Interview with Singer Jack Russell (Great White)

July 06, 2020

Interview with Singer Jack Russell (Great White)

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

By Mick Michaels

COSMICK VIEW: Hello, Jack! Welcome to The Cosmick View. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to chat with me, it is greatly appreciated.
Jack Russell: Hey Mick! My pleasure, man, my pleasure. Thank you.

CV: The term "Hair Metal" has become a catch all phrase for most Metal music of the mid to late 80's. Many artists and fans of the time have a love hate relationship with the umbrella term, some as much as resenting the notation, feeling it is an unfair assessment of the genre as a whole. How do you feel about the term? Does it detract from the artist and the music's integrity? And does it lessen the impact the music had at the time?
JR: Well, you know, people like to categorize things. So I think categorization is more of a shortcut of thinking, you know. I mean, everybody wants to put everything in this neat little box these days… where it used to be Rock n Roll, that’s Punk…that's Disco. It wasn’t always “that’s pseudo-Punk Rock with a twist of lemon”…everything has to be exactly between the Chiclets and erasures. To me it’s a dis. Hair band…what does that really mean?

Does that mean there is no substance in music? It's only all about the hair? Led Zeppelin had long hair…does that make them a hair band? No… Hair bands to me are the bands that that was their only shtick…it was the glam thing. Without that, their music wouldn’t have mattered. I mean, you could take Great White’s hair, you could have shaved our heads and we still would have had good songs. That's my opinion. Everyone else can disagree with me if they like. And I'm sure there are more than a few people who will you know, especially since I said it…it's like you can't ever talk good about yourself. I should know better than that. I don’t mean it in a bad way. But I think Great White definitely had more substance than a lot of our contemporaries.

It was a Blues Rock band. It was like your dollar party beer night band. It was like the world's biggest party band. We just had a good time. We enjoyed playing music. We liked writing good songs. We didn't write songs to please the audience. We wrote songs to please ourselves.

I think it's kind of a dis on the generation. I don't like people calling me a hair band, but I rather have them call me that than not call me at all. So, call me what you want.

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: Do you feel Great White fell into the "Hair Metal" category of bands? Did the band even consider itself a Heavy Metal act?
JR: We were just going to do the music we wanted to do. And if people put it in a certain package than that's the way it goes.

You never really thought about it. We were just a Rock band…we never thought about what they were going to call us, what were they going to categorize us…what do we call ourselves. You know, you're just a Rock and Roll band. Santana was a Rock band. Led Zeppelin was a Rock band. Toto was a Rock band. Tom Petty was a Rock band…Bryan Adams was a Rock band. You know, Eddie Money was in a Rock band.

It was all just Rock. It wasn’t like, well, Tom Petty wasn't really Rock…it was more of a soft Rock kind of niche. It's like no…it’s just Rock. Just call it what it is. Why do you have to pigeonhole everything in this nice, little neat square? It's like playing Tetris with music. It's doesn't have to be that neat and concise, it is just music.

It's not that serious. Like Jagger said, “It's only Rock and Roll, man.”

CV: The music world changed in quite a big way with the start of the 90's...fans' and critics' tastes had quickly moved away from that 80"s sound and style. By '93, the music industry was someplace else. With Great White coming off two mega albums, "Once Bitten" and "...Twice Shy," was there concern for alarm or was it business as usual during the early years of the decade?
JR: Yeah there was an alarm bell. We went from selling three million records to 750. And it was like, “whoa…wait a minute.” You know, that's quite a bit a difference there. And the formats at radio stations changed…it was all Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana. You know, I can't say I blame them because so many bands that got signed got signed because of their look. Record companies were like these guys are selling records, they’re on MTV…look at how cute they are. Look at their hair….God, the chicks will go crazy. When it didn't become about the music anymore, it was about the look. And then you take that look and you put it on the radio and the songs didn't hold up without the video…So nobody really cared and everything started to sound the same. It sounded homogenized and pasteurize and lugubrious. It wasn't Rock anymore…it was like a Xerox copy. The more you make the less clear from the original it gets. There was like 98 Guns ‘N Roses, 45 Ratts, 15 Great Whites, 27 Dokkens. There were all these clones of these other bands, but they were less and less and less like the originals. You don't need more than one Dokken…you don't need more than one Motley Crue. You know, you don't need more than one Great White. Those slots are filled. You don’t need a company going out there, filling them all up…let’s make sure they have hair...It pulled the rug out from all of us. And people were so welcome for a change. They even settled for Grunge, LOL.

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: With all the changes in music happening during the 90's, how did it ultimately effect a veteran, Grammy nominated band such as Great White? Was there an immediate effect or because of the large success and fan support the band had been experiencing, the changes weren't as immediate as other 80's icons?
JR: It was a trickle down thing, sure. We were still out playing arenas with Kiss in ‘92. In 94, we were still making records. It’s just that everything changed. And then with the invention of the Internet, Napster, and all that stuff, all of a sudden there was no more music sales, no more record sales, it was almost pointless to make an album. But you make them because you're a musician and you like to make music. That's what we do. Some guys don’t make them at all. They just live off their laurels. Not me, I want to keep making records because I do it for myself. You know, I really thought there wouldn’t be anything worse than no more record sales until this COVID thing came out. And then I went, “There is something worse.”

Now they're taking away our live stuff. God, are they trying to get rid of music? I feel like that Don McClain song, “The Day the Music Died.”

CV: Jack, from your point of view of the 90's, what was the music industry like then for a new band trying to make its mark compared to what it was like just 10 years prior in the 80's?
JR: Oh, way harder, way harder…unless you fit into that niche…people are very particular about who they sign because nobody was selling records. They didn't know what was going to be the new thing or if there was going to be a thing. They didn't want to put any money into promotion. It was very sketchy. I mean, when we got signed, it was, you know, Rock n Roll could do no wrong.

We ruled the world. We were the king’s of Hollywood, man. You could do anything you wanted to if you were in a Rock band. It was great. We ruled the world…Sunset Strip and beyond.

CV: Looking back now, was the Rock N Roll lifestyle of the 80's everything everyone said it was...or have things been grossly over-inflated to much taller tales in retrospect?
JR: LOL…no it was 10 times more…whatever you thought it was plus. It was nuts, completely off the hook.

I look back and I say I cannot believe I lived through it let alone I was fortunate enough to experience it because people don't believe a lot of times when you tell them. They say, “Come on, you didn’t do that…” Yeah, I did actually, and I have the arrest warrants to show for it, LOL. I have all the court reports to show that I did that (laughing).

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: Have you found a new energy in your rendition of Great White? Is it like the songs says to “Never Change Heart” that keeps the music continually moving forward?

JR: Sure, sure. You know, this is just an extension of what I was doing before. I just found different players. And the band, yeah, it sounds different, but it's not like such a stretch, like, oh my God. It's always going to sound like Great White somewhat because I'm singing. That's the voice of Great White. People like it or don’t. You can't help that I’ve been the singer since the beginning, you know, for how many years now…forever and a day? The music I'm doing now is the same stuff I would be coming up with if I was with them. I have a different guitar player. I'm writing with Robbie instead of Mark. So my co-host, so to speak, is different. So obviously, there's going to be some different energies and different chemistry, but I'm really pleased with it. I think the last record was what I wanted it to be. I was very happy with it.

CV: Is there a need to continue to write songs like you did back in the 80’s? Or does having a new lineup having you reaching further out in the songwriting scope?
JR: You know what? Honestly, we just write. I never sit there and think about “OK, I need two ballads, one rocker, three mid-tempos, a shuffle beat and”…I don't. We just write…every song takes on a life of its own. You come up an idea and it either sounds good or it doesn’t. And if you think it's worth working out, worth working on, you sit there with an acoustic guitar and a voice and work on it.

If it sounds good with an acoustic and a voice then you got something. If it doesn't pass that test than throw it away and start something else. Every song kind of writes its own self. You start out with an idea, and you don’t know where it’s gonna go. I mean, lyrically, I never sat down and said, “OK, I want to write a song about this.” I just start writing melodies, I just start making up words and the words kind of put themselves in order. It's really freaky. It's like watching a puzzle put itself together almost. It is like a puzzle, really, but the pieces are already in my head. They just gotta be moved around until they make sense. You know, some get thrown away, some of them the cat eats.

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: Times change and so do people... sometimes. How would you describe the band's line up today as compared to the lineup in the late 80's? Is it like comparing apples to oranges even though part of the classic lineup is still together?
JR: It's apples and oranges. Everybody that I played with has been a good musician and I’ve been very fortunate not to have played with any acts, you know, at least not for longer than a couple of months (laughs). But, you know, there are different types of players, but they can all shred and they can all play the Blues and they can all do what needs to be done. I'm really happy that Tony and Robby are my guitar players…both play real well together. They both have two different styles which meet in the middle and it's just fantastic. Dicki and Dan are a great rhythm section. They're all wonderful people and they have my back, which is something I'm really not used to. That's the one thing I can say is I know these guys with lay themselves down for me.

CV: Nothing is more valuable than experience...and you have over four decades of experience. What amount of insight does such experience give to you as an artist when maneuvering the constant changing world of the music business?
JR: I wish I had some insight on that. My only insight is don’t be a musician, get a real job (laugh), there’s no money in it.

You got to be really, really fortunate to make it in this business. Not only talented, but really fortunate because as hard as it was in the 80s, it’s a hundred times harder now. And there really is no Rock anymore. Look at American Music Awards. It's Rap or wherever you want to call it, Hip Hop, nothing is about Rock anymore. Rock is almost blasphemy. It's turned into a racist thing. It's not about race. It's about music, you know. I don't know…it's sad to see it come to that. The world is the most divided it's ever been since I've been here. I don't think it's going to get any better soon. But I hope it does. I really do for our younger generation. I'm just glad my kid is not gonna have any kids soon. I hate to sit there and say, “Well, grandson, this is what you got left. Have fun with it.”

I love people. I care a lot about people. I want everybody to have an existence such as I have, you know, which has been a dream.

CV: Jack, at this stage in your career, is it a matter of knowing what you want and what you don't want when it comes to success and achieving your goals?
JR: Sure, of course. My idea of success has always been about being happy with what I do. If I could wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and go, “Yeah, man, I love what I do, I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” than I'm successful…because if I look in the mirror and whoever stares back at me goes, ”Who are you and why are you doing this?” I would quit right now. I'm fine with that because I want something out of life. If I had had to sit there with a Kombi and drive through the wheat fields, or cornfields, picking up bushels of hay or whatever…if that is what made me smile, that's what I'd be doing. I sing because I was given a talent to use and I love it. It is the coolest thing I can ever imagine doing. I don’t know why God thought I deserved it, but, I'm not going to complain.

CV: So it's a moment by moment thing for you to enjoy the most of life. Do you feel that is what you're doing?

JR: I enjoy every second of my life. I try to. And if I don't, I feel like I'm not being appreciative. So I don't want to be ungrateful for anything. I think too many people are ungrateful or they don't take the time to be grateful. Just to take a day like this where I can look around, I'm sitting on the back of my boat in beautiful sunshine on the water and the wind is blowing a little bit...just a breeze and it is about 78 degrees… I mean, if you can't enjoy that, there's something wrong with you. If I can't take notice of this day, I would feel really remorseful.

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: Luck has been described as when preparation meets opportunity, thus, leaving nothing to chance. Would you describe Great White then as being lucky given the band's success and dedicated and growing fan base?
JR: No…no luck. I think luck has little to do with it. I'm more of a destiny guy. I believe in fate. I believe in what's written is written. And what's supposed to happen is supposed to happen. My life has proven that to me to be true. I've had some really insane experiences that have led me to that equation. I don't think anything is by chance. Put it this way, if there was such a thing as coincidence, I'd be in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the guy who had the most coincidences in his whole life (laughs).

It has been crazy. I just think things happen because they're supposed to happen. I knew I was going to be a rock star since I was five years old. I played the Beatles “Help” album on my fifth birthday. Five years old. I play it and I heard the song “Help” and I went, wow, I'm going to be one of these guys. I didn't even know what that was at the time. They were just coming out of my little record player, you know, not even a stereo, a record player. And I remember it was like a vision kind of thing. It was this overwhelming spiritual experience that I could never explain to anybody the way it felt. If I try to tell you what an apple tastes like, you can't do it. How can you do that? You have to try it yourself.

CV: Have you personally fulfilled your musical dreams or is there more sure to come?
JR: I hope not. I hope not. I still have plenty to go. I have a lot of things I dream about, a lot of things I want to happen. I'd like to get another song or so away. You never know. If it’s meant to happen, it'll happen. Anything can happen. People say, “Oh, that’ll never happened…you're 59 years old and blah, blah, blah.” And then you look around and see guys like Eric Clapton and people like that...he took a song like “Layla” and made it into another hit…a bigger hit than it was to begin with. There are so many things that can happen in this business. It only takes one song, one song to reinvent your whole career…you’re always one song away. And that's what I always remind myself that I'm only one song away. So it's just finding that song…write it and hope you can get in somebody’s hands to do something with it. The odds are against it, but I never bet the odds.

Photo : Jaymz Floyd Eberly / http://EberlyPhoto.com

CV: What's next for you and the band amidst the new norm of living in the COVID world?
JR: We're going to go out and do some shows at some point, but I don't want to be the first one out of bag and jumping the gun and have people getting sick at our shows. That's just not cool. I don't feel good about it. I want to make sure they know what they're doing. I don't want to be a guinea pig and I don’t want my audience to be guinea pigs.

On June 26^th I did Monster’s of Rock, on their channel, with Terry Ilous of all people and my guitarist and one of his guitar players. We did an acoustical thing…I did some songs, Terry did some songs and we did some songs together. It was a video event. All the guidelines were followed…we are all a certain distance apart, the crew wore masks. It was great.

I can't afford to get sick. You know, I got COPD, been smoking for forty years. It’s not like it’s bad… it’s not like I can't walk or anything…I can run around on a stage like I was 20. But still, you don't want to get that stuff (COVID) if you've got any lung problems.

CV: Thank you again Jack for spending some time talking and sharing with our readers. I wish you all the best and continued success.

JR: Thank you, Mick, anytime. I appreciate your time. God bless you.

Check out Jack Russell at:
Official: www.JackRussellsGreatWhiteBand.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JackRussellsGreatWhite

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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary. Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.