Tour tickets: https://metropolistouring.com/jd-fortune-plays-inxs-2025/
INXS were internationally huge, and if you ever saw them live, the reasons were self-explanatory. However, the loss of a legendary front man [Michael Hutchence] is a hard bridge to cross, yet JD Fortune rose to the challenge. Imagine stepping into the shoes of one of Australia’s biggest, and most beloved, rock exports. Then, on top of that, dealing with the endless invasions into personal freedoms that international media are so adept at ignoring. To then survive that and return to a country that embraced performances warrants an interview. So, we were privileged to gain access to the quite stellar, Canadian vocalist JD Fortune, to explore his experiences, and to discuss the approaching tour.
Hello, we’ve got you coming down to entertain us soon.
JD Fortune: Well, we’re going to put it through the paces, that’s for sure.
There are around ten dates booked, which is pretty substantial. That’s a fair bit of work.
JDF: Yeah, well, there were more, but we just had some conflicting time schedules. I think it was up to 19, but I think I’m going to get back next year. I had to say to the promoter, I can’t do eight shows in seven days. I don’t think that’s going to be possible.
How does your voice hold up when you do show the show after show?
JDF: Well, right now I’m in Canada, so, I have my methods. But I have to get on a plane in two weeks and fly 23 hours to get there. Three flights, 23 hours, and that amount of time in the air will dehydrate you. As you know, Paul, you wake up in the morning and well, you times that by about six or seven, and I’m also taking some flights in the country, mate. I got a lot of electrolytes, a lot of rest, then just get on stage and freaking give it.
Then you’ve got to talk to people like me when you’re in the country.
JDF: No, I don’t mind. I don’t mind the talking. It’s when you go out and it’s a lesson I learned years ago. You know, after you finish a show, you don’t go out to a loud bar where you’re saying, ‘Hey, you know what? I think we should go get another drink. I can’t hear what I’m saying!’ Then you’re just yelling all night, and then the next night you try to sing and everyone’s asking, ‘How come you sound like that?’ It is because I was up doing this for the last four hours. This time, it is straight to the hotel room, straight to bed, drink my tea, go to bed, do the next show. Then at the end of it, when I end up back in Brisbane, there’ll be time for celebration. But I’m just so excited to get down there.
I saw you play with INXS in Sydney, probably around 2006 at Big Top, Luna Park. It was impressive.
JDF: Thanks brother. That’s great, mate, but thank you.
There are a lot of backing vocals in the INXS music that really do push the chorus. Do you have to consider that for this upcoming tour?
JDF: Yeah, absolutely. I had been working without INXS for quite some time. So, if the guys I’m working with remember to sing the backing vocals, that’s great. But mostly it’s just me out there giving the big, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ I’ve got to carry that weight through the whole show because I want every person in that audience to feel exactly the same way I do about the music; that is that it’s shit hot still, and it’s great and it deserves to be listened to live at a big volume.
So, with that kind of music, running around a lot, does it mean that you have to get that energy happening, you need to sacrifice some performance aspects?
JDF: No, I like to leave it a little bit on stage every night because I believe that Jim Morrison once said, ‘You never know what’s going to be your last performance.’ I’ve always had that in my head, and if you’re paying the money and you want to sit there and hear a band, if you feel like they’re just dialling it in or phoning it in, you’re not getting your money’s worth. I’ve never been a phone in. I’ve never phoned in a performance.
Point being that you have to be quite active on the stage, such as with big bands like Kiss, where they pull back a little bit because everybody wants to see them raise their hands and interact with the crowd.
JDF: Oh, I get what you mean. Yeah, this is an organic process as any band is and you’ve got to get out there and everything that you’ve learned and you know, are capable of doing with an instrument or a microphone, all has to come together, especially with INXS songs. Some of those songs are so intricate that when I’ve played with bands, and tried to jam something, they’re like, ‘I can’t figure out how they’re doing that.’ So, it was a case of, ‘Let me show you how they’re doing it.’
That sort of guitar interplay between the Farris brothers and Kirk [Pengilly], I suppose.
JDF: Beautiful, and then Tim [Farris – lead guitar] comes in. Tim comes in just to fill it in, in the nick of time. Yeah, it’s a dance; a musical dance.
It was all over radio in the 80’s, just everywhere, and it sounded simple. But, yeah, when you try to play it exactly, you realise there’s more to it than you think.
JDF: Oh, yeah. I actually jammed with a band a few years ago, and I walked in, and they said, ‘This is how we play it,’ and I said, ‘Well, it’s not how they play it, but okay.’ Then they were wondering why it didn’t sound just quite the same. You need to do all these other little intricate things that make it sound that way, and when you know the secret sauce, if you will, you know what to do. But if you’re a band and you’re approaching INXS as just meat and potatoes, you’re not really doing the music justice, and it’s not going to sound great.
Would you say that it was intimidating when you first played to Australian audiences, given that, Michael had such a legacy? Most Australians look at TV shows with indifference.
JDF: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was but, thank God I had the band behind me because Michael Hutchence arguably is going to go down in history as one of the top, not only front men, ut performers. Musical talent has to deal with AI cutting it off even more, so those organic artists that write their own stuff and perform live, is going to the wayside and I think it’s really important. As you said, I don’t know how to describe it, there is a little bit of magic in there that separate everything from it.
You would be aware that INXS toured with bands like the Oils in the early days, so INXS honed their craft and were really tight live.
JDF: Yeah, INXS is the best live band I’ve ever played with in my life, and I’ve played with a lot of bands. Yeah, when the band is on, you know, and they’re in it, no one’s touching them. We’ve had guest players from Steve Lukather [Toto] to, you name it, whomever has been on stage with us and everyone kind of jams. But the feel of those songs is the brainchild of INXS. That is coming from Andrew and Michael and then you know, Gary, Jon and Kirk, and just getting to work with those guys and seeing how they put songs together really helped me a songwriter. It has enriched my whole experience, and you know, they say never meet your heroes, but I’m certainly glad that I met mine because they’re amazing.
Indeed. Did you find it a hard nut to crack to access co-writing with the Farriss brothers?
JDF: What I found difficult was trying to find my own voice within the band because the more I tried to separate myself from Michael, the more I had people saying, ‘Wow, this reminds me of the energy,’ and that’s really what it is; it’s the energy. I might sound like Michael a little bit, but it was the energy of the show – Michael always put on a great show, and the band always put on a great show. So, I feel like it was the energy.
Did you ever feel that there were any shows that you did with them that were on par with the Wembley show?
JDF: Well, Chris Murphy [late manager], God bless his soul; we were doing A Day on the Green [2011], and I think Train was opening up for us. We finished our set, and we were in the change room, and Chris Murphy came back, and he said to the band with me there, ‘This was the best live INXS show I’ve ever seen.’ Now, granted, he may not have been in the band for a little while, but for him to say that really brought everybody’s spirits up. I felt so completely humbled and almost humiliated because I thought, ‘There’s no way that this is the best,’ because I’ve seen performances of Michael that are incredible, and Wembley was insane. But I think what he was getting at was at that point, we were all happy, all cohesive, and we’ve been on the road for a year and a half, maybe two years, and I think what he meant was, ‘Tt’s nice to see this, this is the best, this is awesome, and I miss that with the band. I miss those times.’ God bless them, I love them all. Hopefully I get to see a couple of them when I’m down there.
That’s fantastic. After you left, and when the wheels fell off a good 18 months later, so to speak, could you see that it was going to happen in the sense they decided to just call it a day?
JDF: Well, I couldn’t really see it because I was so close to it, but I could definitely feel that we were all tired. I definitely felt we were all exhausted and we were all ready for a break. Now, how that break ended or happened is confusing because we had a different manager. You know, some things were said to me, some things were said to the band, but I don’t want to go down old paths there. But, Paul, I’ll tell you this, everything that the band gave me was amazing. I wouldn’t change a thing. No regrets at all. But I think when you have other exterior forces sort of guiding creative forces, like INXS down the road, it can be from manager’s point of view, you have, you know, a couple options. You can just keep this train moving, keep it moving, or you can give these lads a break. I think our manager just decided to keep the train moving.
Do you think that there was just an element of nostalgia in that as well? The expectations from people not wanting to accept that Michael had passed on?
JDF: No, I think everyone knew he was gone. I mean, like I said, I have had people stand in the front row with their arms crossed for the first two or three songs, and then all of a sudden, you know, by the end of the night it’s, ‘Alright, man, this is great.’ As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always approached Michael’s legacy with respect and honour and, you know INXS with the lineage that they have and I mean, I think their first gig was in 1977 [northern beaches]. So, to grow up with that being a part of my DNA has been amazing.
We had a show called Countdown, on ABC TV, and Molly Meldrum definitely saw their potential. But, moving to 1984, INXS were everywhere on the radio and became huge. They were soon recording The Swing, in New York by that point. If you’re a kid listening to radio, you just thought that they were nearby. You had no idea just how huge they’d become.
JDF: Oh, yeah, I remember vaguely, as a young boy seeing “Simple Simon” [debut single], and I remember seeing it and going, ‘Oh, a new wave band in the 80’s,’ you know, I didn’t know if they were British or from America, I just remember seeing it. Some years later, it was “Devil Inside”, “Need You Tonight”, “Never Tear Us Apart”, “New Sensation”, and it was like, ‘Wow, holy sh*t,” these guys are phenomenal, and I was a fan ever since. Yeah, it was cool.
Regarding the touring lineup; who’s on guitar?
JDF: Well, I’ll leave that for right now but one I can reveal is Chris Alford. But I want to keep everything under wraps till I get there. We’ll have a couple of surprises. You never know who’s going to show up on that stage.
If you look at the back catalogue, is there a particular song that is your favourite, your most standout track?
JDF: “Searching” [Elegantly Wasted] I love “Searching” and “Never Tears Apart” is amazing, But [sings the lines] “I am searching, I am not alone.” You know, and oh, my God, that’s a soulful song, but for favourites, there’s too many. The other day, I hadn’t heard “The Strangest Party” and they were on Top of the Pops or whatever, and I recall thinking, ‘These guys are on fire,’ they were determined and that’s what drew me to that band, I think, as a young kid.
Yeah, it makes sense. Albums like X and Elegantly Wasted, fell under the global success radar a bit. Did you dig any of that content out as well in your set?
JDF: I don’t want to give too much away, but so many times when I’m playing and I’m going to touch on everything. I’ll tell you why, Paul, I made the mistake of saying, “Yeah, these are a few of the songs.” and someone gripes, “Oh, that’s not my favourite.” Sorry, but there might be somebody else out there that’s saying, “Yes, I can’t believe you’re singing this song.”
You probably noticed that there’s a similarity between Australian audiences and Canadian audiences, they’re probably more laid back than other places?
JDF: Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Aussie audiences and Canadian audiences are great; they’re there for a good time and that’s the thing. It’s not rocket science, we’re not curing cancer, we’re just here to celebrate the music, celebrate the sound, celebrate the band, and celebrate us being in that same moment, you know, because all you’ve got is this moment, as the band once said. All you’ve got is this moment; make the most of it, man.
Naturally, finally, I know that you influenced heavily by Elvis or at least Kurt Russell relevant soundtrack. Are there any other Canadian influences? Are there any Canadian bands that were influential to, you say, Neil Young or Rush?
JDF: Oh, yeah. Neil Young is a huge influence. The Guess Who be another big one for me; Burton Cummings era. Then there’s Tom Cochrane and Bill Bell. Tom Cochran is on tour, and I just got a chance to play with him this summer. I opened up for Tom. Beautiful, incredible band. There are some odd bands from my youth that are French Canadian bands like Mitsou and, you know, stuff like that. The biggest one for me in Canada would probably have to be Tom Cochran. Yeah, I’d have to say, yeah, I loved everything he’s done from Red Rider to “Life is a Highway,” which was a soundtrack for people’s lives for about a decade. You know, it doesn’t get any bigger than that, baby.
No, fair enough. We’ve had Anvil here, but we never had Rush.
JDF: Okay, I thought you meant pop rock. Well, if you want to get into that… Did you see the documentary?
Indeed, and it was that just shows you how nasty the industry can be to bands.
JDF: Yeah, I know, and they’re so hugely influential. To be treated like that was like… they almost had to have their hand out, like they were begging on the street while other bands were ripping off all their stuff and becoming successful with it. See, timing’s everything, Paul. Timing is everything.
Yeah, indeed. Well, speaking of timing, I’m going to let you go. That was my pun.
JDF: Yeah, it’s good.
Yeah, we will see you in October.
JDF: I’ll see you then, man. Hopefully you can come out to the show. Peace, brother.