“As far as I’m concerned Jack (Russell) has earned the right to play shows anywhere and anytime he wants. Healthy or not.”
— Dan McNay bassist of Jack Russell’s Great White

Metal Sludge — After a rough weekend on the road, members of Jack Russell’s Great White have spoken out in support of their health troubled lead singer Jack Russell.

Last week in Texas, Jack Russell and his band played a few gigs that had many who attended (and watched online) questioning why Russell was even on stage.

The show at “Lava Cantina” in The Colony Texas on April 4th saw Russell sitting on a chair on stage but the frontman barely sang at all.

The guitarists and a special guest handled most of the lead vocals while Russell mumbled some back-grounds.

Metal Sludge covered these events in our article; ‘PULL THE PLUG ….. Jack Russell’s Great White play Questionable gig in Texas as Fans Watch in Shock and Compare it to “Weekend at Bernie’s”’.

After videos of the show circulated online fans were outraged and many felt Jack should not have been on stage in that condition.

But even after all the backlash from fans, it seems select band-mates are backing their decision to put their singer center-stage and forge on even though Russell appeared to be out to lunch.

The band’s bassist Dan “McNayster” McNay got into a heated exchange on social media dropping F’bombs and calling people names and says that he has given Russell his word, that he will play music with the singer until the wheels fall off.

McNay then added the following (Transcribed by Metal Sludge): “As far as I’m concerned Jack (Russell) has earned the right to play shows anywhere and anytime he wants. Healthy or not.”

As of press time, there has been no official statement from Russell, or the band, but a few of the guys have made a few statements publicly.

McNay‘s full rant shared on Instagram reads as follows: “Why don’t you call me out fuckface? LOL! I actually lose money going out to play with Jack. I have a flourishing biz here in LA. The guy made me promise him I would play music with him until the “wheels fall off”. His own words. When a friend asks you that question in a dead serious manner, it requires an answer. Obviously the answer was yes. So what in the fuck were you saying my dude? As far as I’m concerned Jack has earned the right to play shows anywhere and anytime he wants. Healthy or not. So tell me something more about Jack, and us nominal payday guys. I’m all ears.”

One can’t help but feel the “Healthy or not” part of this statement is extremely irresponsible.

Ironically during the “Lava Cantina” show Jack was introducing the band members, and when he got to the bassist, Russell forgot his name.

Montana then stepped forwarded and announced to the crowd, that Dan McNay was on bass.

Tony Montana who plays guitar and keyboards for Russell also came forward on the THIS, THAT & THE OTHER RADIO SHOW with host Troy Patrick Farrell and has shed some light on what happened over the weekend.

Farrell asks: “What’s going on? Cause, we’re concerned about him (Jack Russell).”

Montana replies; “Yeah, you and me as well.”

Montana then tells listeners more details and says that Russell had arrived just before show time.

“It was a very odd, ahh… ahh, ahh circumstance. We, ahh, we were on stage there at the “Lava Cantina” at The Colony, there just outside of Dallas, and the band, we hadn’t seen him. And he (Jack Russell) literally showed up, like 1 minute from down beat. He came on stage, and we’re like… okay, well that was odd, it’s not… it is what it is right? At least he’s here, and we’re ready to go. And we started going at it, and it became apparent something was wrong.”

Montana continues: “My understanding is, that he (Jack) had taken some kind of new medication, ahh, that afternoon, and it just, it just put him in a tail-spin. And… you know, for us as band members, and friends, you know, of the guy, you know we’re playing and you realize, okay, something, something’s up. What do we do? I mean, we can’t just stop. We’re not just gonna stop. Umm, and he seemed to kind of pick up the pace, later in the set, and, ahh, kind of got his bearings. And we just finished off the show.”

Montana goes onto say: “The next night, he (Jack) was kind of back to doing what he did before.”

Below you can see Jack Russell’s Great White‘s opening number the next night on April 5th in El Paso.

Montana adds some final thoughts: “I don’t know what his, ahh, he’s not much for, he’s not much for social media and (laughing) for anything electronic. So, I don’t know if he’ll jump out and say anything at all. You know, I think he’s going to try to, ahh, to rehab as much as possible. Not rehab, like in, the sense of like drug rehab, but ahh, you know, do whatever he needs to do to feel better. To move on, from whatever it was, that he needed to take that medication for. It was something I think, kind of serious, and it had some serious side-effects.”

“We don’t wanna lose the guy, because he’s exhausted or something either, so, nobody wants that.” added Montana.

Montana also makes it known to viewers that he is strictly a hired-gun when playing in Jack Russell’s Great White and he doesn’t make decisions as to much of what takes place in the camp.

Regardless of opinions on all sides, Metal Sludge would like to wish Jack Russell the best of health and a full recovery.

Stay tuned to Metal Sludge for Breaking News, Updates and Features along with both new and classic interviews.