Guns N' Roses guitarist Richard Fortus spoke candidly about keeping the band sounding like a cohesive unit over the decades. Fortus, who has played every Guns show over the past 18 years, appeared on The Radical With Nick Terzo podcast, with Blabbermouth quoting him as saying, “I love (guitarist) Robin (Finck). I loved his playing. I loved working with him. And, obviously, (bassist) Tommy (Stinson) is like my brother. We were all very tight. And then there was Bucket (a.k.a. Buckethead, real name Brian Carroll), who was just sort of out on his own. But it was very musical, and it was exciting to be a part of. He's a phenomenal talent. Man, he's pretty out there. And he definitely can be difficult to work with. I enjoyed working with him, 'cause he's very musical.”
He went on to admit: “It was a difficult dynamic to make three guitars work. (Buckethead) did an excellent job, because he understood the dynamics of it and how the puzzle pieces have to fit together, and Bucket really understood that. Everything sort of has to have its place. When (he) left and Ron Thal (a.k.a. Bumblefoot) came in, it was a different dynamic, because I think Ron had been used to sort of doing his own thing, with his own band, so he didn't really get how that worked, or how to make it work. So it was difficult at that time.”
Richard Fortus now shares six-string duties with co-founding guitarist Slash. Slash told us a while back that he never imagined the original Guns lineup would reunite: “I never planned or thought that there was gonna be any reunion. Everybody else sort of alluded to it but, y'know, I never saw it coming. I knew it was just an impossible thing, and it wasn't something I really wanted.”