JACK RUSSELL Is 'Focused' On Making New GREAT WHITE Studio Album

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited recently conducted an interview with GREAT WHITE frontman Jack Russell. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Classic Rock Revisited: Does the '80s resurgence surprise you at all?

Jack: "Not really. I think the whole genre of music was really a great time. A lot of music you listen to at a stage in your life and then you look back ten years later and go, 'What was I thinking?' This kind of music was more about a lifestyle than that. It was not just a flash in the pan. It was a way of life where people could express themselves. I think that ten and twenty years later people still look back on it with fond memories. It is a very nostalgic thing when you go to one of these shows. You are reminded of your youth and when you were not strapped down with a house payment and two kids. Perhaps it reminds you of a better time in your life."

Classic Rock Revisited: Where is GREAT WHITE at?

Jack: "We are going to make another album. I am taking a year off touring. We have not released a studio album since 1999. It has been long enough after the fire to where I feel right again. For the longest time, I didn't feel it was right to do that. I am now focused on doing another album with GREAT WHITE and I am going to do another solo album as well."

Classic Rock Revisited: Why are you taking the year off? It sounds as if momentum is building for you.

Jack: "I just want to get in the studio again. I really want to do two more albums. I don't want to wait another year because I feel if I wait a year then it will become another year. Next year is our 25th anniversary. I want to be on the road next year and I would love to be supporting another album."

Classic Rock Revisited: Do you have the ability to whip out two quality albums at once?

Jack: "I am hoping I do. One is different from the other one. GREAT WHITE will be GREAT WHITE and Jack Russell will be something different."

Classic Rock Revisited: It seems you are coming back.

Jack: "I am very much in tune with what is going on in my life right now. I am sober once again and that has helped a lot. After the fire, my whole world was spinning out of control. I found myself, yet again, battling the drug and alcohol addictions of the past. I knew I could not go on like that. I was 45 years old doing the same things I had done before. I had to ask myself what I was doing because this was kid stuff. I checked myself into Betty Ford and I got myself back on the right train. I am totally positive about my life right now. I had stayed clean and sober for eight years at one time. In 2000, my second marriage dissolved and I just went off in a big way. I kind of got myself under control by 2001. After the fire happened, as you can imagine, I just went really, really out of control."

Classic Rock Revisited: What got you back on track?

Jack: "The love of a good woman. My wife has been instrumental at my resurrecting myself and putting down the toys of youth. She helped me realize that this is not where I want to go one more time in my life. It is a bad road."

Read the entire interview at www.classicrockrevisited.com.