Guns-N’-Roses’ rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus has revealed entertaining details about Axl Rose in a new interview: The singer is said to be able to disconnect his microphone from the PA system during performances in order to tell jokes to his bandmates during concerts. Of course, the “joke button” is also used for a more serious purpose: to decide what the band will play next.
Guns N’ Roses has no fixed setlists – and a “joke button”
Fortus first told the KSHE 95 radio show host that GNR didn’t have fixed setlists. “Often every night is different because we don’t have sets. So we mix things up a little bit, switch songs and things like that.” This led to the question from the presenter about how the band then knew which song was coming up next.
Fortus reports, “Our vocalist Axl has a button he can press to mute the mic. It’s usually used to tell us jokes! [Die das Publikum nicht hören kann, weil die Anlage dann aufgrund der Taste vom Mikrofon abgetrennt ist.]”
So Rose always asks his colleagues during performances on stage: “What do you want to do next? And then there are blocks of songs that we do together. Sometimes it’s a real surprise… But we’re well rehearsed. We do at least an hour of soundcheck every day.”
Richard Fortus even plays his guitar on TV nights with his wife
As the conversation continues, Fortus says he plays the guitar every day, whether he’s working or not. “There are definitely days when I play a lot more than other days. My wife is so incredibly tolerant of my work! At the end of the day when we sit down to watch a show or a movie or something, I sit down and play… I have a little amp in the living room.”
More about Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses’ next world tour kicks off on June 5th in Israel. Guns N’ Roses will go on a European tour in the summer of 2023. An exclusive Germany concert is planned in Frankfurt on July 3rd. In September 2022 the band re-released “Use Your Illusion I+II” from 1991. In addition to many live recordings, it also includes a new version of “November Rain” with a full orchestra. The last studio album to be released was in 2008, “Chinese Democracy”.
Since then it has been rumored for some time that a new album will be released soon.