Once upon a rock star...

It's always such a pity when someone who is lucky enough to have talent, good looks and a lucky break such as winning in a reality TV show contest chooses to mess with drugs and alcohol and lose all that good fortune. Fortune...that apparently was what eluded JD Fortune after spending the last couple years performing as INXS's frontman following his win on the reality TV show "Rock Star: INXS".

For those who watched the series, remember him here? This was taken that night he beat out Marty Casey and MiG Ayesa to become INXS's new lead singer.


Despite the famous tattoos (he has HUMAN BEING tattooed on his forearms), he still looked like the kind of guy every nice girl would want to take home to meet the parents. He was adorably cute with a little bad boy touch in him.



I don't know how much of it is rumor and how much of it is true, but I read somewhere that the reason why INXS let him go was that he became a habitual cocaine user and alcoholic and just could not kick the habit. Supposedly, after their tragic experience losing Michael Hutchence to this kind of behavior (and his eventual suicide), the band just didn't want to have to deal with it again. This article I read about him on People.com doesn't really go into much detail about it either.

www.people.com/people/article/0,,20261068,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

I tried to find information on the official INXS website, but the latest news on the site is a Happy Birthday to the late Michael Hutchence who would have been 49 years old on 01-22-2009. Obviously, that wasn't much help.

I know that other famous talents have gone the same way. Many psychologists theorize that this behavior is due to an inability to cope with their stardom. And while I still find it hard to believe that such a talented young man like JD Fortune could fall into such a spiral of self-destructive patterns, seeing pictures of how he's changed over the years just make it hard not to see some truth to the rumors. Just look at him on stage here, drinking and smoking, looking like he's not really happy to be there.


Photo found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sofija_m/431911671/

And in this one, he just looks like some drunk guy who happened to fumble his way on stage. Makes me wonder what kind of a show he put on that night. I imagine that must've been a stark contrast to his dazzling performances on Rock Star: INXS.


Photo found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisatodd