Jack Russell, singer and frontman for Southern California-based heavy blues band Great White, who enjoyed brief success in the late 1980s and early 1990s but whose music career was overshadowed by a 2003 fire at a Rhode Island club during a band performance at which 100 people died and another 115 were injured, passed away on August 15, 2024. The announcement did not reveal the cause of death; however, Russell had announced a few weeks before his death that he was retiring from performing due to Lewy body dementia. Russell was 63.
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Russell was no choirboy.
Russell and (Great White guitarist Mark) Kendall first started playing together in Los Angeles in 1978. Russell quickly landed in prison, however, after he and some friends attempted to rob a Whittier drug dealer’s home to steal cocaine. Russell was high on PCP at the time, he says; he shot through a door and accidentally hit a live-in maid. She survived, and Russell served 11 months in prison. Kendall took him back when he got out.
The band persevered in the Los Angeles hair metal club scene, eventually securing a record contract and establishing a foothold in the public eye through videos and constant touring.
Great White’s breakthrough came in 1989 with its cover of the Ian Hunter song “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” taken from the band’s “… Twice Shy” album. The single went gold, the album went double platinum, and it looked like Great White’s future shone brightly. It didn’t.
The band’s decline started with 1991’s “Hooked.” Emphasizing a stripped-down hard blues direction, the album eventually reached gold status, which, given its predecesor’s success, signaled Great White’s end as a major player. The band carried on, releasing several artistically accomplished but commercially negligible albums throughout the early 1990s.
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A floundering career proved to be the least of Russell’s problems over the ensuing decades. Battles with drug and alcohol addiction, along with a series of injuries requiring multiple back surgeries plus pelvic surgery, added fuel to the fire. Russell finally quit drinking after the alcohol-rooted death of his friend and Warrant lead singer Jani Lane. The band became an on-again, off-again proposition, disbanding in 2001. Russell gathered a backing band and toured as “Jack Russell’s Great White,” under which he performed at The Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, on February 20, 2003, when disaster struck.
As the band performed its opening track, allegedly unauthorized pyrotechnics on stage ignited unsafe soundproofing. The building, astonishingly not equipped with sprinklers, was swiftly engulfed in flames. 100 people, including guitarist Ty Longley, were killed, and another 230 were injured.
Once the band resumed activity, a split between Russell and Kendall led to Russell’s dismissal from the band. Lawyers became involved, but eventually, all parties settled out of court, resulting in two Great Whites, one led by Kendall as Great White with a parade of different singers during its tenure and the other by Russell as Jack Russell’s Great White. The latter released the album “He Saw It Comin’” in 2017.
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During my metal-ish days, Great White was one of my favorite bands. They had an affinity for the blues that far outweighed any need for Aqua Net and spandex. There was an earthiness to their sound, which has stayed with me and on my assorted playlists long after the glamour boys have faded into the inaccessible reaches of my CD collection. Great White wasn’t the best. But they were very, very good, and they still are.
Godspeed, Jack Russell.