GREAT WHITE Has No Desire To Reunite With JACK RUSSELL: 'We've Kind Of Just Moved On,' Says MARK KENDALL
August 24, 2018GREAT WHITE guitarist Mark Kendall says that there was no talk about possibly reuniting with Jack Russell earlier this summer when the band made its latest singer change.
Early last month, GREAT WHITE announced that it was parting ways with vocalist Terry Ilous and was replacing him with Mitch Malloy.
Asked in a new interview with Ron Keel of KBACK Radio if GREAT WHITE thought about giving Russell a call once it became clear that Terry would no longer be in the group, Kendall said (hear audio below): "Not really. I know everybody would like all the original members to be together in all the bands, and sometimes, it's just not doable. I don't know… Addiction plays a role. I work with addicts and alcoholics on a daily basis, and it's tough. Jack's able to go out there and sing and everything, and we're happy for him. But we've kind of just moved on, and we wanna enjoy ourselves in the twilight of our career, if you will, and just have fun and just rock our hearts out. And we do it healthy, happy, loving, giving, caring…"
Kendall also confirmed that GREAT WHITE has been professionally filming some of its recent shows with Malloy with the intention of releasing something to the public soon. "We just felt it would be a good idea for us to do a proper video and record a show with something other than a cellphone to kind of introduce Mitch," he explained. "And our [booking] agent will use it for this and that, and we'll just throw it out there free — it's nothing we're gonna really put together to sell or anything; we just want people to see it properly and hear how it sounds at the show. Because when you hear a cellphone [recording], the guy [filming] might be over by the bass player's side and it might distort a little bit. So it really isn't a great representation, although we welcome the cellphones — I don't care if everybody holds 'em up and records us — but it's not really a great representation of what happened that night."
Ilous, formerly of '80s L.A. hard rockers XYZ, joined GREAT WHITE in 2010 after stepping in for touring vocalist Jani Lane (WARRANT).
The Ilous-led GREAT WHITE released two albums, 2012's "Elation" and last year's "Full Circle", before Terry was shown the door.
An original member of GREAT WHITE, Russell sued his onetime bandmates in 2012 over their continued use of the GREAT WHITE name after the singer had taken a leave of absence from the band for medical reasons. A short time later, Russell was countersued by Kendall, keyboardist/guitarist Michael Lardie and drummer Audie Desbrow, claiming the vocalist's self-destructive behavior was damaging the GREAT WHITE name (they also alleged he was charging promoters less for his own touring version of GREAT WHITE). The parties settled in July 2013 without going to trial, with Russell now performing with a new lineup as JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE while the others are continuing as GREAT WHITE.
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