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Like the fearsome, deadly denizen of the deep that shares its name, Great
White knows something about survival of the fittest. The Southern
California blues-rock band first took a bite out of the rock scene
in 1984 and has never let go. Great White has achieved
worldwide success, encompassing sales of over six million records.
They received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance
for the song "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", and earned a double
platinum certification for the album …Twice Shy. With
the release of Can't Get There From Here, the group's first
release from John Kalodner's label Portrait, Great White is
poised to conquer once again.
The
soulful, blues-based signature sound that turned songs like "Face
The Day", "Rock Me", and "Save Your Love" into
international hits drives the dozen new tracks on Can't Get There
From Here. According to vocalist Jack Russell, the hooks are more
monstrous than ever. "It's Great White, just bigger
and better." That is due, in part, to producer Jack Blades (Night
Ranger, Damn Yankees), who produced the album at his Northern California
studio, The Barn. The album was recorded in a mere 24 days in the spring
of 1998. Jack Russell recorded additional rhythm tracks at his own 710
studios.
Collaborating
with band mates Michael Lardie and Mark Kendall, producer Blades, and
longtime friend Don Dokken, Russell explored his own colorful past to
pen the lyrics to the rollicking "Rollin' Stoned" and "Gone
to the Dogs", an adrenalized ode to overindulgence. He draws on
experience to explore relationships both good ("Saint Lorraine", "Sister
Mary", "Ain't No Shame") and bad ("Loveless Age").
Yet Can't Get There From Here is not without its moments of
broader social commentary, skewering religious hypocrisy in "Wooden
Jesus" and poignantly giving voice to the plight of the homeless
on "Hey Mister".
But
whatever his subject, Russell keeps it real. "I'm not trying
to be some innovative lyricist writing about things that nobody's ever
heard about before," he says. "Sometimes I think that people
try to be too hip lyrically, where they go beyond what other people can
understand. I think it's important that we keep telling ourselves the
same stories in our own way. The songs that have always been memorable
to me were the ones that were simple and basic, that remind me of a situation
in my life."
Great White has
been churning out memorable songs since the early 80's, when Russell
and Kendall joined forces and adopted the blues-based sound that went
against the era's glam rock grain. Great
White quickly attracted attention on the L.A. club scene.
Their independently released EP Out of the Night sold 20,000 copies
and got local airplay. Great White was snapped up
by EMI America, which issued the eponymous Great White in
1984. That year, the band embarked on their first European tour with
Whitesnake, and segued to a five month U.S. arena run with Judas Priest.
Shot in the Dark,
their follow-up independent release, marked the arrival of drummer Audie
Desbrow. By the time Capitol Records signed the band and reissued Shot in the Dark,
keyboardist-guitarist Michael Lardie had come aboard. After the release
of Shot in the
Dark, Great White hit the road with Dokken and
was on the verge of even bigger success. The 1987 follow-up Once
Bitten…, which featured the hit tracks "Rock Me", "Lady
Red Light", and "Save Your Love", went platinum. Their
next album, …Twice Shy, which featured the Top 5 hit "Once
Bitten, Twice Shy", more than doubled that tally.
The
late '80s were boom years for the band, marked by non-stop touring with
some of hard rock's biggest names. Great White ended the Once Bitten… tour with a headlining show at
London's Marquee Club, and returned to Europe on the Monsters
of Rock tour with Kiss, Iron Maiden, and Anthrax. While promoting …Twice
Shy, Great White toured with Ratt, and co-headlined
a tour with Tesla. The following year, they launched a headlining tour,
supported by the Michael Schenker Group and Havana Black.
The
band continued into the next decade performing "House of Broken
Love" on the American Music Awards in January 1990. That spring, Great
White embarked on their first tour of Japan. They soon returned
stateside for the Memorial Day weekend festival, dubbed “The World
Series of Rock”, which featured Whitesnake, Skid Row, Bad English,
and Hericane Alice. Great White recorded two more albums
for Capitol — Hooked, which was certified gold, and Psycho
City. In support of Hooked, Great White toured,
completing a headline tour, a guest slot with the Scorpions, and trips
to Europe and Japan. Psycho City was followed by a
U.S. tour with Kiss.
Although
Capitol issued a Best Of compilation in 1993, Great
White had already departed the label to begin work on their
next studio release, Sail Away. Quoting a scene all too familiar
in the music industry, Lardie explained, "After the label changed
presidents for the fourth time, we decided to get out of Dodge." Great
White spent a grueling seven straight months on the road headlining
clubs. According to Lardie, it was "the longest stint we ever
did without a break." Great White kept up the
pace once Sail Away was released on Zoo Records in 1994, touring
the country several times over the following year and a half. Their
next release, Let It Rock, was released through yet another
label, Imago, in 1996.
After
leaving Imago, Great White signed
with Portrait Records, an imprint founded by A&R guru John Kalodner that features
fellow established hard rock acts such as Ratt, Damn Yankees, and Cinderella.
Russell began sending demo tapes in 1997, but it was the combination
of songs and co-writer/producer Jack Blades that proved to be the winning
ticket to clinch the deal. The "pair of Jacks" began collaborating
after Blades asked Russell to provide background vocals on Night Ranger's Seven CD. "He's
just amazing. He'd go off in the morning, running down the hill with
his dogs, and come back with nine-tenths of a song written," compliments
Russell, who was equally pleased with Blades' job as producer -- a role Great
White had assumed several times in the past. "I really
don't think that you can totally produce yourselves," he says now. "It's
difficult to let go, but you have to. You have to say, 'Look, this is
better for us. Let somebody else take this role. Let's just be musicians.'"
Can't Get There From Here is
the band's first album to feature bassist Sean McNabb — a member
since the Let It Rock tour. Great
White was put into hyperdrive, but the whirlwind pace didn't
faze the band. In fact, they are gearing up for a tour with Ratt, Poison,
and LA Guns, and are already working on their next album. "This whole
year has been like being sucked up in a tornado, like going from one extreme
to the other. It's been amazing. It's been like a Cinderella story," Russell
raves.
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