J.D. Fortune Biography

J.D. Fortune (born Jason Dean Bennison on September 1, 1973), is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter. He was the winner of the 2005 CBS reality television series Rock Star: INXS, and fronted INXS until August 2011.

Biography

Early life

Jason Dean Bennison, now known as J.D. Fortune, was born in Mississauga, Ontario and raised in Salt Springs, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. J.D. grew up listening to his grandfather sing and started performing at a very young age. He attended Cawthra Park Secondary School and West Pictou Consolidated School but dropped out before graduating after being offered a job on a television show. Bennison is his estranged father's name, and Fortune is his mother's maiden name. He has a sister, Sarah-Jane, and a pug named "Presley" (after Elvis Presley).

Early music career

After several years in and out of the music world, he finally began to strike gold as an original musician. Fortune performed at the Friendship Festival and at Toronto's Skydome in front of 50,000 people. He also worked as an entertainer and pop songwriter for an Ontario TV show, an Elvis Presley impersonator and he fronted a band named JUICe, which recorded an album named In Retrospect.

Rockstar INXS/INXS

Fortune was living in his car, under a bridge, when he applied for and was selected as a contestant on CBS's TV show, Rock Star: INXS. On September 20, 2005, after an eleven-week audition process televised on CBS Rock Star : INXS, Fortune was told "You are right for our band, INXS" by Tim Farriss of INXS.

INXS, with Fortune, released their album Switch in November 2005. Three singles from the album were released over the next twelve months including the track "Pretty Vegas" which was co-written by Fortune and INXS's Andrew Farris, amongst others. The week of February 25, 2006, "Pretty Vegas" reached its highest charting at #7 on Billboard.

On February 16, 2009, J.D. revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada that INXS fired him from the band with a shake of the hand at an airport in Hong Kong. Fortune admitted to heavy cocaine use during the latest INXS tour and he acknowledged that his drug habit had likely contributed to INXS' decision. Fortune stated he had been off cocaine for the past 2 years and, at the time, he was living out of his car and had put all his remaining money into his solo album "The Death of a Motivational Speaker". Former INXS manager and now record company head Chris Murphy responded at the time by saying that Fortune had never been fired by the band, but that the band was reluctant to continue working with him because of his allegations.

In 2010, Fortune performed with INXS several times. On February 24, 2010, Fortune performed with INXS at the Vancouver Olympics in a sold out performance. On July 10, 2010, INXS, fronted by Fortune, performed at an outdoor concert for an estimated 13,000 people at the 2010 Sucrogen Townsville 400 in Townsville, Australia. On July 16, 2010, JD fronted INXS at an outdoor concert at the Mangrove Resort in Broome, Western Australia. On September 1, 2010, Fortune performed with INXS before 17,000 attendees of VMware's 2010 VMWorld at the Moscone Center, San Francisco. On September 25, 2010, INXS and Fortune headlined the pre-match entertainment at the AFL Grand Final Event in Melbourne, Australia. During a radio interview prior to the performance in Broome, Western Australia, Kirk Pengilly confirmed that Fortune is a permanent member of INXS.

On September 29, 2010 INXS announced an Australian tour for early 2011. The tour, with JD Fortune, included eight performances across Australia from January 25, 2011 " February 12, 2011. This was followed by three performances in South America: Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santiago, Chile and Iquique, Chile in February 2011. JD Fortune & INXS returned to Canada for a performance at the Sound Academy in Toronto Ontario on March 2, 2011.

On October 19, 2010 INXS released the single The Stairs, featuring JD Fortune (the original version of "The Stairs" had appeared on INXS' 1990 album, X) on iTunes Canada. This tune was followed by the November 2010 release of an album of primarily previously released songs as performed by a number of artists. The album, Original Sin, was released in Australia and Canada. A bonus track, Love Is with J.D. Fortune was released in Australia through iTunes. In an October 2010 interview with JD Fortune and Jon Farriss, they noted they had been playing as a band and were going to play as a band.

In 2011, INXS with J.D. Fortune completed shows in Australia, England, Portugal, South America, Canada and The United States of America. In September 2011, J.D. Fortune and INXS announced that they had mutually agreed to go their own separate ways and pursue different artistic projects. Later, Fortune would say, "I had no idea I had left INXS the second time to be honest with you," Fortune says. "I woke up August 18 and I had to find out from their web site, which, to this day, I still find bizarre."

Solo music

In March 2010, Fortune announced that a previously unreleased solo work, entitled "One More Day," would be used in CBS television on-air campaign for a new television series, Miami Medical. The series, created by Jerry Bruckheimer, aired on April 2, 2010. "One More Day" is a previously unreleased track from a new CD that is being worked on. In September 2011 J.D. Fortune announced that he was developing several projects as a solo artist that were on hold until he had completed his obligations with the INXS tour.

On February 8,2011 Fortune announced via Twitter that his song "Wicked World" would begin airing in a promotion for an episode of the CBS Television program Criminal Minds.

On July 10, 2012 JD Fortune will play his first live performance for the public with his new band Fortune. Some of the members of Fortune are fellow Canadians from and members of the band Crush Luther. The show will be at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park NJ.

Personal life

Fortune is a vegetarian.