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Fortune Shines as INXS "Star"
09/21/2005 2:01 AM, E! Online
Charlie Amter
INXS hopes to have found a new sensation in the form of a onetime
Elvis impersonator.
The Australian rock band tapped J.D.
Fortune as its lead singer on CBS' Rock Star: INXS Tuesday,
ending 13 weeks of American Idol-style competition among 15
performers.
"We're a band now," the 31-year-old Canadian
singer told E! Online after his win.
"We're complete. That's
an amazing thing. And I don't think age has anything to do with it
because music is a language, and if you speak it fluently you can speak
to other people in that language. And we all speak it fluently."
Fortune--who once paid the bills by imitating the King and,
when that failed, lived out of a car--was true to his name, beating out
Chicago rocker Marty Casey and Australian performer MiG Ayesa in the
one-hour Rock Star finale.
The three performers each
got to choose a classic rock cut to perform in front of INXS, cohosts
Brooke Burke and Dave Navarro, the 12 eliminated contestants and a live
audience at the same Los Angeles studio where American Idol is
taped. (Producers built a replica of downtown L.A.'s Mayan Theater
inside the complex; the Mayan was the site of the band's final L.A.
concert with the late Michael Hutchence.)
Ayesa, who gave up
a lead role in the London-based Queen musical We Will Rock You to
pursue the INXS gig, kicked off the show with a polished version of
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Fortune followed with an uptempo take on
the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Casey ended
the set with an intense rendition of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here."
After a brief deliberation by the band members--Andrew, Tim and
Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers--Ayesa was given his walking
papers. (Thus disproving an Internet conspiracy theory that he was the
show's ringer brought in by the band and show producer Mark Burnett.)
The five band members then took the stage and performed one
INXS song with each of the finalists. Crowd favorite Casey sang "Don't
Change," while the brash Fortune, who was portrayed during the season as
the most focused contestant, belted out "What You Need." After another
deliberation, Tim Farriss announced Fortune as the new frontman.
After the finale, which was taped at 10 a.m., and post-show
mini-concert during which the new INXS broke out some new material,
Fortune met with the press.
"I'm going to sleep all day," he
said, adding that his second rock star indulgence would be to "hang out
with INXS all the time.
Fortune's first single with INXS,
"Easy, Easy," is out today on Epic Records. It will be followed by a
full-length album, Switch, on Nov. 29, with a world tour
commencing in early 2006. Switch represents INXS' first new
studio set since Hutchence's suicide in 1997.
"He's very
passionate," bassist Beers said of his new mate. "He's got a lot of
energy. And we feel comfortable about what hes going to bring to INXS
and appreciate what we are offering him more than anybody. He's now an
equal member of the brain trust of INXS performance-wise and in the
studio. And that will unfold as we go along."
The band, with
Fortune in tow, will now write songs together in addition to rehearsing
tunes from INXS' back catalog of hits in advance of the fall release
and impending word tour.
Already, "Pretty Vegas," a song
Fortune co-wrote with Andrew Farris during Rock Star, is set to
become an additional single, Beers says.
The tune was the
second-best-selling single on MSN Music as of Tuesday, behind,
ironically enough, Casey's original song "Trees."
Despite
losing out to Fortune, the 31-year-old Casey won't disappear. Tim Farris
said during the finale that INXS "would like to talk to you about
possibly opening up for us on our upcoming world tour."
As for
the other aspiring Rock Star contestants, they told the audience
in between takes at the taping that they were all continuing to pursue
musical careers.
Meanwhile, show mastermind Burnett said he's
already looking forward to a new edition of Rock Star with a
different band. "We're in a lot of discussions with people," he told E!
Online. "I think that you're very, very likely to see Rock Star:
Season Two."
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