With a pedigree stretching back to the 1970s, Jack Russell could easily be one of those rock musicians who is simply content to rest on his laurels and ply his trade on the nostalgia circuit.
As the co-founder, singer and songwriter of seminal 1980s rock band Great White, he has sold millions of records, had tons of airplay on radio and music video channels like MTV and MuchMusic in Canada. He’s toured the world, sharing the stage with some of the biggest acts of the day, including the likes of Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and Judas Priest.
The unpredictable vicissitudes and vagaries of the music business, as well as a hard-living lifestyle, could have dampened Russell’s creative spirit, but a renewed artistic vigour, accompanied by a newly-found sobriety has given him a new lease on life. And it’s lead to the pending release of his first album since 2009s Rising (with Great White). He Saw It Comin’ will be issued from Frontiers Music on January 27 worldwide, and marks the first time an album has come out under the Jack Russell’s Great White brand.
It marks a renaissance for Russell and his new band, which is comprised of old friends and new, and which adds a new energy to his compositions.
One of the signature songs on He Saw it Comin’ is the evocative and deeply personal My Addiction. And it’s not a metaphor or creative phrase to mask the real meaning – it truly is Russell opening his heart and life like book to talk about his own recent sobriety.
“That’s just really the story of my life, at least one major component of it. That’s what my life has been about for many, many years. I will always be an addict. I will always be an alcoholic. It’s a choice of whether I am going to use or not, that’s what it comes down to. And when it comes to alcohol, I don’t have a choice. I put myself in a situation about a year and a half ago where I nearly drank myself to death. My liver shut down. I woke up after five days in a coma and there were all these people in my room: my guitar player, his wife, my friend from Chicago, my wife, my manager and a bunch of other friends,” Russell said.
“The doctor came in and said, ‘I guess you’re some kind of celebrity but I don’t know who you are and it doesn’t really matter. What matters is what I am going to tell you right now,’ he said. ‘I am not saying this to scare you or anything else, I am just telling you what I know and based on what your wife is telling me about your drinking, if you drink again, you’re going to die. Now, that’s not going to affect my life in any way. If I hear about it, I will feel bad for you. But I will also feel that you are a stupid idiot because I told you that you would die. If you drink again you’re committing suicide. So it’s up to you.’
“So with that information and looking back at my dear friend Jani Lane [former lead vocalist for Warrant who died from acute alcohol poisoning in 2011] who had the same information told to him several times and he chose not to act on it, I said I am done. I am not going to risk it. It’s like playing Russian roulette with six bullets. It’s like, ‘what, there’s no empty chamber?’ And I stopped then and there. I will not drink again because I know it will kill me. The only way to win this game is to not play. So that’s what the song is all about.”
Russell said that he has maintained his sobriety through the help of several friends in various 12-step programs as well as attending meetings himself.
“I don’t hang out with drinkers. None of my friends really drink, or if they do they don’t do it in front of me. Not that it would matter if they did, because I know what’s going to happen if I drink. Listen man, I don’t want to die. I want to live as long as I can and I want to play music as long as I can, and continue to make people feel good.”
Another deeply personal song on the album is Blame It On The Night.
“I have found in recent years my lyrics have gotten really introspective. Now I am actually writing about other things than just the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle. I am writing about things other than what I have experienced myself. There’s a song like Blame It On The Night, which was written about my wife’s childhood,” Russell said.
“It’s what she went through with an abusive father, a molester. It’s just a horrible story. She was physically abused, she was spiritually abused – every kind of abuse you can imagine, she has gone through. Thankfully she has no contact with her family any more, because they haven’t changed. And I know lots of other people have dealt with that in their lives, so that’s why I wrote about it.”
The title track is a tour de force for Russell as a songwriter and is more emblematic of the gratitude and swagger that he still possesses as a musician, frontman and songwriter. He Saw It Comin’ is about the fact that from an early age – a precociously early age for that matter – Russell knew to his core what he was going to do with this life.
“Now this is the God’s honest truth; this is not a fabricated story. When I was five years old I wanted to be an archeologist and go to Africa and dig up some old ancient human ancestor and maybe discover a new species. But on my sixth birthday, my parents bought me The Beatles‘ Help album. I put it on my little kiddie record player and I just was blown away. It was if the skies opened up and angels came down with trumpets blaring and all of a sudden I was given this knowledge of what my destiny was going to be. I was going to be a professional singer in a rock band. From that point on I knew. So you can say I saw it comin’,” he said.
“And people have dismissed that notion saying there’s no way that I absolutely knew what I was going to do at such a young age. They say I hoped it, I wished it, I dreamed it and guessed that it might happen. No, I knew it, just like I know my name is Jack Russell and I know the sun is coming up tomorrow. I just knew and I started going in that direction – actually, life kept pulling me in that direction and I just followed along.”
The Russell family moved to another state not long thereafter, but the appreciation for music never abated. At age 11, he was playing in the backyard of his home when he could hear the strains of the electric guitar coming from the next street over. He approached the teenaged source of the sound, and began chatting with him about music. A jam session soon ensued. The budding 16-year-old guitar hopeful soon found himself pulling together some other musically-inclined teens to form a band – with the 11-year-old mop-topped neighbour named Jack as their lead singer.
“I went through a couple of other bands and then formed a band in 1977 with Mark Kendall when I was 16. That band became Great White in 1982. And here and I am today. I have worked so hard to be what I wanted to be, so again, I saw it comin’.”
Great White was a staple on the airwaves and music television programs throughout the 1980s, releasing a string of albums including their self-titled debut in 1984, Shot in the Dark in 1986, the massive hit Once Bitten… in 1987, followed by another huge success, …Twice Shy two years later. With the advent of grunge, so called ‘hair metal’ bands like Great White fell out of favour, but the band continued to tour and released five studio albums in the 1990s. At the dawn of the new millennium, Great White disbanded – albeit briefly – as the first incarnation of Jack Russell’s Great White ran from 2002 to 2005. The band reformed as simply Great White in 2006, an arrangement that lasted until Kendal and Russell parted ways again.
Great White continues with Terry Ilous on lead vocals.
The new Jack Russell’s Great White was formed towards the end of 2011. The singer/songwriter said it took until late 2016 before he had a lineup in place that he was confident would be a kick-ass live act, as well as great in the studio.
“If you look at the history of this band since 2011, there’s only one member left from when I started it up and that’s guitarist Robby Lochner. We changed bass players quite recently and once I got Dan McNay in the band I realized this is the band I want, this is the perfect band as far as I am concerned. These are definitely the guys I wanted to record with. So that’s when I decided to really ramp up the writing,” he said.
“And we did, and I am really, really happy with the album – more so that any record I have done. I found out pretty quickly that Robby and I were going to be the main writers because there was something that just clicked between the two of us. We are like minded on so many things musically so it was just magic with some of the stuff we were coming up with. And we went in some directions that I didn’t expect, which is great for the band and for the fans, because you don’t want to hear the same thing over and over.”
Lochner was originally from Tucson, Arizona and played in a number of regionally successful bands, as well as a stint in Rob Halford of Judas Priest’s solo project Fight in the 1990s. Drummer Dicki Fliszar joined in 2014, and long-time former Great White bassist Tony Montana returned to the fold this time playing rhythm guitar and keyboards, also in 2014.
“Tony and I call each other foxhole buddies because we have gone through so much together as friends and bandmates. And he’s great for the chemistry of this band as well. It’s important to have the right vibe, even if we’re not writing. And bringing in the new bass player has been great. He is incredible, if you listen to the bass lines on some of the new songs, especially Sign of the Times, it’s beautiful work,” he said.
“And it’s not like it’s all young guys in this band. They’re not really that much younger than me and Tony. It don’t want to have a bunch of kids up there on stage. I want a bunch of guys who are seasoned, you know what I mean? You don’t get really good when you’re really young. You have to have experience, especially when it comes to songwriting – life experience. If you haven’t had that much happen in your life, what are you going to write about?”
Russell said he and his bandmates are hoping to tour extensively throughout 2017 and he has ambitious plans to help promote the album far and wide.
“Let’s face it, with record companies today bands aren’t selling enough records for them to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into promotion. It would be too risky for them. So in order for us to get to that point, if it’s even still possible, we’re going to have to do a lot of it ourselves. And I am okay with that,” he said.
“I want to do a video for every single song. I want to do a DVD or a couple of them, with a bunch of backstage stuff. There’s lots of things I want to do with the contents of this record. And as for touring, I haven’t taken this band to Europe yet but I will. Just from my past experiences I find that the fans in Europe are really starved for American rock.”
At shows for Jack Russell’s Great White, even the singer himself admits to being amazed by the wide range of ages of folks rockin’ out to classic hits like Rock Me, Once Bitten and Twice Shy and Save Your Love.
“I have seen sometimes three generations of families there. I have talked to people who say they came with their dad and also brought their own kids to the show. It’s amazing to cross the bridge into the newer generation. The kids tell me they heard it around the house growing up and learned to love our music, which is like when I was a kid and my father used to listen to a lot of Frank Sinatra and stuff like that. And I have to admit, I really started to like it. I thought it was cool and that he had a really good voice. It’s not like I sit around and listen to Ol’ Blue Eyes, but if it comes on the ration, I am not going to change the station. Good is good, and he’s the Chairman of the Board, man!”
For more information on Jack Russell’s Great White and the new album He Saw it Comin’ visit www.jackrussellsgreatwhite.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eihq-MZDMIA
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