Sink, Swim Or Sell Time For GREAT WHITE

Sink, Swim Or Sell Time For GREAT WHITE

Still considered to be more dangerous than any other band known to mankind. Great White (Rockus Sharkarias) may very well have broken through to their widest audience ever with their latest album Once Bitten—and just when you thought it was safe to play your stereo!

Featuring strong, classical power rock, Once Bitten explodes from its grooves. No more testing the waters for this voracious band. With Mark Kendall’s solid guitar work, Lome Black's saw-edged bass. Audie Desbrow’&blazing drums. Michael Lardie's lethal keyboards and Jack Russell’s phenomenally strong voice, we got big problems! How did they get loose into our stream of consciousness again? What kind of damage can we expect? Will we ever be the same? These and other important questions are attacked and left for dead by lead singer Jack Russell one deceivingly mild afternoon in Capitol’s Hollywood offices:

What is the story behind this quote of yours that I read in Great White's bio? Something about you flipping out. You say: "I'm only human. I don't want to spend any more time where I've been. What are you talking about?

JACK RUSSELL: I was behind bars Really? What was it. one of those Motley Crue-type car mishaps?

Uh. no. I spent a year-and-a-half in jail. It was about seven years ago.

Why?

I shot somebody.

To death??!!

No. no! I just flipped out. It was done behind drugs. I was really involved in drugs when I was younger. I went down the wrongn-oad. I did a lot of things that I regret and I look back now and say: “How the hell did I do that?’’

Judy Wieder

Well, what straightened you out? Being in jail?

Sorta. It made me realize that there are always two roads you can pick. One leads to rock ’n’ roll (fame, fortune and all that good shit); the other is drugs, and you just end up dead. So I said the choice seems pretty obvious to me.

But wait a minute. You were in rock 'n ’ roll before going to jail, right?

Yeah, but I thought I could do them both. I thought I could be a total drug head and still do rock ’n’ roll. But all I was doing was getting high and dreaming about how cool it would be to be a rock star, instead of actually taking the right steps and measures to become one.

You had all these realizations in jail? That’s wonderful. I mean, it’s pretty unusual to have a good experience behind bars, one that actually leads you to some good feelings about yourself. Very few people report that.

Well, I thought hell, I’m not going to sit here and mope. So while I was in jail I got to know myself and really like myself. I came to realize that I am who I am ana that’s all I'm ever going to be. Before that, I used to dream “Oh God, I wish I were -’’ instead of myself. Whereas today, if someone said to me that I could be whoever I wanted to be, I’d say “I want to be me!’’ So once I realized that I liked myself, I quit messing myself up. Right then and there in jail I did the best I could with my time. I wrote some tunes. I tried to look on the bright side of things.

When I got out of jail, I called Mark Kendall (guitar) and got the band back together. Two years later we were signed to EMI. No matter how bottomed out you think you are, there’s still a lot you can do. You can be what you want to be. I am the proof.

Was that the album Don Dokken co-produced for you?

My dad, Don Dokken. . .

You call him your dad? Ha ha ha

Ha, ha, ha. . .Well, he’s always been a good friend. I respect him musically and we get along great. I lived with him for awhile. He helped me get started with some of his early German connections. Don produced our band’s first EP with Michael Wagener. then Michael Wagener did our first full album himself. Wyn Davis produced our second album, Shot In The Dark. The single. “Face The Day,’’ off that album went to #1 on L.A. radio station playlists. The album was an independent effort but when Capitol saw what was happening to the single, they signed us. Our newest album, we produced ourselves

That takes a bit of courage.

But who knows our music better than ourselves? Why go out and spend money on a B-rate production team, when you can do just as good a job—or better—yourselves?

How long did it take you to record it?

It took a little over a month, which is a long time for us. The last album was done in 15 days.

Does it turn you on or off to consider doing a Bon Jovi-type crossover into rock superstardom with a popular album?

Oh, it would be great. This is the one that could take us all the way. You know—touchdown!! I believe in the record myself, as I've believed in the band for many, many years. Everybody says there has been a resurgence of heavy metal, but I don’t really think there is. I think that rock ’n’ roll has always been around. Maybe the press ignored it for awhile, maybe the media didn’t focus their attention on it for awhile. So now it looks like a new thing again with all these metal acts in the Top 10. “Rock ’n’ roll is back!" Yeah. sure, but its always been jhere and always will be here.

I hear your band's attitude about makeup and costumes and superficial trendiness is somewhat uh negative, yes?

Right! I don’t want to deal with all that shit. I'd rather go out and have a good time playing rock ’n’ roll. I look the way I look. I am what I am. I don’t mean to say that I think we should go out there wearing Hefty bags, but this glam shit just isn't for me. The kids will see through it. They look at it and say: “This guy isn’t for real." Personally, I like bands that are more into music. I come from an era—the '70s— where people actually cared what went down in the grooves of a record, not how much hairspray they shot into their heads! Now the big freak is: “Oh my God! What am I going to wear tonight onstage?," rather than "What songs are we going to play?" It’s like: “Who cares what songs we’re playing? Where’s my shirt at?" For me it's the music. That's what I remember when I was first listening to Led Zeppelin or something. Zeppelin or Aerosmith— they made music. You could put an album on and really sit back and listen to

it. Now so much of the stuff is trash. It's bullshit. There are a lot of bands that are making it on image alone, but how can people actually listen to their albums? You need a picture of the band to go along with it. The music isn’t as soulful as it should be.

You said: “Rock is like a drug, but a safe one. ” What did you mean?

I meant that it’s not going to kill you. It won’t give you lung cancer or brain damage. . well. . hahahahaha. . that depends on what you listen to, I guess! I think it really is a drug. I can sit back and actually get high just listening to a good band. It makes me feel good. I can feel all bluesed-out, put on a good record and it’s like I don’t care anymore. My marriage is on the rocks? The rent is due? Who cares? I got this cool tune on the phono. I’m a fanatic. That's the whole weird thing about music—it’s one of those things we take for granted, but it’s so important. People take for granted how important music is to their daily lives. Walking around a market, listening to that muzak stuff—I swear, it makes you buy more food! Suddenly it’s like I’m getting hungry listening to that stuff!

Did you really go shark hunting or is that just an image thing?

Oh yeah! I used to work on fishing boats for years when I was younger.

Do sharks really eat part of the boat, like in Jaws?

Yeah, yeah. I’ve been attacked many times and they’ve eaten parts of the boats I was on. I was kicking at the head of this one shark once trying to get it to cut loose.

Oh, geeezz are they as dumb as people say?

Sharks are real dumb. Their brains are the size of a pea. They’re really just eating machines. You gotta respect them. Once one attacked us in the middle of the night and bit into everything we had. We were using cable leader that was seven strands of wire thick, and it bit right through it. When I saw its fin in the moonlight I figured it was about 16 feet long. I wish I could have caught it but I didn’t have the right gear.

Which came first, your interest in shark fishing or the group's name?

Oh, I’ve been shark fishing forever. Great White was actually my nickname for our guitarist, Mark, because he’s really light-skinned. Somewhere along the line it was suggested that we name the band Great White. At first I thought it was a dumb name, stupid. Then I thought about it and decided it was a good idea.

It’s not very forgettable!

Neither are we. (Bares teeth and watches interviewer leave quickly!)