Artist: Jack Russell

Date: Saturday, 20th July 2002

Interviewed By: Glenn Milligan, BA Hons CS (via telephone)

Jack Russell: Hi Glenn, How are you?

Glenn: Excellent mate. I really like your album.

JR: Thank you.

G: It's so different if not better at times (than the Great White Material).

JR: Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.

G: No problem.

JR: A lot of work went into it. We definitely wanted to make a change to a degree. I didn't want to do 'Great White - Part 2'.

G: Did you have the idea for the solo album for quite a while?

JR: Actually the last year of Great White's, well about a year and a half, two years ago I started really thinking about really wanting to seriously do something. Then about a year ago I started doing the record, started making it. I did a solo album previous to this but it was more like 'Great White', it was kind of still a real rock 'n' roll album - too reminiscent of Great White. It kind of made sense doing it. It was kind of like me getting my foot out of the door at that point and this was something I took a lot more seriously. It was something I really wanted to do. I wanna make a change here and I had to sit and think about where I wanted to go musically. Obviously, I didn't want to go where I wasn't comfortable with myself but I wanted to do something outside of what I'd been doing. So that's why I had Bob and Billy who really kind of set the pace of where it was gonna go. I had an idea of where I wanted to go but I hadn't really written it out like this before so I wasn't sure what to do. So obviously getting other writers involved was a big help. They really had a lot (to do with) the project.

G: Like the artist 'Swaynce'?

JR: Swaynce, yeah. That was the first thing when I heard some of the music she had written for me and I took those songs in the studio and I was listening to 'em. (And then thought) Now I have a direction where I wanna go because I was like scratching my head for a while not sure where I was gonna take this - really wanting to do something different but not really sure how to go about it.

G: How did you get to meet 'Swayce'?

JR: Well actually, my Manager, Paul Woolnough met her somewhere. I think she sent him a tape or something like that and he had suggested that we hook up and listen to her music. I listened to some of her stuff and thought, 'this is really cool - there's some great music here - let me see what could do for me'. So she'd written a couple of pieces and sent 'em over and the one I really like was 'For You'. Basically, the music was there and I took that and expanded on it and turned it into a song. That was a big step in the right direction.

G: Cool. Who would you say some of your influences are for the new album?

JR: I had to go back and think about the stuff that I really liked as a kid like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. I liked a lot of the harmonies and the things they'd done musically and (I wanted to) try to keep it really simple but yet have some complexities in there that would be like 'ear-candy' and I think getting the people involved in the record that we did with Tony Levin and Mickael Udo. Believe me, it ain't that easy to take something simple and turn it into something really hip and cool.

G: Had you know some of these guys for a while?

JR: I've known Bob (Kulick) and Billy (Sheerwood) for a while because I've done some projects with them. They'd do these tribute records every once in a while. They'd called me up and ask me to come down and I'd sing on songs - that's why I met them initially. But I known obviously what they'd done apart from that with their own stuff - like Bob with Meatloaf and Billy worked with the Hanson and I knew they were really confident musicians. I like the way that their production is really good. We sat and talked about what I wanted to accomplish on this record and they'd give me some of their thoughts and ideas and it all seemed to make sense. They'd done more of a pop thing before and they were experienced in that - at least Billy was. So they brought in some ideas that I wouldn't have thought about on my own, so it was nice to get somebody in who would had some fresh ideas and do something, like I said, go to places where I hadn't been before.

G: How long did it take you to put the album together?

JR: We worked on it for pretty much almost a year. The great thing about it was that there was no rush. I didn't have a deadline to meet. I wasn't in a hurry and didn't have to write like 12 songs in one month. I sat down and had a comfortable idea for a song and I called Billy and said, "Look I got an idea - do you wanna come down the studio". I'd come down one night - we'd work on it and go, "Okay, I'll call you in a couple of weeks when I come up with something else". So it was a work-in-progress which was great. I wasn't forced into doing it - that's how I want to continue making records - it was so easy that way because generally with 'Great White' over the years we'd always set up/set aside a like a month or two and say, "In this time we have to write the whole album. Sometimes you just don't get the songs done in that time. It's like you are pressured to get the album done so you say, "Okay, well this song's okay and that song's ok, let's use that and unfortunately the record seems to suffer because of that.

G: So you end up chucking a twelve-bar in just to fill a bit of space up.

JR: Exactly and I didn't wanna do that on this record. I wanted every song to really mean something to me and have a reason for it to be on the record and not just take up space.

G: That's cool. As you said, the album is very 'work in progress' and it comes across as a real warm mellow happening album. It doesn't sound rushed. It's like every bit of it has had a lot of time spent on it putting all the arrangements together and every track works. It's an amazing album and there's no stocking filler.

JR: Thank you very much.

G: It's incredible.

JR: Well I appreciate that - that's like a huge compliment to me. Thanks a lot. That's what I really worked at. I didn't want to have any filler. I mean this is a big statement; it's a big risk for me. Like I'm gonna leave something I started 27 years ago and I'm gonna do something completely different and we'll see if it goes because right now in the States, hell I mean, we went to AC radio which is all contemporary and it's a different format for me. We had no what else would be accepted there or not as an AC artist because Jack Russell was in Great White. Unfortunately it has a kind of stigma to it now and we weren't sure what was going to happen but it's gone really, really well, in fact I found out yesterday that this week is our first week at R'n' R Radio - the second biggest and the most at it so that's just amazing. It's really taken off so it's very exciting.

G: Do you find or did you find that as soon as they find out you are from Great White or in general an 80's band that you get stereotyped - did you actually tell them where you were from? Or did you keep it quiet as though you were a new artist starting out?

JR: No. We kind of laid it on the line - I just said I am the voice of Great White. We didn't write too much in the coat-tails of Great White because it's a whole different thing but yeah, we didn't wanna pull one over on people either. Fortunately, people were just going on the merits for the music and actually listening to the record and go, 'OK, we don't what it is he's done before or whether we like Great White or not, we are accepting this as what it is now. Something different and so they'd accepted it, which is great.

G: How did you assemble your live band? Where did they play before?

JR: Well the guitarist I have, he'd played in Great White for a brief time after Kendall left and the other people.. We put out ads and a million names and resumes came in on tapes and videos and I went through those and found the best of the best and had some auditions. It was just like a typical thing. It was the first time I have ever done that, held auditions but the band's amazing. They are able replicate the record implacably. The drummer thing, I was really concerned, I wanted to make sure I had a drummer who could play the way Vinne (Colaiuta) played and he does a good job.

G: Excellent. Who recommended you to Ulftone Music and to Knight Records and what made you sign to them?

JR: Well Knight records was kind of a thing that my Manager and me put together. I just got tired of being beaten up by the majors. I' mean, hell, I've got more promotion off my own small label here than we did with the last Colombia album, the last Great White album. It's frustrating; they'll (the majors) take the money and will spend it in areas.. and you'll think, 'Why did you spend $50,000 on an album cover - you know, what's the point. I mean, spend it on promoting the record. They come back and they just look at it from a whole different spin. There's no artist development anymore on major labels. I think that's the way of the future, I really think that. I think a lot of bands are finding out the hard way - you know, they get signed to a big record deal and they are all excited and a company puts a million bucks into 'em - they don't sell enough records - they get dropped. It's like; 'Well we had a career for five minutes'. So I thought, 'Why should I be bustin' my ass, putting my heart and soul on the line and just have a major label rape me over and over again - and that hurts.

G: Exactly. Your doing what you can and they are just ripping it up.

JR: Exactly. When they start referring to your music as product then you're think, 'What the hell is product?'

G: That's a can of beans - that's product. (laughing)

JR: Yeah, music's not product.

G: Exactly. It's an art form.

JR: But the major labels - that's the cover mentality these days and that's just the way the game is right now. You just get all roughed on major labels so we just didn't even bother going there. We said, 'Let's do this ourselves'. Then we will know what we are doing and have control of everything that we are doing and the small labels seen to give a lot more attention. I mean, Columbia wouldn't fly me to Europe to do a promotional tour. You got much more chance and you actually see some results from the work.

G: That's good. What was the reason for naming the album, 'For You' - is that like a dedication to your dad, as in, 'this one's for you'.

JR: Exactly. My father was my biggest fan. He used to drive my kit around. He used to drive a Corvette and rent a trailer to drive my gear around.

G: Yeah, I read that in your biography and it brings it all back home.

JR: He was a great guy and I miss him a lot. That was before he actually passed away as well because he had Alzheimer's for a number of years and it was getting to the point where it was really bad. Wherever he's at now, I hope he can check out what's going on.

G: Excellent. Have some of the songs been around for a while that you've put a back-burner while in 'Great White', thinking, 'this is a great song but I don't think it would work in Great White' or was it pretty new from the word 'Go'.

JR: Yeah, it was a new step. I didn't wanna take any stuff that was Great White stuff. I didn't even wanna go near there. I had songs in the back for a bit that I didn't use but you know what I thought, 'No, let's start all new and come up with brand new songs' because I didn't want to have any… well obviously there's gonna be a certain amount of flavour from my past which is OK. But I didn't wanna take songs that I'd written for Great White and try and turn them around and make 'em something else. I'd start from fresh.

G: You don't get 'Great White' influence coming in too much then do you?

JR: No, I mean you have three different people writing -Bob, Billy and me. I mean, I have a certain way of writing and I to kick a different skew onto this - How would I take this and make it different and when I worked with those guys they had a different slant on it which was great. It really, really helped a lot. For me, this is the most well realised record I've ever worked on. You come up with a song, at least for me, you have an idea in your head how it's gonna sound and by the time it comes out on the album it's miles away from the idea in your head. You know, this album for me came out as good if not better than I was hoping it would. So I'm very pleased with the album.

G: I've got to asked you this - The last Great White studio album was called 'Can't get there from here'

JR: Right.

G: What does that title mean? Does it actually mean that you can't get any further with Great White so you've gotta leave great White and do something else, or is it just coincidental.

JR: You know what, I've never thought about that, the title actually came up when we were sitting in the recording studio. Were actually doing the mixes for the album and someone in the studio had asked somebody how to get to this place, some food place, you know and the reply from the guy was, 'You can't get there from here' and it was just a foolish minimal joke and I thought, 'What a great name for an album'. There was never any deep meaning behind it. You never know, subliminally, maybe it did, I don't know, it was a funny phrase at the time for an album title.

G: Yeah, I mean that was 1999, this is 2002.

JR: Yeah, it's funny though, I never thought about that and it's funny how that worked out because it actually would make sense.

G: I came to see you when you played Nottingham Rock City in 2000 with CC Deville (of Poison) which I really enjoyed.

JR: Yeah, that was a fun show, yeah.

G: Have you got plans to come back to the UK for a few dates?

JR: Yeah, absolutely. I know we are doing some. The tour is actually gonna start in January. I know we've definitely got some shows here. I'm not sure when or where, obviously we'll keep you prized (informed) with that but we are definitely gonna come right through and do the European thing. I wanna definitely make our presence known. I mean, I'm at this point in my life where I wanna do everything I can possibly do. Any shows - just put me on-stage.

G: Play your shows and get yourself known as a solo artist now.

JR: Absolutely.

G: I think personally after listening to it that you are really going to cross over. Obviously the Great White fans and the Rock fans are gonna be really into it and I think you are gonna pick up on cotemporary fans and the adult market. If you get plenty of radio it could go really well.

JR: Yeah, that's the exciting thing. You see the thing is right now with this anything is possible. You know, unfortunately with 'Great White' you got to a point where no matter what you did the deck was stacked against you and there was no way we would be able to take it any further. There was no way that Great White could come back and be an arena band again. You kind of have that false hope in your head, your thinking, 'Come on, this year we'll make it for sure, we'll do it again' and it just never happens and you know what, you can't keep on beating a dead horse. Let's just let it die with some dignity as opposed to dragging it through the mud. I just couldn't go out and do the 'Great White' thing again for fewer people every year and you're selling less records - it's not where I want to take that. I have a lot of great memories of the band and we covered a lot of stuff over the years and had a lot of great times - I don't wanna soil that memory.

G: Is that why you did the tours with Poison and try to get it back together?

JR: Exactly. That was why. If it would have happened, it would have happened that year in '99 and we had a top 4 single at radio and ten years ago that would have sold a million records and instead we sold 100,000 albums and thought, 'what is this? you are getting all this radio play - you've got a big hit at radio. Everybody loves the song but nobody's buying the record? So it's like, 'OK, I can't make a living out of this anymore so I'll have to do something else'. I don't wanna have to get a day job just because I enjoy playing Great White.

G: Even though you've been in this Industry for 20 years, what would you say have been your best or favourite tours that you've been involved with either as a headliner or as a support?

JR: Let me see - the Whitesnake tour, that was great - (that was) the first tour we did in 1984 with Whitesnake when the line-up was like Coverdale, Mel Gally, Neil Murray, Cozy Powell, John Sykes - that was well, Jon Lord was amazing. Then we came back to this tour with Judas Priest in '84 - the Defenders of the Faith, that was great, the Whitesnake Tour '87 in the States was great erm.. Tesla. You know, actually everybody we've ever played with has always been a lot of fun and we were really knocked out and we had a lot of great times. We haven't really found anybody who were a bunch of jerks. We've been very fortunate in that aspect.

G: I mean, some of these guys have had some real bad press over the years, it's like 'God, have you guys been struck with some of the egos from some of these musicians such as your Michael Schenker, your Gene Simmons thing or whatever' And if you say that, then that's great if it all went like that?

JR: To think of it, the only bad memory I have is the Kiss Tour. When you mention 'Gene Simmons', I kind of like remembered, 'Ok, he was a bit out there, you know - but he's Gene Simmons - what the hell. He can be who he wants to be and fortunately I don't have to deal with him on a daily basis. I ain't gonna lose any sleep over it.

G: He sometimes comes across like that - he seems a bit arrogant - but he's Gene Simmons so he can do what the hell he wants.

JR: Exactly. He has no effect on my life at this point.

G: What would you say are your favourite songs apart from 'For You' are on the new album?

JR: There's a song called 'Don't know why', which I wrote for my Father - it's about Alzheimer's actually. 'Always', 'Whatever it takes' - god there's so many - it sounds like I'm patting myself on the back here but I really love the record. There's a lot of great songs. Well, what I believe are great songs - I mean, obviously people can make up their own minds.

G: I've listened to it quite a few times and I can't pick out one song from another, not because they are all the same but because they are all as good as one another.

JR: Thank you.

G: When people say you sound very like Robert Plant, how does that make you feel?

JR: Well, it doesn't bother me. It's better than sounding like somebody I don't like (we both laugh). I mean, to me that's a compliment. I don't try to do that. I mean, obviously we did the Zeppelin album of course so I was trying to emulate Plant as much as I could - that was the whole idea behind it but you're gonna be whatever your influences are. He was a big influence on me as well as Steven Tyler, people like that, so it doesn't bother me at all when people say that. There's a lot worse people I could sound like.

G: Could you imagine yourself ever doing a duet with Robert?

JR: I would love that, I would love that. I actually have never even met the man.

G: Haven't you.

JR: (No) Never met him. But I would love to because he's a legend.

G: There's a Cleopatra released album, the 'Recover' album and there's one called 'Final Cuts' - is there any reason why they are the same songs on the two different albums or why the albums have got different titles?

JR: I don't know - that album I'm still not familiar with. I'm not even sure what's on that record. I know that there was a lot of stuff we did from back in like '92. We went into the studio and recorded a bunch of cover songs. I don't know what else is actually on the album because I haven't really seen it. It was just something to do. It was like (to the record company) 'If you want some more Great White - let's just release whatever we can so the hardcore fans can have something to put away. I mean, I'm done. People keep asking me if Great White will ever get back together and it's like, 'No'. I'm not doing this again, I've done that to death. I don't wanna be like 'The Who' - every five minutes 'I'm breaking up' and then 'let's do whatever'.

G: Where would you say your favourite places are that you like playing?

JR: Any place, anywhere with people in front of me. I really have no favourite place. I love to play so much. I love coming to Europe. I love seeing something different and the culture here it's so different from the United States. It doesn't matter where you go - it's always the same. You can go to Florida, you can go to California - it's all the same. Over here in Europe when you play London, you play Germany; it's a lot different. There's a lot of differences in the culture which I really dig - there's also lots to look at.

G: What would you say are your favourite tour stories over the years?

JR: There was one night I remember back in '89. I used to take a lot of sleeping pills at the time just to try and sleep on the bus. It was back in the big party days anyway. Of course, that's why I said I took 'em anyway, to go to sleep (laughing). Anyway, I'd passed out in the back of the bus and it was like the middle of winter or something like that and we stopped at a truck-stop and apparently I walked off the bus with no clothes on - just a baseball hat at this truck-stop and the band had to grab me and take me back onto the bus. I woke up the next day and they told me. I was like 'Are you kidding man?' I didn't know what.

G: Mad.

JR: I mean, the stuff we got up to was amazing.

G: And I suppose a lot of it is unprintable, yeah?

JR: A big part of it yeah.

G: What do you enjoy doing outside music?

JR: I like fishing a lot. I like being in the water, I like scuba diving. I like Sky-diving - you know, I like stuff that's on the edge. I like to be outside. I'm not one of those people who likes to sit inside all the time. I like to be outdoors doing stuff. Whatever. Anything that gets me outside.

G: I know it says on the website, 'If you wanna hook up with me and have a pair of jet ski's an' that then get in contact. Pretty cool.

JR: It's Something to do on the day off (laughing). Yeah, we actually get a lot of responses through that it's amazing.

G: What sort of things have fans mailed you with that have been really wacky ideas?

JR: Well there's one guy calls and says, 'I got a 62 ft yaght right on the beach. Come on down and we'll go fishing. I got jet skis, I do white-water rafting. You know, that kind of stuff and I'm all over it. Anything with an element of danger I'm into. Something's have been a bit too riske you know, I've done that one before (laughing). Me and my girlfriend.

G: What would you say some of your favourite albums have been with 'Great White'?

JR: The last album we did, 'Can't get there from here' was definitely my all-time favourite. Prior to that I would say, 'Once bitten…'. 'Psycho City' is probably one of my favourite albums.

G: When you did the Mott the Hoople song, 'Once bitten….Twice Shy', what made you record that ?

JR: Actually, Izzy Stradlin' from Guns 'n' Roses was the one who came up with idea. He goes, 'Jack, you gotta hear the song', I go, 'What song?', he goes, 'It's called 'Once bitten….Twice Shy' and I go, 'No way!' because we had just finished the 'Once bitten…' album and once that was out we were gonna called the next album '….Twice Shy'. I go, 'You're kidding, there's a song called that?' and he goes, 'Yeah, it was a big hit on the East Coast apparently'. And if it was, I'd never heard it and I'd go, 'This is perfect, we've gotta put it on the album' and we never thought it was gonna be a hit. I never thought it would be a big hit. I thought, 'It'll be the first single, let's put it out and then we'll get onto the big songs' and that song just never went away. It never went away and it was just great and I'm still scratching my head on that one.

G: Great White did an 'MTV Unplugged' - how did that go?

JR: That was great. Actually that I think was the second show they did. Let me seem, there was 'The Damn Yankees', they did us which was so cool. We did the Zeppelin song, 'Babe, I'm gonna leave you' and it was so funny because we had never played the song. Me and my guitarist were backstage before we were ready to go out and do the show and we were still like working on the song and going, 'Don't forget this part, don't forget that part. I was so nervous because I thought we were going to screw it up.

G: Did you have the words out in front of you?

JR: No, I knew the words I was worried about hitting or messing the parts up because there's so many parts of the song. He played for hours you know and the coolest thing about that was like that was like a number 1 requested video, just for that song. Oh man, they had to keep playing that record in rotation and they even did a special on Led Zeppelin and they played that and they played our version of the song in that and I was like, 'this is really cool'. It was fun. After then it was like everybody's doing it and it became not so cool after a while - the (MTV) Unplugged thing.

G: If you could duet with any other artists - who would they be?

JR: Steven Tyler or Robert Plant. I'd also like to do something with Stevie Nicks - I love her voice. She's one of my favourite female singers. I'd love to do a song with her.

G: Did you have any songs for the debut album, 'For You', did you have many songs that you've had to put on the back burner for another album or for b-sides of singles as such.

JR: Well actually, no. We were working like piece-meal, we were just going in and we had enough songs and it was, 'Okay, what's this? I can't see us putting anything else on the new record'. We the running order of the album and thought, 'this is flowing so well, I don't wanna add anything to it'. So we'll start writing for the next one whenever. I mean, I have a couple of ideas already but I'm gonna wait until me and Bob and Billy can hook up to work on 'em. There's no rush. I've been busy with this one for quite a while; do the touring thing and whatnot.

G: The sleeve of 'For You' itself is a really straightforward sleeve - like part of your face - eyes and nose glaring straight out. How did you come up with that idea for the sleeve? Did you have other any ideas for it but though, 'No that's the best one'.

JR: It was the only idea we came up with. I just wanted something really simple and to the point. I didn't want to sit there and go, 'here's my face in the album cover or some glam guy or something like that. It was like, 'this is me, this is the nearness of my soul and this is like the one part of me that makes a difference. I wanted it to be about the music and the voice not about where I'd been or whatever I looked like - I wanted it to be like 'this is about music here and about singing, about melodies and about song-writing and no mistakes - that's what I wanted it to be about.

G: That makes sense. You don't get type-casted do you?

JR: (laughing) Yeah, people will expect to see a pair eyes come out on-stage and they'll be like, 'what, it's got a face and a body - like there's a whole person there.

G: (Laughing) Mad.

JR: It was either that or put a dog on the cover - one or the other, you know, a Jack Russell Terrier.

G: Where does your name come from? Is your actual name 'Jack Russell'?

JR: It is my real name. I never even knew that it was a dog until we came over here in '84 with Whitesnake. The first thing Coverdale says to me, he goes, 'Hey man, is that your real name?', I go, 'Yeah, why?', he goes, 'It's a f*cking dog !!! (we both laugh), I go, 'What?' and he describes a Jack Russell and I say, 'Are you kidding me?' so obviously I had some words with my parents when I got home from there. I was like, 'What the f*ck? You named me after a dog ?!?!'. They didn't know. They weren't popular in the States until the last ten years.

G: I was saying at work that I was going to Interview a singer called Jack Russell and they were like, 'That's a dog right?', and I was like, 'No, it's the singer who used to be in a band called 'Great White'.

JR: (laughing) I remember the first time we came over here I'd not done much press and I got over to England and they gave me all these magazine areas and there was like this one article with all this pictures of these little dogs all over my picture and I'm going, 'Well that's f*cked up, people are like calling me a dog!! (We laugh). They're seeing like Jack Russell Terrier vocals and I'm like, 'What?' - I thought they were totally dissing me with the whole dog thing.

G: It's funny because I typed 'Jack Russell' in on the Internet and all the Terrier sites come up. (laughing)

JR: Yeah (laughing).

G: I think jackrussell.com has already gone - it's a dog site!!!

JR: Yeah. It's mad.

G: It is yeah, it's mad.

JR: It's tough growing up anyway with a name like 'Jack' when you are a kid (laughing).

G: Do you think that the next album you'll be doing next time will be very similar to this or is it a case of let's see where it takes me?

JR: You know, exactly, it's where it's gonna. I mean, every album creates a life of it's own and becomes it's own entity. I kind of like to see where things are gonna go. I don't really know. I don't really have any pre-conceived ideas for the next one. I imagine it'll be like similar, reminiscent of this one. Hopefully, like this one, just the fact that the songs will be well thought out and well played and well realised but other than that I have no idea.

G: Did you send out the 'For You' CD to many different stations and what's the outcome been from many of the stations?

JR: They love it, they are playing it and it's going really, really well. We are lucky to top the most added. We are just charting in the Top 40 in QB Stations all in the United States - we just went up to Number 39 last week and now they are going to the big stations now and we've had a great first week at radio so it's amazing, it's really taking off and we're really happy and excited about it. This is just something you just hope for and you pray for. Like you pick one card out of the deck and it turns out to be the 'Ace of Spades' and you're like, 'Yeah, right on'.

G: That's brilliant. I'm just pleased it's all working out because when I put the album on it's like, 'Wow'

JR: Well thank you very much, I really appreciate that.

G: When you come over would you be the support slot or would you be the headliner?

JR: When we come over in January we will be headlining and if we find the package that makes sense we will do that. There's a lot of things up in the air right now. I'd love to could come over and do a support thing if that would work or do a headline thing it doesn't matter as long as I'm playing I don't care. My ego's not so big that I can't come over and support somebody else. I just want to get on stage.

G: Yeah, excellent. What's the scene like in America with regard to the rock scene?

JR: It's hard to say because the Rock scene is so fragmented in the United States. You have your Slipknots and your Grunge guys and there's just so many different bands. It's hard to say what's doing what. I mean the type of music I'm doing now is a whole different story. Obviously I'll be doing more contemporary stuff as opposed to the rock thing but the 80's rock stars is thing's sad because people just don't buy records. The shows are for the nostalgia aspect but they won't buy the records - you know, what's the point in making records. For me, I have to keep moving forward, just because you climbed Everest doesn't mean you don't wanna climb K2. I just wanna keep climbing mountains, I don't wanna just walk around the foothills or slopes.

G: I know exactly what you mean because there's rock clubs here that haven't moved on from 1992 - they are playing the same thing every week and it's so maddening.

JR: That happens over here you know, like stuck in the 80's. I wanted to let go. I didn't want to see Great White go down the charts ands be playing smaller venues. I originally didn't want to let go but realised you've gotta move forward. You can't be stuck in the past. Just because you want something to happen doesn't mean it's going to happen. I find most of the time that if you want something bad enough and if you plug yourself enough you can make your dreams come but sometimes you know the dreams aren't even realised and you've gotta say, I've done what I did in 'Great White' and I accomplished it. The only thing that I wanted to accomplish was to play a lot of shows, sell a lot of records and now, I'm like, 'Okay, it's time to do something different - it's time to go to the next level.

G: How did you hook up with Poison's 'C.C. Deville'?

JR: CC, ha ha, we did the Poison Tour in '99 and then we became good friends and he became friends with my Manager and then the whole thing came about with the Tour - we hooked together on that. It was fun. He's definitely out there. He's a scream that guy. There's only one of him in the whole world let me tell ya.

G: Have you ever met Phil Campbell from 'Motorhead'?

JR: Yeah, he actually came out to one of our shows when we played here last time. He's the guitarist right?

Glenn: Yeah.

JR: Yeah, he was actually at one of the Wembley shows I believe.

G: I interviewed him a while ago and he was an absolute scream - talked about a vacuum cleaner called the 'Motorhead Dyson' and that he had to get off for a party he was going to with Felicity Kendall. (We both laugh). Anyway Jack, I'll let you get off mate.

JR: Glenn I really appreciate your time, thank you so much and thanks for the compliments on the new record man, it means a lot. You got respect from me mate, real quick.

Glenn: Thanks Jack and take care.

Special Thanks go to John Dryland at Cargo Records for setting it up. Check out the review of the 'For You' album in the 'R' section of CD Reviews.