Vintage Rock recently sat down with one of hard rock’s most infamous characters, Jack Russell of Great White. The triumphs and tribulations of this man’s career read like a Hollywood screenplay starring the quintessential “Rock Star.” But like any good antagonist, no matter how many times he’s fallen, Russell gets back up, an attribute that has brought him fame, love, and a new lease on life…
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Great White was founded in 1978, and in 2011, you split with former band mates and created a new ensemble under the name, “Jack Russell’s Great White.” So two different bands are basically performing under essentially the same name… why was it paramount for you to keep the name Great White?
Well, it’s my name. I started the band, so of course I want to keep the name. It’s actually called, “Great White featuring Jack Russell,” as of now. We went to court and changed it. The brand name is very important, so we are fighting for it. It always has been my band and always will be my band. People, when they think of Great White, more than not will think of Jack Russell. And that’s the way it is. The name is something I came up with as a nickname for Mark (Kendall) because he’s so white, and I’m really into sharks, so that’s where the name of the band came from.
It’s a shame how you can start on the same page and end up in different books…
That’s just all politics and horrible stuff. The worst part about it is when it’s all your friends, or people that you thought were all your friends. I mean, I woke up out of a five day coma. Doctors told me they didn’t think I was going to make it, and I asked my wife, “Hey Hannah, did any of the guys call?” and she said, “No… not one of them.” And I just thought, Damn. I couldn’t believe it. So I kind of figured it was pretty much over by then.
That’s a tough reality to wake up to…
Yeah, but you move on. When you are as road-worn as I am you develop these calluses on your soul, so things that hit you start to not hurt as bad.
Speaking of road-worn, your new band has been on the road for almost a year at this point. You guys kicked off a nationwide tour last March in Florida, can you tell about the experience so far? How does it feel to be performing again and what has the public perception been like?
It’s been great. It really has. Initially there were the opening night shooters, and that sort of thing. It took me a while to get my confidence back because I hadn’t been on stage in a year and a half and that’s the longest in my whole career, since I was a kid, so it took a while to get things dialed in, we had to work out a number of things to make sure everything was perfect, but now the shows are really going well. The band is great, they are amazing people, the guitar player is incredible, and our drummer is great (of course, he’s been in Great White before). These guys are all seasoned players, and they are really nice guys and we all get a long great. And there’s just enough kookiness to keep it fun.
Kookiness is always important. Any good road stories you want to share?
Oh God…well, just the other night this adorable lady in a yellow bikini came up asking if we needed a harmonica player, and we said, “No.” So she asked, “Well, who is playing harmonica in your band?,” and I said I was. So we get on stage and she is right in the front row and sees that I’m not playing the harmonica, so she hands me hers and I didn’t know what to do so I just said it was the wrong key and tried not to lock eyes with her the rest of the night. But we have crazy people like that all the time. I remember this one show, there was a chick that played the flute and she stood in the front row and played the flute to every single one of our songs. It was horrifying! I didn’t want to kick her out or anything, but it was so distracting man. It’s like, “Can you not?”
You guys are playing at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. You have roots here in Orange County, correct?
Yeah, Orange County was our home turf back in the day. We all lived at one of my roadie’s houses. His name was John Norton. He was working and the rest of us were just living at his place for free — ya know, drinking his beers and sleeping on his floors. Those were the best days, just so much fun. We’d basically go to rehearsal, come back, and figure out which girl to call who’d buy us dinner. Pretty gravy, but seriously I always equate that with my best days. Don’t get me wrong, selling millions of records, and playing the Forum and Irvine Meadows, that’s all wonderful and great, but it was the days before anything big happened that were really exciting because you kind of knew something was going to happen but you weren’t really sure when. We were just walking on eggshells all the time thinking, “Please God let this happen.” Then one day, ka-boom, it happens and it just goes by so fast, because you’re so busy working on it that you don’t notice it going by. Pretty soon you’re 25 years down the road thinking, “What happened?”
Our minds are funny because the angst leading up to our dreams often stays ingrained in our memories as opposed to actually living out that dream…
Definitely. The fantasy is always better than the reality. I mean, don’t get me wrong, everything I’ve ever dreamed, the reality has been a 100 times better than the dream, but there is a certain thing about your fantasy…when you just sit and pray for something to happen. Once it happens, it’s kind of just on to the next thing. But that’s also what’s great about the music business, there is always the next thing, a new album to make, bigger show to play, better lyrics to create… maybe even, “Hey let’s get a not-so-spiked-haircut this time.” Always something new!
Our own Junkman met up with you at the NAMM show last year (2012) for a short interview wherein you mentioned having five months of sobriety under your belt. So does that put you at roughly 17 months sober at the present date?
That’s exactly right!
Congratulations to you!
It’s actually been very easy, and I don’t mean to tempt fate by saying that, but I have a really great support system. My wife is a nurse and she’s basically the reason I’m alive. She has saved my life so many times, I know that sounds cliché, but really she has. We have a really great relationship. I trust her, so I listen to her for the most part. When she says, “That’s not good for you,” I try and go, “OK ,well I really like doing this but fine, I’ll quit smoking or whatever the vice may be.” It sucks but I can’t be doing that anymore.
Well, what a nice way to start the new year for you…
Thank you. It’s funny because I’ve stopped before, before the bus tour, I stopped smoking, and then a couple of months ago, I started again on and off, but a couple days ago, I said, “Forget it, I’m done.” I got to take care of myself. She is already 12 years younger than me so I want to try and stick around as long as I can. But like I said, I have a great support system around me. My band’s great, and so is my manager. I really think we are going to accomplish everything we’ve set out to achieve. In between doing shows we’ve been working on songs for the new album, and at some point we are going to take a month off and do the recording, but in terms of the few songs we have going now it’s getting to be a stomper — just a bombastic, knock-your-head -off -our-shoulders record. A real Great White rockin’ record.
In terms of your creative process, can you give us some insight on how, if at all, it’s been different in the wake of sobriety?
Well, I’ve done so many records sober, I was sober for eight years in the 80s and the 90s, and then I was sober another two years in the early 2000s, so I’ve had my stints. I try and write when I’m sober, I’ve never liked to get drunk and write. I mean I did on the last album and amazingly enough it was some of the best stuff that we’ve ever done, I think, Mark and I were just over the moon. It was just me and him writing songs in my backyard, just laughing and thinking, “This is great.” But I wouldn’t suggest, the fact that we’ve been writing together for so many years it doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling. The fortunate thing is I’ve written a lot of great sons with Matthew Johnson. We did my first solo album, Shelter Me, together so he understands the way I write, and we have a couple things in the works already that are really, really good and show a lot of promise.
You’ve made mention that you attribute this new lease on life to your late friend Jani Lane. The anniversary of his birthday is coming up on February 1; how does that memory and his legacy continue to impact your life?
I’m going to be quite honest…the fact is Jani and I weren’t best friends. We had more than a mutual respect for each other’s talents. When we talked, it was like talking to someone you had known for a million years. It was a really strange relationship. I would say we had been in a past life together, and that’s just my theory, people might think “What’s this guy talking about,” but hey, that’s just my belief system. But Jani was an amazing songwriter, great singer, and honestly reminded me a lot of myself with his demons and the battles he fought with them. I have to give him thanks. I told his widow Kim that Jani saved my life by dying. I don’t think it was any coincidence that I woke up from my last surgery — I had fallen and shattered my pelvis — and I woke up August 11 and my wife told me that Jani had died from alcohol poisoning. So I told myself right then and there, that’s it. No more Jackie, this is going to be you. It hit way to close to home. And there’s not hardly a day that goes by where he doesn’t cross my mind.
In terms of your health, I know you were going through some struggles there for a minute. How are you feeling now, particularly touring as much as you have this past year?
I’m feeling great. I’m stronger and stronger every day, going to the gym, working out. Compared to the very beginning of the tour this year, I’m one hundred percent different than I was. I have a long ways to go, but you have to understand, at one point I was 137 pounds and couldn’t walk. My wife had to pick me up out of a wheel chair and lift me into bed, and then lift me out of bed to the bath and bathe me, and feed me, that’s how weak I was.
And now you’re back on stage killing it…
I’ve come a long way.
It’s never lost on me how resilient the human body is. I’m literally fascinated by what we are capable of…
Exactly. If you really put your mind to something, and truly believe in it, and put every ounce of energy into accomplishing something, I believe you can accomplish anything. I’ve done that, with a lot of help, I couldn’t have done it without my wife and my friends, but I’ve done it, which proves that anything is possible, and if anybody is out there hearing or reading this whose in a similar situation and your feeling like maybe your going to give up, don’t. Now is the time to really dig deep and get ready to go.
That’s great advice, and obviously a good support system is key, but at the end of the day you have to want it for yourself, which is a true testament to your character in terms of what you’ve personally overcome…
You have to want it. It can’t be a half-assed thing. You’re going full boar or nothing. You can’t do a feeble attempt because it won’t work.
Those mantras seem to speak to your personality in general, specifically, I know you’ve been playing music since around the age of eleven, and it definitely takes that kind of steadfastness to make it in this crazy industry… has it never been an option for you to do anything else? Did you just know it was music or nothing?
This is what I always wanted to do. There was a time when I was really young that I wanted to be a scientist, an archeologist, but then my parents bought me the Beatles Help album for my sixth birthday and from that day on, boom, I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to be like Ringo Starr, even though he was a drummer, I got over that real quick! But when I was eleven years old I had the opportunity to start a band and the rest is history. But after the Help album that was it. I knew. There was no, “I hope,” or “I guess,” or “If…” I knew like I know the sun is coming up tomorrow. And I know most people here that and think, “oh you’re full of it, how could you possibly know,” and I used to get in fights with people at school about that all the time. But I just knew, so I was never worried about it. And then when it did happen I was like, “Ha! Told you!”
You’re a Sagittarius, as am I, and one of the main things about our sign is that we are blindly optimistic. The steps, process, and obstacles mean very little to us… it’s all about the end game.
Sagittarius is a really great sign, especially in terms of getting things done. Nothing is impossible to us. The thing about being a Sagittarius is they can look at the moon and say, “I can get there, I don’t know how, but give me long enough and I’ll find a way.” Whatever we want, if we put our minds to it, we can have.
You mentioned Ringo Starr, and I know you are a huge Zeppelin fan, so will you be attending the Bonzo Bash NAMM Jam this month?
I am, and I’ll be performing that night.
Have you been to the revamped and newly named Observatory (Editor’s note: venue in Santa Ana, California) yet?
No, I have not, but I’m looking forward to it. Plus they are doing the songs that I want to do opposed to regular stock like “Rock & Roll” or “Black Dog.” I need something a little more adventurous than that.
Can you tell us a couple of the songs you will be playing?
We’re going to do “Living Loving Maid,” and “Dancing Days.”
“Dancing Days” is one of my favorites! In terms of current music, any one musician or band that’s been on your radar?
Honestly, not really. I’m not too much of a new music kind of guy. My wife just got me the new Aerosmith album, but I’ve been afraid to put it on in case I don’t like it but I guess I have to sit down and just got it a listen and hope for the best. But yeah, the only thing on my turntable right now is The White Album.
Do you have any advice for up and coming bands? Things you know now that you wish you knew then?
Get a job. Get a regular paycheck. Go to college. Ha! No, but really, the music business is so different than it was, it’s really hard now because there are no record companies per say. Nobody buys records anymore unless it’s a huge band, and even then people just download the music. See… years ago, you made money off your records and you toured to support your latest record. If anything you lost money touring. But now a days you make no money off records and you tour to make money. But regardless of all that you have to do it because it’s in your soul. Do it because you love it. If something great comes out of it, awesome, but don’t set yourself up for hurt feelings. But if you know something is going to happen, like I did, then I say go for it.
So what’s in the future for Jack Russell’s Great White? More touring? Recording?
We have more dates coming up, and right now we are working on doing something in Europe, a benefit type of deal. We got our irons in the fire. We are making music and playing it. Honestly, I don’t really care, as long as I’m singing on a stage with people in front of me, I’m a happy guy.
