- 1 year ago
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00:00I think with Jack, he wanted to be the rock star, singer, and be able to do stuff that makes him
00:05feel good. But it had repercussions. One thing about it is he's not a bad person. This is just
00:12the voices hit him. Because he's one of the all-time great rock singers.
00:30It's time for today's conversation. Here's Meltdown.
00:33There he is, Mark Kendall, the great white himself. How are you?
00:37I'm doing okay, man.
00:39Good to see you.
00:40This is my little music room, so I jam with my grandson.
00:46He's been taking lessons for two years, and he's getting pretty good.
00:50He's into drummers now that are way above his level.
00:55He shouldn't even bother with it, but I just let him kind of run, and then I bring him
01:00back in. He's going, no, you got to play ACDC, dude.
01:06He did a recital, and he did an old ACDC song, and it was high voltage, and he just slammed
01:18it, man, with his age group, 11-year-olds.
01:23So, you know, he's into Travis Barker and shit, and I'm going, you know, Travis Barker?
01:30I mean, this guy's like one of the best in the world. I mean, he's crazy.
01:34Have you gotten him into Rush?
01:36I'm sorry?
01:37Have you gotten him into Neil Peart yet with Rush?
01:41Oh, no, not yet. But I think if he starts tearing that guy, then he'll really go bananas.
01:47But this Blink-182 dude, you know, Travis Barker, he's changed his drum set now to be like
01:55his, and so it's pretty good. But he's got a lot of enthusiasm, you know, so I'm trying
02:03to teach him that learning how to play right, you know, with the rudiments and paradiddles
02:11and all that stuff from a really solid pro drummer that I know from years ago. He's one
02:19of the best drummers around, and he's teaching them the right way, and so he doesn't get bored.
02:26He shows them how to do it on his drums, and really breaks it down simple. So, he goes,
02:34oh, oh, I get it. You just don't want to hit on the practice pads all the time.
02:40Right.
02:40You know, a little impatient.
02:42I know your grandson, because you talk about your personal life so much on socials. Actually,
02:47I'm trying to think if there's someone in the rock world that talks about their personal
02:51life so much on social media. You really like that stuff, don't you?
02:54Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just a little positive things. I'm trying to be funny, you
03:04know, trying to make it light of everything, and so I chime in with something. I'm trying
03:10to be clever, even though it probably isn't sometimes, but yeah, the fans have kind of
03:18grown up with Noah, because he's been on rock cruises, about five of them, you know. The
03:23last time, Kip Winger introduced him, and he played for the Shredders, you know, Guitar
03:30Wizards, and so he got to get up there and just play a straight beat. He was only 10 then,
03:36but he's really improved a lot in the last couple of years, but yeah, I just really dig
03:41the guy. He's a pretty good kid.
03:45That's awesome, man. So, Gray White's going to be in town, Motor City Casino Soundboard
03:49with Slaughter on next Thursday as we record this, August 7th. That was just there over
03:54the weekend with the Night Ranger guys. That is an awesome venue, by the way.
03:59Oh, yeah. We've actually driven by it a couple of times, going to another gig, the festival
04:05and whatnot, and I think we saw that Night Ranger was playing, not the recent time, but
04:12time a couple of years ago, and we like the hard rocks. We used to play them a lot. So,
04:19yeah, it's exciting. They usually sound pretty good, the rooms, you know.
04:24No, it's a great room, but hey, by the way, speaking of driving around, you guys, you know,
04:29you were here last week, and I wish I could have got you hooked up with Ghost tickets to go
04:33check out Ghost, but you guys got stuck here, right? You guys with a blown out tire or something
04:37in Michigan? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we were in this limo, and it was an old one. I mean, the thing
04:43was just falling apart. They had one of the side view mirrors was duct taped on, and some
04:52panel fell off inside, but it looked pretty impressive. You know, it looked nice from the
04:57outside, but yeah, all of a sudden, the car started shaking. This lady driving, she couldn't
05:04figure it out, so she kept driving, and then all of a sudden, it got really bad, so she
05:10pulled over. We were dead smack in the middle of nowhere, so we had to call people, and forget
05:19when we ended up just hiring our own Ubers, and because somebody was going to come change
05:26the tire, but we'd been sitting there for two hours, so let's just get a couple of Ubers
05:31and get this horrible thing over with, you know. I think if I'm not mistaken, you guys
05:36were in Brighton, but I could be wrong. I don't know if you remember exactly where you were
05:40when you got stuck, but I know you guys were heading up to the Thumb. We were in between
05:45the airport and Bay City, so about in the middle, you know. It was a two-hour drive, or maybe
05:54longer, but we were right in the middle of that, in this overpath. We were just sitting
06:00there. It was crazy. And the air didn't work. It was like there was a guy in there just blowing
06:07or something. It wasn't even like regular air. It was like almost warm. It's like, so we started
06:15going outside. It was actually a little cooler outside, so that she didn't know how to run
06:21the air, and we tried, too, and it was just broke, you know. It sounds like a true Spinal
06:26Tap moment, and by the way, that's coming out this year. Are you going to be watching Spinal
06:32Tap 2? Yeah, I think I might check it out, you know. The first one was pretty amazing.
06:40Because I actually have a memory. I was in New York, and we were going to play Madison
06:45Scory Garden, and with, I think it was Judas Priest when it came out, and I went with this
06:53chick to the theater to watch it, and it was, oh, man, that movie, you know.
07:01They actually really did a good job on it. You know, the whole make my life hunt, and
07:08you know, they're really funny, these guys. Yeah, so that was pretty interesting.
07:14Did that hit close to home for you with some of those things?
07:18A couple times way after the movie, there was a couple times where we couldn't find the stage,
07:26you know, we're like underground type deal. So that part, but it wasn't as extreme as they're
07:33looking for the stage, but it kind of reminded you. Everyone wants to go, oh, we're having
07:38Spinal Tap moment, you know. But, you know, things happen kind of fine.
07:45Yeah. So who's playing bass on this upcoming run?
07:49His name's Dan McNay. I don't know a ton about him. He used to play with Ronnie Montrose and,
07:55you know, stuff like that. He's from way up north, so he kind of grew up around Montrose and,
08:01you know, bands from around there. And just a super solid bass player, man. And like really nice.
08:08He's, you know, Mr. Non-Drama.
08:14I guess that's a part of the deal that I was just talking about. I was just talking with Steve Jones
08:19yesterday. And he said that he's having so much fun out on tour with these guys he's playing with.
08:25And I guess that's half the battle or maybe even more than half the battle, huh?
08:30Yeah. Yeah, it's nice. You know, I wish it was in different circumstances than what happened,
08:37but yeah, he creates a little new energy and stuff. And it, he really gets out there and gets into it.
08:47So, and he's playing like gangster. I mean, really has a good sound and all that. He's a true bass player,
08:53you know, he probably knows, you know, the name of the guy in Jefferson Airplane who played bass,
09:01you know, and he's like, he's one of those dudes that's a total bass fan, you know, so it's like his
09:07little life or something. So, uh, it's kind of, uh, cool to get a real bass player instead of one that
09:14used to play guitar, but they think it's easier to get a gig with the bass, you know?
09:21That's so funny, man.
09:22Some people don't, they don't play guitar. I was really shocked. I played at a wedding with Michael
09:29Anthony from Van Halen years ago. Um, my buddy's sister was getting married and, uh, he worked for
09:36Tesla at the time, but he also worked for Michael Anthony off, off season. And we wrote a song
09:44together and got Michael Anthony to play bass, you know, so we could jam at this wedding.
09:51And, uh, and I didn't bring guitar with me. I was going to show him the song, you know, I didn't
09:57have a guitar and I go, you, I'm figuring this guy's in Van Halen, he's got to have an acoustic
10:03at least. And he goes, he goes, Mark, he goes, when I asked him if he had a guitar, he's like, Mark,
10:11you know, I'm a bass player, right? Because I wouldn't even know how to play a chord on the
10:16guitar. I have no clue. That's, uh, thank you. That was great. It's up off from osmosis next to
10:23Eddie Van Halen all those years. Yeah. He just plays bass, you know, lays it down like that.
10:31And you got to hear those high harmonies at the wedding? Oh yeah. Yeah. We had harmonies where he
10:36sang. It was like crazy. He told me sometimes when they did three part harmonies in the
10:41studio or whatever, he faced the other way because his voice was so piercing, you know,
10:48except for some of the stuff where he did on his own, just over-diving. But he said sometimes
10:54they would, um, I guess those three, like, uh, Dave Lee Roth, him and, uh, Eddie, Eddie can
11:03sing, you know, too. Um, so they do three part harmonies and they found it's best to
11:11if he turned his head away from the light, cause his voice was so like, you know, so much
11:18power and, and range and all that. He, he just, it just blended better that way.
11:24Yeah. I was just talking about, uh, Steve Jones talked to him. I talked to Eric Martin
11:29as well recently, and I asked them both and I'll ask you as well. Uh, uh, uh, what, what
11:33are your thoughts on the passing of Ozzy legend? Yeah. Uh, really tough. Uh, you know, I followed
11:41him for years. Uh, we did one show with black Sabbath in Denmark and we were on the side
11:47and stage and I talked to Sharon Osborne for quite a while. And, uh, Jack and Kelly were
11:54there standing next to her because we had some in common. My daughter was at the same talent
12:01agency, Brian and Rotman. And, and they, you know, I guess they might've been doing commercials
12:06or something too. So they, she, you know, had some to strike a conversation with. And, uh,
12:14I wanted to get my son a pick, but we only stayed for like four songs around the side
12:21and, uh, you know, to see him out there still doing it. And, you know, when I was a teenager,
12:28I learned every song of black Sabbath floor. It just seemed like it's really good for, you
12:34know, uh, novice guitar players. It's just kind of getting his way around, uh, black Sabbath
12:40floor as real, a lot of cool riffs and everything. And just his voice was just, uh, amazing.
12:48And Michael Wagner, the producer has told us a lot of stories about Ozzy that were just,
12:55uh, really nice stories. It's, it's such a tough life. Um, you know, we're, when he was
13:04down and out, not doing well in the way, Sharon just got his life on track and all that.
13:10It's really quite the story, quite the legend. And, uh, just everybody loved him, you know?
13:20Yeah. You, you, great white didn't play any shows or tours with him back in the eighties
13:25or nothing, huh?
13:25No, no. Um, you know, they probably use heavier bands, but we're on a festival package with
13:31them because in Europe, they don't care if you're in the same genre. I mean, on that same
13:38deal was like Bob Dylan, you know, Slayer, I mean, Slayer and Bob Dylan. Can you imagine?
13:45Um, Iggy pop. I remember, um, I can't believe it. And back then, you know, we're a little
13:53younger. I go, this guy's 55. He's already done like three stage dives in the first song.
13:59You see, he was like bleeding from his chest and go, man, that's amazing. You know, you're
14:07talking about Iggy, right?
14:09Iggy pop.
14:10Yeah. Yeah. From right here. Right here. Right here.
14:13He's totally rad, man. Yeah.
14:15His energy, um, at, at the show, but I couldn't wait to see Ozzy. Didn't get the pick for my
14:23son, but, um, ended up getting one eventually somehow. I can't remember if Tony, I don't
14:29mean, so, um, then the other, uh, my first baseball, not my first bass player, but the
14:38one I made the band that became, uh, uh, great wife Dante Fox. I know it's a bad name, but
14:47his name is Don Costa. He quit three weeks before we got signed. Literally. And lucky
14:57for him, he got a gig in Ozzy. So that, that was pretty neat. Wow. You know, I was happy
15:03for him because he just said we weren't heavy enough, you know, he didn't, he would, he liked,
15:09uh, a lot heavier music. So yeah, I was happy. He followed his heart, you know, good.
15:17Sounds good enough for me. Now, uh, last time I saw you was a, was a few years ago and a
15:23lot has happened, uh, since, yeah. I mean, uh, since I saw you in person, obviously I
15:28see you online all the time and whatnot, but, uh, we lost Jack Russell. I saw Jack in November
15:33the year before he passed away in 2023. And even though he was frail and stuff, I thought
15:37he sounded great. When was the last time you talked to Jack or had any, uh, any conversations
15:41with him? Um, not, we didn't speak much, but, uh, we pretty much connected at the hip our
15:49whole career. You know, I had a good relationship with both his mom and dad. They're the greatest
15:55people ever. My, actually my wife, um, looked after his mother, um, and Jack was, uh, in a
16:05bad way. You know, he, he, he was really wailing on, on, uh, his addiction. So it was very tough
16:12time. And, uh, as far as his passing, yeah, it hit me hard. Uh, uh, you know, but I would
16:23buy his hospital bed. I don't even know how many times, you know, just from like either an
16:29overdose or some reaction from doing too much. And, um, he had like just all these different
16:41ailments and I, and, and, and in rehab, so I, I'm a advocate of sobriety. So I really
16:49like it when people do well, but it's hard if they don't want to do well, you know? And
16:55so, but I still support him. I still, you know, I was by his bedside for seven days straight.
17:02I remember in a, in a rehab facility. And then we had an intervention with family trying
17:09to do the best we could. And, uh, he'd get out and just, he wasn't even a very long wait
17:16before he's right back, you know, and I've, I've tried to evaluate it for years. I, you
17:21know, I honestly believe that he was not comfortable in his own skin sober. Um, uh, I
17:29just, he, he, he needed something to, uh, make him feel better. You know, he, he seemed
17:38to be a bit miserable. So I, you know, I tried to find something, um, you know, something
17:49for him to do, keep busy on the off time. And it had been happening since he was 16 years
17:56old. I mean, um, Adi was in a band with him, my drummer, and the parents told him, watch
18:04him and make sure he doesn't get high. That was a weird introduction. You know, he's only
18:1016. I mean, you know, what's it, what you're going to do smoking pot? You know, so, um, but
18:18I never took this personally, but I didn't want to enable it anymore. So I just, um, we
18:25go as a band, we just told him, go get well and come back to bad-ass fucking sleep tattoo
18:32dude that commands crowds, you know what I mean? And that went on for a year or more. And
18:40then, uh, he found people that would accept that, you know, the, um, him just singing and
18:47being high. But one thing about it is he's not a bad person. This is just, uh, the voices
18:55hit his head and he just goes off in it and it affects his health and his ability to, because
19:04he's one of the all time great rock singers. Yeah. I mean, um, and I don't even care how
19:11big we ever got. He's still bad-ass singer, man. I mean, that guy can sing, uh, just about
19:18anything. So he had amazing skills, but, um, you know, it was just a slow decline until
19:29he couldn't walk and, and stuff like this. So I, I have a, my dad married somebody else.
19:39My parents got divorced when I was a teenager and, and his wife was kind of a strict prescription
19:49drug person. And she ended up looking almost just like Jack, like verbatim, you know, and
19:56Jack took the similar drugs, probably more street related or not really more street related because
20:04he got a lot from doctors and, you know, doctor shopping. And as far as his dad, that really,
20:11I don't know. I was just, uh, really upset by it. And, you know, I kind of wanted people to know,
20:20you know, how great his work ethic was in the studio. I went on Eddie Trunk for an hour and,
20:30uh, I didn't want to sit there and just talk about his drug, you know, drug habit or anything like
20:37that. I wanted people to know how close we were. And, you know, I mean, from the embryo,
20:43when I met this guy, we were pretending like we were playing big genius and we didn't have a bass player
20:50yet. I mean, you know, you know, teenagers with the dream and all that. So the memories and,
20:59you know, his dad got us jobs and stuff and we were constantly working band making demos and,
21:08you know, so we, we had, uh, kind of a goal, uh, never gotten in an argument with the guy. I mean,
21:16we never fought about anything, you know, cause I've heard the fans say, why, why don't you guys
21:23patch it up? Like, like there's some, we hate each other or something that wasn't ever the case.
21:29It was always, uh, you know, addiction. And I was, uh, I used to drink beer like a crazy man.
21:36I didn't quit until 2008, you know, I got 17 years sobriety, but, you know, um, I'm not trying
21:44to say I didn't have my issues. Um, and it, maybe it did affect my playing at times and we're on long
21:52tours and just partying a little too much, you know, but I was able to get away from it.
21:59Um, yeah, addiction is a horrible thing. It hurts a lot of people, you know, I used to be very selfish
22:09when I drank, you know, this is me, you know, I'm doing this to me. What are you worried about?
22:16You know, that, that was my attitude, you know, with these people that love me, but you know,
22:22you're affecting everybody around you. Yeah. I'm affecting everybody around me, but so self-centered
22:29and so, you know, I don't know, you know, it's a selfish, you know, you're just selfish and you
22:41don't care when anybody says you're going to have your beard and kind of hurt nobody, you know?
22:46Yeah. And so that was my attitude. Um, I was able to escape it, but I had to, um, quit doing
22:57it my way and listen to people that had 30 plus years sobriety and just, how'd you, how'd
23:04you go that long, you know, and stuff and, and kind of learn and kind of change myself as
23:09well, you know, after I had about three years, I started, uh, you know, just letting people
23:17know that I'm always available. I'm not this hiding rock star, you know, not hiding from
23:22nobody. Um, you know, if you get ahold of me, I can share my story, encouragement, support,
23:30you know, be your sober friend, you know? Yeah.
23:33Yeah. One thing I thought is if they're a fan of Great White and they see that I got
23:40sober, maybe they'll think, you know, use that like, Hey, I'm friends, you know, with
23:45the guitar player of Great White, but that's not what, um, my intention was to share my story
23:52and maybe they take a couple of things from it that can help them because what they're doing
23:57is not working. So, um, and when I tried to do things on my own, it never worked. I think
24:04what Jack is, his addiction was so bad. Um, he, for one thing, he didn't want to quit. Um,
24:14you know, he wanted both things. He wanted to be the rock star, singer, and be able to do
24:20stuff that makes him feel good. But, but it had repercussions. Like I worked with Jamie Lane
24:27before he died, like every day. I mean, I was sending a prayer meditation. Um, he'd call
24:34me and say how much it hit home. And as a memorial, I went to it because I wanted everybody to know
24:41because he told me he wanted to be sober more than anything. He said that his only trigger
24:47was downtime. Yeah. So, um, and sure enough, you know, he got some downtime and heard the
24:54voices and went off and it was fatal. But, um, you know, this addiction stuff is, it's crazy.
25:02Normal people don't get it. They just think, God, how can you be so weak? Why don't you stop? I mean,
25:09you know, it's a big deal, you know what I mean? But they don't get it. It's, uh, it can be horrid,
25:16you know? And I was trying to explain to people, I'm not reaching out to social drinkers who just
25:22enjoy themselves every once in a while. And that's, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. You're reaching
25:29out to people that can't shut the spigot off. Exactly. Like, you know, people that have lost
25:36their families or their job and, you know, just livelihood in general, everybody's left them. And
25:44then, you know, they're just swimming in alcohol or drugs. And those, those are the ones. And maybe
25:51they're thinking about getting sober, but they just never, they don't really know how to go about
25:56it. So they just don't do it. Cause a lot of times just from my words, it, man, I'm going to try
26:03that. You know what I mean? And some of them do really good. I have guys that I worked with that
26:09from years ago that had like 12 years sobriety, 11 years, you know, that it just goes on and on.
26:16So, um, so, um, so you, you can reach some people, they have to want it, you know, they
26:22have to be willing to change things up a little bit, but, uh, as far as Jeff's death, it was
26:30a horrific nightmare. Um, so sad because, uh, all the history we had or the friendship, how
26:42long it, I mean, friends for so long, it was a shame. Our motto was teams to the end.
26:49You know what I mean? Like we're going to ride this baby home, you know, until we couldn't
26:55do it no more. That was the plan, but addiction got in the way. It just, it's horrific.
27:01Well, I'm glad to see, uh, you're here 17 years, you said. And, uh, uh, next week at the,
27:07uh, Motor City Casino soundboard, uh, you got your band attack, the band's rocking at
27:12Ship Shawana the next day. You're coming with my friends from Slaughter as well. Uh, like
27:16I said, Mark, I'm going to try to come and see you like, uh, but like I have a million
27:20things going on and I'm going to try to sneak out there for a little bit.
27:23Yeah. Don't, don't, don't tell me if you got the motorcycle here and anything.
27:29I'm going to do it again, but, uh, it's always great to a touch base with you here. Uh, this
27:34thing is going to cut me off in a minute, but I just want to make sure everyone knows
27:37you're going to be in town and, uh, give, uh, got our best and, uh, we'll see you next
27:41week here in Detroit.
27:44Brad. Okay. Nice talking to you.
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