GREAT WHITE Singer: We Will Never Play Rhode Island Again

May 10, 2005

In a recent interview with Newsday.com, GREAT WHITE frontman Jack Russell revealed that the band have no plans of ever returning to perform in Rhode Island — the site of the Feb. 20, 2003 nightclub fire which resulted in the deaths of 100 people. "I don't think I'd ever want to play there again," Russell said. "You still got families out there who lost kids for Christ's sake. And if just being in the same state might make them feel bad, I wouldn't want to do that."

GREAT WHITE are currently on tour and raising cash for the survivors. A portion of money made on every show goes to the Station Family Fund. Russell said the band has raised $100,000 for the fund, which was founded by survivors and family members affected by the fire.

He will donate for as long as he keeps making music. "It doesn't fix everything; of course, it never will," Russell said. "But these are my friends — you have to understand, you play a place 20 years in a row, there are 20 or 30 people that I recognize. I mean, I didn't know their names, but I know their faces."

As for the catastrophe that almost shut down the band, Russell said he's "growing closer to that space" of writing songs again. A new GREAT WHITE album may surface next year. "Some of this is going to come out in my lyrics, but I would never want to write a song about 'the fire' per se," he said.

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).