JACK RUSSELL Says He Has Been Working On New GREAT WHITE Music

GlideMagazine.com recently conducted an interview with GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

GlideMagazine.com: There are so many rumors and there are so many people talking. So can you tell us how you are feeling and what it's been like these past few years for you physically and emotionally?

Jack: You know, it's been a long road back. I did damage to my body and it was touch and go for a while there. I was in a coma at one point for five days with sepsis from a bowel perforation, where the contents of your bowels seep into your body and cause a massive infection. The doctors told my wife they weren't sure if I was going to make it. They thought I was going to die. I woke up five days later with a colostomy bag going, "What the hell just happened?" Oddly enough, through the whole time, none of my former bandmembers even called me to see how I was doing or to see if I was even alive. And that really, really hurt me. Granted, they're upset because I cost them some money, but it's like, when did money become more important than a human life? Somebody that you called your friend, that you spent your life with, and that was the beginning of the end right there. But right now, I'm doing good. My health is great. Sure, I've got aches and pains; I always will. I've got degenerative disease, which means basically it's vertebrae on vertebrae but it's tolerable. I can still go out and do my thing on stage and run around and there's nothing missing, you know. My voice is better than it's ever been because I've been taking care of myself. A lot of the medicine I was taking, like prednisone, which is a super-radical anti-inflammatory, which I was taking for my voice because I was being worked so hard by the guys when I needed some time off. Come to find out it was actually worse for me than not taking it and that caused a lot of osteoporosis. The stuff I did because I wanted to sing and now I realize I don't need it and my voice is great right now. Notes that I thought I'd lost forever are back, my voice is stronger than it has been in years and it sounds just like it always did, so I'm really happy, you know.

GlideMagazine.com: So what happens now with your new band? Are you going to record or stay on the road for a while?

Jack: Oh yeah, we're going to record. We've got stuff in the can already.

GlideMagazine.com: When do we get to hear it?

Jack: What I think we're going to do in the next month or so I think we're going to do some live stuff, toss it out for free on YouTube and just let people have it, not sell it, just give it to them. There's no point in selling records anymore. People just download them anyway. As far as a live album goes, I want to do a live album and just give it away.

GlideMagazine.com: You're feeling good and you're getting your band together. Some of these guys were in GREAT WHITE before, correct?

Jack: Oh yeah, I mean, Matt Johnson was in GREAT WHITE when Mark quit. Derrick Pontier was in GREAT WHITE when I fired Audie. So we have former members, they're all former members since I fired them. (laughs) It's funny because in their statement they called it a garage band, and I'm thinking, "Wait a minute. These guys played with you, guys. Why would you call them a garage band?" I thought that was kind of funny, you know. But I want to say one thing here. The one element of this band that makes it really unique is I have two lead guitar players. Both of them are virtuosos. And the stuff they're able to do together, doing harmonies and trading off solos, is truly remarkable. And that was something we were never able to accomplish, because Mark's a great guitar player and Mike is a good utility player, but he really couldn't do the kind of things we're doing now, which is really, really wonderful, it's out of the box, and makes the songs sound that much more dynamic.

GlideMagazine.com: So the songs you are writing now, are they more positive or more negative?

Jack: You know, the ones I am writing now so far have been very positive, but there are some aspects. I focus on every facet of my life but obviously the last couple of years haven't been all fun and games. But I'm not going to write a song called, "In The Hospital With A Colostomy Bag" or "The Colostomy Bag Blues". (laughs)

GlideMagazine.com: Oh, you should. (laughs) The fans would get a kick out of it.

Jack: Yeah, like, "Oh I Shit Myself". (laughs) Of course I'm not going to write about that, but there's definitely a blues song in there somewhere. For the most part, I want to keep the positive because that's the way I'm feeling right now, that's my life right now, very upbeat and positive. There is a song called "Footprints" that we wrote and put in the can so far. It's about that old poem, "Footprints In The Sand" where a guy is walking looking at his life and he looks in the sand and there's two sets of footprints and he tells Jesus, "Well, look Jesus, how come during the worst times in my life there is only one set of footprints? You weren't there". And Jesus goes, "That's when I was carrying you". And that is what the song is about. It's a beautiful, beautiful song. It really is. And regardless of what people's beliefs are, it could be anything, your higher power, God, a friend. It doesn't matter. It's not per se a religious song but a spiritual song.

Read the entire interview from GlideMagazine.com.