Friday
Oct212016
Jack Russell's Great White: When 'Letting The Audience Sing' Makes Sense and Rocks
Friday, October 21, 2016 at 12:01AM Today's post is from our friend HIM.
Let’s get one thing straight: no one comes out of this story smelling like a rose. So don’t stab and jab when a caveat is in place.
That said, Jack Russell and Great White are a train wreck of potential and success, hubris and failure, disingenuousness and sincerity. Pick a side and then make sure you get ready to move. Then again, this isn’t a Queensryche tale. It isn’t a pitched battle between a singer who lost it (sadly) and a band who gained it back (purportedly).
What it is is far more nuanced: an addict who is always going to be an addict and an addict who now isn’t. One, Mark Kendall, controls the band that the other once claimed. The other, Russell, claims a version of that band that is now his showcase. In between, there were heart-wrenching tragedies. Questions of intent. Notes of regret. And some of the most graphic displays of “helping a friend while hurting him too” that have ever been splashed across media outlets. I won’t pick sides save to say this: hurting a friend to help him is one thing. Harming him to help yourself is quite another. I let others decide how that shakes out with Great White (now a band split in two).
That's Jack Russell’s Great White. Not Great White. Even if most people, even on this site, probably don’t give a passing glance to the difference. I don’t think a lot of people really care. Both versions operate in a shadow world that bumps up against the newest version of Ratt and the next “big thing” that packs the house in your local bar. They are scraping by while doing so on the laurels of their time as one band. But now they are two.
So why bother with that exegesis? Especially when I consider most of Great White’s catalog to be Zep-lite in a world where Page already did that with far more (though less) results? It doesn’t help that they were cheesy-sleazy when it didn’t matter. Nor does their success equate to quality. I always found them to be “middling” at a point when metal was already trending down. Hard earned success? Sure. Glommed on fads ill-suited to their style? Yup. They were a cover band, doing Zep via ZZTop, while the Fabulous Thunderbirds drove past them and they, White as they were, tried to “hook” fans on the idea of blues-meet-metal-meets-rock. Not novel. But it did land. For a while.
A more simple answer to the same question? Russell inspired fans in a way I still can’t quite figure out. And I witnessed it years ago, when Great White was still singular and still featured him. Then, as now, it was tragic: a fallen hero, oddly shaped after years of abuse, sounding amazing. When he opens his mouth, and when he is not drunk or medicine-addled, he defies what constitutes reason. That person, on that stage, should not sound like that. Yes, it is a bit shriller. But I submit for your consideration: David Lee Roth. Don Dokken. Mark Slaughter. How does Russell make sense?
In a sense, he doesn’t. But that is the magic. When he is on, he is on. When he isn’t sliding (he did recently), he gives the lie to his former bandmates. He actually makes them look sad, pathetic. The new and still-named Great White has a great singer in former XYZ leader Terry Ilous. Russell has at least one former member of the still-named band and a few others to round out his version. Who wins? No one really.
Here’s the thing though: when Russell holds out his mic and let’s the fans sing, they do it because they have to do it. When others do it, it often feels forced. Russell is no angel. His former bandmates are not evil. I wish them all the best. But I will sing for Russell because I want to do so, not because I have to do so. He is no idol. He is no poster boy. And yet, he embodies so much of what we love—and hate—about music.
Long live rock. Long live the sing-a-longs that move you. And respect to mere mortals, flaws and all, who still inspire us to be better than them and equal to what their music makes us feel.
Reader Comments (18)
My two favorite Great White tracks will always be "Rock Me" and "Stick It". Others may feel differently but to me, those two tracks are head and shoulders above the rest of their stuff and most Glam Metal / 80's Hard Rock!
And I'd take Russell's version of Great White over Kendall's (as much as I like that dude) anytime, on the simple fact that I would rather roll the dice to see what Russell I'll get rather than be predictably bored to tears by the eternally mediocre Terry Ilous.
p.s. Not that one should use it as an excuse, and I'm glad you left it out of your wonderful missive but let's not forget Russell witnessed one of the most horrific Rock & Roll Tragedies to ever happen and probably holds himself partially responsible for it even though he's probably been told by a cadre of psychoanalysts he's not.
Thanks Metalboy! I appreciate the nod. And I agree. The Station nightclub fire of '03 was a tragedy for so many people, most importantly the families of those who perished. But the burden of carrying that on his shoulders--rightly and wrongly, to my mind--has to weigh on him (and it does, if you read interviews with him that deal with the topic). For a person already predisposed to medicating himself, it is amazing he is still here. And the vile things people continue to say about him re: that event are another object lesson as to why this site is so great.
Thanks again, Allyson, for letting me contribute. Now, on with the show . . .
First losing bassist Don Costa, who had literally his 15 minutes with Ozzy before getting fired on the eve before the US Festival,
Losing Drummer Gary Holland, an EMI-America Record Deal, and gaining (oddly enough) a new record deal w/ the Capitol parent company. From there, they made hits, lost a deal, split up, reformed lost Kendall, killed a bunch of people in Rhode Island, regrouped, and split into Great White & Jack Russell's "not-so-Great White"... in fact, it's not even "Mediocre White". Jack is his own worst enemy... Always has been. In these last gasps of having any kind of career. He should just be Jack Russell, & give up on the pretense that he is the band he helped build, and helped destroy. He makes the audience sing half the tune, because he clearly can't, any more.
Jack had a great voice then, not sure how he sounds now. But, good for him for surviving what he has and still being out their keeping our music alive.
I'd (unfortunately) surmise, "and definitely holds himself completely responsible..."
As far as Jack Russell goes, the way HIM describes him, the dude can still ROCK IT if he's not trashed or tired when he's performing.
And let's face it, though they are great Zep Clones, no doubt Russell could even outPLANT Plant back in the day!
However, I do agree, Ace, Jack Russell should just become Jack Russell but, as you know better than anyone, he's gotta keep Great White for ticket sales.
p.s. Rita, glad we share an appreciation for "Rock Me" but I also recommend revisiting "Stick It"... That just flat out ROCKS! Killer video, too! I want that Eldorado!
In this days, this is great to listen,
Regards from Buenos Aires!!!
Great overall discussion too. And another point on which Bkallday and I agree. I count my blessings where I find them!
My only lasting quibble is that I paid $10 for what I assumed was "For You," his solo album, and it turned out to be a radio edit single; literally just the one song! Cover was identical and everything. Harrumph.