The White Stuff

Having somewhat recovered since this disaster, Great
White’s forces have been on the road since last year in support of
their current album, Back to the Rhythm (Shrapnel). The band will make a stop at the Scriba Town Inn, 5338 Route 104 E., Oswego, on Thursday, July 10, 4 p.m.

Jack Russell, lead singer and one of the founding
members of the group, shares news that the surviving members are still
in mourning. “I lost a lot of friends on stage that night, and it was
really difficult to deal with that,” Russell explains. “I’m not saying
that my grief is any better than anyone else’s, because I can’t imagine
what it would be like to lose a wife or a friend or a child. I just
can’t even imagine. But I mean I had some really close friends who died
there that night.”

Russell said he hasn’t quite kept tabs on the legal
implications of the evening, although most of the trials related to the
fire have been resolved. “Nobody wanted it to happen,” Russell says. “I
understand the legal system is what it is, but nonetheless I’m glad
it’s over with. There’s still some civil stuff in the back going on,
but that’s civil stuff, and I try not to lose any sleep over that
stuff. It is what it is, and it’s only money, you know?”

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The lead singer is instead happy to report that the band
is primed to record a new album in November at the home studio of
drummer Audie Desbrow. The as-yet-unnamed spinner will be the 22nd album the group has released since forming in 1982. 

“There’s so much history between us,” Russell says about
his band members, “all the years playing together, all the years of
eating mayonnaise sandwiches, dreaming of being rock stars, and all of
sudden you’re at the arenas and you’re selling records and it’s like,
‘Wow, look what we’re pulling off!’ I’m just happy to be playing at
this point. The 1990s for us was like a musical nowhere land: We were
too old to be contemporary and too young to be classic. As we got
closer to the millenium our fans had more time to come out to shows,
and our kids have grown up, looking for the nostalgia. Now I look out
at the audience and see three generations out there.”

Great White’s live act still includes the classic 1980s
tunes that not only gave it its start, but also gave the 1980s its
kitsch. As for what Russell thinks now about the psychedelic hairstyles
and fashions of the days when MTV ruled the airwaves, the singer seems
humbled. 

“Some of the outfits we were wearing, it’s like, ‘Oh, my
God! We paid for that?’” Russell warmly laughs. “You know, we all go
through the same stuff, and it just goes on from generation to
generation. We all go through our phase where we think we’re all that.
In fact, you go ‘Oh, my God! What the hell was I thinking?’ I thought
it was cool. But at the time we were the coolest things around. That was fun, man!”

Tickets are $23. For more information, call 342-4235.

—Matt Mumau