INXS denies it left J.D. Fortune in the lurch
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 5:20 PM ET
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J.D. Fortune performs during an INXS concert in New York in May 2006. He says he's now living out of his car. (Stephen Chernin/Associated Press)Rock band INXS has disputed Canadian J.D. Fortune's version of how he came to part ways with the Australian band.
Fortune was chosen as lead singer for the band in a reality TV show, Rock Star: INXS in 2005.
He recently told Entertainment Tonight Canada that his bandmates dumped him at a Hong Kong airport after a 23-month tour, leaving him broke and living out of his truck.
The band's creative director Chris Murphy, however, says Fortune was never dumped as lead singer — though he won't be invited back now that he's spread this story.
"The band have always stated to me that Fortune's services could potentially be contracted again when INXS next tour," he said.
"In fact, he was next on my list to call regarding a very big recording project I am putting together for INXS at present. I have no reason to call him now."
The band says it is shocked to hear what Fortune has said about them.
"Not only are we shocked by the claims, even the place the supposed incident was to have taken place is a mystery," said a statement issued by the group.
Fortune, who hails from New Glasgow, N.S., helped bring a new young audience to INXS with the reality TV show and subsequent tour.
He wrote the song Pretty Vegas, and worked with the group to record their album, Switch.
Fortune admits sudden fame went to his head and he had a problem with substance abuse while on tour. He said he has had no contact with the band for more than a year.
"I found myself really alone, because I had travelled with these guys for 23 months," he told Entertainment Tonight Canada.
"I don't know where I am going, from sofa to sofa, from night to night. I am trying to get through my life."
INXS, whose earlier hits include Need You Tonight and Never Tear Us Apart, lost its charismatic lead singer, Michael Hutchence, in 1997 to suicide.
Since then the group has had a series of lead singers, including Terence Trent D'Arby and Jon Stevens.
With files from the Canadian PressShare Tools
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