Rock Star: INXS Chooses J.D. Fortune

The Australian rock band chose the former Elvis impersonator after 13 weeks of competition between 15 performers all hoping to be chosen to front the band. Last week the final four became three vying for the opportunity to fill late singer Michael Hutchence’s shoes. Fortune competed against rocker Marty Casey hailing from Chicago and Australian performer MiG Ayesa. After the first round where the three finalists each sang a song of their choice and the band members deliberated shortly before giving Ayesa the disappointing news that he would not be chosen for their band.

The second half of the show proved exciting as the band members – Andrew, Tim, and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, and Garry Beers – took the stage and each of the finalists performed an INXS song. First up was 31-year old Casey who chose to sing "Don’t Change" and Fortune sang "What You Need." After another brief deliberation it was announced that Fortune would front the band. In an interview with the 31-year old Canadian singer he said, "We’re a band now. 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 has come a long way since he lived in his car. INXS’s first single with Fortune singing, "Easy, Easy, " debuted today on Epic Records. They are set to release a full-length album Switch at the end of November and are slated to kick off a world tour in early 2006. "Pretty Vegas," the song Fortune co-wrote with Andrew Farriss during Rock Star is reportedly going to be an additional single. As for Casey, the band said they wanted to speak with him about opening up for them on their world tour. Seems they both won!