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Vocalist and co-founder of 1980’s metal group Great White, Jack Russell passed away at the age of 63 on August 15th surrounded by family and friends.
In recent years, he had battled multiple system atrophy and Lewy body dementia and had been in declining health for some time. Russell announced just last month that he would be retiring from touring following the recent diagnosis. “I am unable to perform at the level I desire and at the level you deserve,” Russell had stated on social media.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1977 (as “Highway”), Great White’s glory years were in the mid to late-1980s with their platinum-selling 1987 third album “Once Bitten” and its 1989 Grammy-nominated follow-up “… Twice Shy,” featuring singles “Rock Me” and “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” and they memorably performed those hits acoustically on an episode of “MTV Unplugged”.
A change in the public’s musical tastes (Russell had said he blamed MTV, the cable channel that helped grow their fame, for "the downfall of rock."), addictions and other pressures saw Russell first leave the group in 1996 before they reformed in 2001 when Russell started touring under the name Jack Russell’s Great White.
Continuing legal squabbles within the band resulted in two versions using the Great White name, which sometimes confused the public, and could find sometimes both band versions playing the same market within close proximity of the other.
Infamously, it was Russell's version of the band that performed at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island on February 20, 2003, that turned into an inferno when the group’s stage pyrotechnics ignited (unreported) flammable acoustic foam that surrounded the venue.
One hundred people would perish in the blaze, including the band’s guitarist, Ty Longley, with numerous others wounded and badly burned. The band returned to playing live that July and continued touring to mid-2005, to help support The Station Fund, for the club’s victims. Russell continued to struggle with the guilt and relapsed into addiction and wouldn’t perform live again until 2007.
We last caught the band on June 22, 2012 (at Neisen’s Bar and Nightclub in Savage MN) as part of the America Rocks Tour, featuring a stacked lineup of the era along with Russell’s Great White- Faster Pussycat, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bulletboys, and Lillian Axe, and even then, Russell was using a cane and recovering from surgery.
“Words cannot express my gratitude for the many years of memories, love, and support.” Russell had posted with his recent retirement announcement, "Thank you for letting me live my dreams. You have made my life a wonder.”
| John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ X / twitter.com |
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