“Our singer won’t be wasted on drugs, falling off the stage. or need to be put on stage by a couple of people then put on a stool.”
— Audie Desbrow of Great White

Metal Sludge — In the never-ending game of; ‘I know you are but what am I‘, there is yet another installment from the Great White camp.

Of course we all know for years now that there have been countless bands from the 80’s that have splintered off into different sub-sets leaving them feuding like the Hatfields & McCoys.

And it may be safe to say that L.A. Guns was the first to make this a thing.

As we all know, in what seemed like forever – there were 2 versions of L.A. Guns.

Tracii Guns having his version and then Phil Lewis and Steve Riley trudging forward with their version.

That has since been settled, and oddly Lewis bailed on Riley to team up with Guns (who was in-short a long-time enemy if you will) and then Riley pulled Kelly Nickels (bass) out of a semi-retirement into his newer version now called Riley’s L.A. Guns.

The L.A. Guns vs; L.A. Guns battle got to the point where lawsuits were filed, lawyers hired and an eventual settlement was reached.

Of course there was also several years of the Warrant and Jani Lane solo band battle, but sadly Lane passed away back in August of 2011.

Then there is the Skid Row and Sebastian Bach feud, and at some point we got the Queensryche and Geoff Tate story, with the latter also being settled via lawsuits, lawyers and the courts.

No we didn’t forget the Ratt stuff either, which has recently taken on new life with Blotzer suddenly dropping a warning that he would be out with his own project to compete with Stephen Pearcy‘s touring solo band.

All this including Juan Croucier (bass) looking for his own gigs, all the while the Ratt brand essentially sits idle.

Moving away from the others, let’s get back to the Great White versus Jack Russell’s Great White battle.

So earlier this week Great White drummer Audie Desbrow shared a band promo poster on his personal Facebook and quickly found himself defending his group.

A fan named Peter jumped into Desbrow‘s post that was sharing news about a show with fellow 80’s rockers Slaughter when the fan commented: “It will never be the same without Jack Russell. Great White without Jack is like the movie Forrest Gump. Like a box of Choclates ya just never know what your going to get!!!”

Desbrow quickly replied with: “Peter – you got that right, our singer won’t be waisted on drugs, falling off the stage. or need to be put on stage by a couple of people then put on a stool. Our singer will be able to hit all the notes to every song we play that night or any other song we do anytime any day, totally sober and totally reliable. It’s a business.”

In the same thread another fan named Steve added: “The thing of it is….*which* singer is gonna show up? so many singers in “Great White” over the last couple decades, it’s almost embarrassing, the bands that carry on with revolving doors. I’ve seen Jack a couple times in the last 10 years, and the performance I saw onstage does *not* match what Audie is saying. at all. whether GW tunes or Zeppelin songs, Jack was *spot on*. which, with his habits and addictions, is rather amazing. sad that pettiness stands in the way of greatness. cool story though.”

Desbrow has since been quiet, but as expected, fans are taking various sides and blasting away with their opinions in support of both of the projects.

Russell, 62, has had a series of medical and health issues over his career, much of which he admitted were attributed to his long-time use of drugs or alcohol.

The aforementioned abuse of the evil stuff by Russell, it seems is where Desbrow‘s comment was coming from.

Back in the summer of 2010 Great White appeared at the “Scout Bar” in San Antonio Texas and during the band’s opening song “Dessert Moon” Russell fell on stage.

This was when the group was still in-tact with 4 of the 5 classic members including Russell (vocals), Mark Kendall (guitars), Michael Lardie (guitar & keyboards) and Audie Desbrow (drums).

Russell who at the time walked with a cane had already been using a stool for part of the band’s set but still fell roughly 1 minute after being on stage.

The band played on as Russell struggled to get to his feet, and it took the assistance of a roadie to get him back onto his stool. (see the video shared below)

As the years have passed it has become common place for Russell to use a chair or stool during the band’s live set, and while he has had some other mishaps, it appears the singer is doing just fine when it comes to his ability to sing the Great White catalog.

However just last year in July of 2022, Russell had another similar fall at a club called “J.D. Legends” in Ohio.

Metal Sludge covered this incident in our July 11th 2022 article ‘GOING, GOING, GONE … Jack Russell Slowly Falls off his Stage Stool at ‘JD Legends’ during Live Show as Fans and Band-mates look on.‘

One fan who attended the Ohio show wrote to Metal Sludge exclusively about the incident saying: “Jack Russell performed at JD Legends on Saturday. He missed his stool and fell over. I have the video.”

During the fall it appears that guitarist Robby Lochner makes a futile attempt to save Russell from falling but no luck as the singer disappears from the video clip below the fan’s heads.

The fan who wishes to stay anonymous also tells Metal Sludge: “I stopped recording when it happened. I love Jack, and felt bad. Just don’t tie my name to it. Don’t wanna look like a jerk lol. He did get right back up and continued to rock out. He really should think about retirement at this point. He was very upset that people were recording him to begin with.”

The following was shared on Blabbermouth (October 11th 2023): “This past May, Audie spoke about the likelihood of a reunion with Jack during an interview with Waste Some Time With Jason Green. At the time, he said: “It just couldn’t physically be possible, I think… And there’s just so much damage, verbal damage, e-mails to us from him that nobody will ever know what they were. And they’re pretty bad. It’s kind of beyond the ruin. I don’t know how to describe it.

“But, yeah, I can’t see that happening, unfortunately, I guess, for a lot of diehard fans,” he added. “I’m sure there might be some fans who’d love to see us with Jack one time or whatever. But I just couldn’t [see it happening].”

As crazy as it sounds, the Great White versus Jack Russell debate is more than a decade old already and Metal Sludge have covered much of their on-going feud.

To read any one of the several dozen Great White and Jack Russell articles on Metal Sludge click HERE.



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