown in Toronto, to being the toast of
your country, to being the toast of many different countries with these
gentlemen who have taken you under their wing -- to just basically
being, for lack of a better expression, forgotten about. I thought,
'Really uncool.' "
Murphy then told Confidential magazine: "The whole thing has
been bizarre -- (J.D) was basically a contractor and his contract had
ended."
Fortune, however, told Sun Media he was "not on a contract. Not at all. I was an equal member of that band according to them."
And despite telling ET Canada that his heavy cocaine use while
touring with INXS may have been a contributing factor to his parting
ways with the band, Fortune -- who says he has been clean for two
years, with the exception of pot smoking -- now says that that was not
the case.
"When you play six nights a week to crowds of 10,000 to
15,000, you don't have a lot of time to be stoned," Fortune said. "When
I did find time to do drugs, I did as much as possible -- to cut out
the fact I went from living out of my car to fronting this freight
train that we were on. I went from my life into their life, and I
thought that was going to be the rest of my life.
'VERY CONFUSING'
"I was living in my car eight months ago, now I'm flying around in a private jet.
"It was very confusing and tumultuous and I loved every aching inch of it, because it was with INXS."
Fortune, who did help his mother in Nova Scotia pay off her
house after joining INXS, claims to not actually know how much he was
paid as frontman, other than "tens of thousands of dollars" being
deposited into his bank account. He says he didn't know because of the
fast transition between winning the reality show, writing, recording
and releasing Switch and the world tour.
But he said he wasn't spending money on cocaine. Rather, "the
availability became more and more frequent. Everybody you met wanted to
party with J.D. Fortune from INXS. The drug thing was never an issue
because I would always time it that I would have the next day off."
Fortune, who had been living couch to couch and eventually out
of his black Dodge Ram truck in his post-INXS phase, also now has a
permanent roof over his head.
His godparents -- Ron Cameron Lewis and Lloyd Cameron Lewis
(who became the third gay couple married in Canada four years ago) --
offered him a place at their Mississauga home.
"I've known them for 20 years," he said.
"They saw the ET Canada piece and they said basically,
'Darling, you have to come clean with us, and tell us that you're
having this hard time.' Them offering me a chance to live there to get
my life back on track, I'm really indebted to both Ron and Lloyd for
that."

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2009/03/06/8647956-sun.html
Solo Record
J.D. Fortune hopes that
the spring release of his new solo record, The Death Of A Motivational
Speaker, will replace the current headlines about his parting ways with
INXS.

Still, the 35-year-old Mississauga native -- who
finished recording the solo disc on Dec. 22 with producer Jag Tanna
(the onetime guitarist for now defunct Toronto band I Mother Earth) at
DNA Recording Studios in Vaughan, Ont., -- says the 12 new songs
document his time with the band.

"If I was going to say
anything to INXS or former bandmates or whatever you want to call them,
I'd say, 'Just take a listen.' So if this record makes INXS proud, it
makes me proud, because I know that me standing on stage with my idols
wasn't all for naught."

'Respected'

Fortune finished
mixing and mastering the tracks just in the past couple of weeks. Demos
of five songs -- titles include Product Of The System, Dream Destroyer
and Failure And A Gun -- are currently posted on his MySpace page.

The
singer-songwriter is currently talking with Winnipeg-based Paquin
Entertainment, a company that manages Randy Bachman and Buffy
Sainte-Marie (and whose Toronto staff includes Jag's brother and former
IME drummer Christian Tanna). Fortune says they're discussing signing a
deal, trying to find a band, organize shows and come up with a release
date for Motivational Speaker.

In the meantime, he'll have his website up and running by March 12.

"For
the first time in two years, my heart feels as big as it's ever felt,
my soul feels free to say and do whatever it wishes," Fortune said.

"For the first time in a long time, I felt respected as an artist.

"I thought I wanted to be a great big rock star, but really I just want to be J.D. Fortune."

Finally a creditable journalist!

These are great articles and was such a relief reading them and the sort out JD has achieved here.

I believe the healing can now begin.

Fans and band alike. I just wish INXS.com wasn't down so that I could post the links there for the fans to read. Such a lot of upset these past weeks. Good for JD to find the media outlet to set this all straight and having the balls to do it.

Gotta love him!

Meesh wrote:Finally a creditable journalist!

These are great articles and was such a relief reading them and the sort out JD has achieved here.

I believe the healing can now begin.

Fans and band alike. I just wish INXS.com wasn't down so that I could post the links there for the fans to read. Such a lot of upset these past weeks. Good for JD to find the media outlet to set this all straight and having the balls to do it.

Gotta love him!

yes it was finally nice to read an article without negativity. It was honest.

Just posted the articles and the links over there.
Included relevant pictures as well.
Hope it is taken the right way by that crowd, I reckon it will be. By those that are still there. A lot have left apparently, maybe prematurely?

The honesty of the upset is just how much INXS fans truly love JD.
It will work out.

Meesh wrote:Just posted the articles and the links over there.
Included relevant pictures as well.
Hope it is taken the right way by that crowd, I reckon it will be. By those that are still there. A lot have left apparently, maybe prematurely?

The honesty of the upset is just how much INXS fans truly love JD.
It will work out.

Meesh wrote:Just posted the articles and the links over there.
Included relevant pictures as well.
Hope it is taken the right way by that crowd, I reckon it will be. By those that are still there. A lot have left apparently, maybe prematurely?

The honesty of the upset is just how much INXS fans truly love JD.
It will work out.

Hi Meesh!!!
I aren't a member at Inx.com, has the reaction to all the news been all pro Jason over there? He is so popular and loved. I still haven't given up hope of a reunion, i may be daft but i so hope so!!!

fluffy wrote:

Meesh wrote:Just posted the articles and the links over there.
Included relevant pictures as well.
Hope it is taken the right way by that crowd, I reckon it will be. By those that are still there. A lot have left apparently, maybe prematurely?

The honesty of the upset is just how much INXS fans truly love JD.
It will work out.

Hi Meesh!!!
I aren't a member at Inx.com, has the reaction to all the news been all pro Jason over there? He is so popular and loved. I still haven't given up hope of a reunion, i may be daft but i so hope so!!!

Well yes I think predominately there has been genuine concern over Jason's treatment and then that has flowed onto the fan/members of the official site's treatment as well. Just check out the reaction at BillBoard by the INXS.com members in the comments section there. That gives you an inclination to where we are all at over this.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/inxs-responds-to-bizarre-fortune-comments-1003949020.story

I think nearly everyone wants to see JD re-instated if that is what is required. No one seems to interested to me at least, in going through this process again with INXS.

One or two real negative ppl. They are still really stuck in the old days for sure and short of MH being re-incarnated would not be happy with any new lead vocalist. I think the support for JD's solo career is solidly backed by INXS.com members. I see a lot of them on his myspace page.

Meesh wrote:

fluffy wrote:

Meesh wrote:Just posted the articles and the links over there.
Included relevant pictures as well.
Hope it is taken the right way by that crowd, I reckon it will be. By those that are still there. A lot have left apparently, maybe prematurely?

The honesty of the upset is just how much INXS fans truly love JD.
It will work out.

Hi Meesh!!!
I aren't a member at Inx.com, has the reaction to all the news been all pro Jason over there? He is so popular and loved. I still haven't given up hope of a reunion, i may be daft but i so hope so!!!

Well yes I think predominately there has been genuine concern over Jason's treatment and then that has flowed onto the fan/members of the official site's treatment as well. Just check out the reaction at BillBoard by the INXS.com members in the comments section there. That gives you an inclination to where we are all at over this.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/inxs-responds-to-bizarre-fortune-comments-1003949020.story

I think nearly everyone wants to see JD re-instated if that is what is required. No one seems to interested to me at least, in going through this process again with INXS.

One or two real negative ppl. They are still really stuck in the old days for sure and short of MH being re-incarnated would not be happy with any new lead vocalist. I think the support for JD's solo career is solidly backed by INXS.com members. I see a lot of them on his myspace page.

Thanks for posting that Meesh, i am glad Jason has lots of support, lets just hope the band realise we need him back in. If they try someone new they could be in for major disappointment fan base wise. What a mess!! Lets hope all is resolved soon, they always said they wanted him to do his solo project so i have everything possible crossed!!

whatever happens... i wish jd well!! the songs for dms are really really good!

It certainly is a great way for him to get out from under their shadow and be a recording artist in his own right.

This all sticks in the back of my mind, who knows one day they might all get it together again.

I'm just pissed they didn't play "Taste It" at any of the concerts that I went too!

Meesh wrote:It certainly is a great way for him to get out from under their shadow and be a recording artist in his own right.

This all sticks in the back of my mind, who knows one day they might all get it together again.

I'm just pissed they didn't play "Taste It" at any of the concerts that I went too!

i saw taste done when they were here.

I didn't get a taste of it either Meeshe...haha! In Toronto Feb06 I think he had too many family members in the audience and in London ON in May06 I don't think he was up for it. During Afterglow he was visibly crying then he crouched down with the mic and told the audience not to believe everything they read. I believe the Toronto Star did not write a great review of the big AC show and that was when people who said they "knew"JD were going on a radio station and making nasty comments about him. I also recall some noise about him not getting tickets for so called "family" members.

Sorry to go on and on...just remembering a lot lately.

Peace

Moonfaerie wrote:I didn't get a taste of it either Meeshe...haha! In Toronto Feb06 I think he had too many family members in the audience and in London ON in May06 I don't think he was up for it. During Afterglow he was visibly crying then he crouched down with the mic and told the audience not to believe everything they read. I believe the Toronto Star did not write a great review of the big AC show and that was when people who said they "knew"JD were going on a radio station and making nasty comments about him. I also recall some noise about him not getting tickets for so called "family" members.

Sorry to go on and on...just remembering a lot lately.

Peace

Yeah it's been a long hard and rough road he's traveled to this point.

God love that fierce determination.



I wish things would be a little easier for him now, but I don't think they are going to be.
Still a hard road ahead I fear.
I just hope he hears, feels and understands how many are truly here to support him. And dearly want to see his dreams succeed.

I really do!

I wouldn't be a celeb for all the tea in china.