Jack Russell

Hailing from California, Jack Russell worked as a rock vocalist and songwriter while serving as a founding member of Great White, the early-'80s hard rock act that became a radio mainstay. Shaped by the styles of Robert Plant and Steven Tyler, he fronted several high school groups during his early development. He launched Dante Fox in 1977 with guitarist Mark Kendall. The ensemble adopted the name Great White in 1981, then delivered its self-titled debut through EMI in 1984. The band achieved major success in 1987 via its third album Once Bitten and the hit single "Rock Me," then scored again in 1989 with ...Twice Shy, whose cover of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten Twice Shy" reached the top of the charts. Russell departed in 1996 for a solo path and issued Shelter Me on MVP Records in 1999. He returned to the group that year, yet Great White disbanded by 2001 after staging a farewell concert on New Year's Eve at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, California. Russell launched tours billed as Jack Russell's Great White the next year. The project drew worldwide notice in 2003 when a large pyrotechnics mishap at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island ignited the ceiling and caused 100 fatalities among the audience. Lawsuits, internal tensions, and Russell's struggles with substance abuse created mounting pressure that forced Jack Russell's Great White to shut down by 2005. The original lineup reunited in 2007 for touring and recorded the tenth studio album Back to the Rhythm. Rising arrived as another studio release in 2009, though it marked Russell's final work with the band. After recovering from multiple back surgeries that followed a 2009 fall, a newly sober Russell restarted operations under the Jack Russell's Great White name in 2011. The group put out its debut studio album He Saw It Comin' through Frontiers Records in 2017. Four years later, in August 2021, the ensemble released Great Zeppelin II, a follow-up to its 1998 Led Zeppelin tribute collection. Russell joined forces with Tracii Guns on Medusa in early 2024, his final recording. He revealed a Lewy body dementia diagnosis and declared his retirement in July before his death on August 15, 2024.