Former WHITESNAKE Guitarist JOHN SYKES Auditioned For GUNS N' ROSES In 2009
January 31, 2021, 3 years ago
Guns N' Roses' rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus has revealed that John Sykes (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) auditioned for GN'R in 2009. "That was when DJ (Ashba) came in," said Fortus during a recent interview with Tone-Talk, which can be seen below.
"We auditioned a bunch of people, and John Sykes was incredible," begins Fortus. "I remember (former GN'R bassist) Tommy Stinson came in, and we walked into rehearsals, and we see John there. Tommy turns around to the tour manager, and he goes, 'Man, send him home. Why are we doing this? Axl's not gonna go for this.'"
"And (the tour manager) is like, 'It's John Sykes, man. He learned the songs. The least you can do is listen to him.' So Tommy was like, 'All right. Fine.' So we go in the room, and within two minutes, Tommy is looking over at me, like, 'Oh my God!' I mean, it was incredible — incredible. And he just plugged straight into the amp, and just killed it. His tone was incredible. Our jaws were on the ground, for sure."
So why didn't John Sykes become a member of Guns N' Roses? According to Richard Fortus: "John's reputation does precede him. But I personally got along great with him, and I kept in contact with him. Actually, I kept in contact with him pretty regularly until I got the Thin Lizzy gig (in 2011), and then he didn't call me anymore. But I thought he was great."
