|
Great White is having great fun these days. The popular rock band, which began their rise to fame back in the mid 1980's, has assembled their core members and hit the road. Jack Russell, Mark Kendall, Audie Desbrow, Michael Lardie, and newcomer Scott Snyder say this time around they're having a blast, as they reacquaint themselves with longtime fans and welcome a new generation of admirers. With 13 studio albums and an impressive list of hits like Once Bitten Twice Shy, Save Your Love, Rock Me, House of Broken Love, and Call it Rock and Roll, Great White, like their music, has endured.
PopStar recently had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Lardie, the guitarist for Great White, who discussses what life is like now vs. then, their current live tour, today's music, and a few thoughts on the bands past, present, and future.
Michael, Great White has been playing together off and on for the greater part of 25 years, actually a little more than that right?
Yeah, the core four as we like to call it consisting of myself, Audie Desbrow, our drummer, Mark Kendall, our lead guitarist, and Jack Russell our lead vocalist, have been performing together since 1985. It's actually been Great White since 1982 with Jack and Mark being the core members, so yes, we're definitely past that 25 year mark now.
So you're touring together, and it's been a while since you've done this, so what's different now vs. back then. Is it more fun now?
I think it's more fun in that the way we tour now is a little different than we used to. We used to go out on a bus for seven to ten weeks, do five shows a week and that was the business model that seemed appropriate at the time. Now we do what we call the weekend warrior thing where we go out on a Thursday, play Friday and Saturday, and fly home on Monday, so we have some assemblage of a home life for two to three days a week, then we get to go out and play two or three shows a week, and we do that pretty much from April to October. The other months of the year, we'll do two or three selected dates in each month.
Sounds like an ideal schedule, less onerous than in the past.
And we sure get a lot of frequent flyer miles {laughs}.
So what can we look forward to at the show. We're obviously looking at some newer material, and some of the classics I hope?
One of the things we don't like to do is inundate our fans with the complete work of a new record. Those classics are reasons why we still have a career today, lest we ever forget that. The appreciation for what has been, it really comes down to that being part of our history with the fans as well. We all grew up together, we created the songs, they fell in love with the songs, they bought our records which put us to this point to allow us to have a career. So you never forget to play the Once Bitten Twice Shy, or Save Your Love. These were all staples in our history, as well as theirs. What we try to do is one or two from every record we've done. We were talking about this the other day. It's getting to be increasingly difficult to seal a set being that we have thirteen studio albums now. It's getting to the point where if you did two songs from every record, you're talking about a Bruce Springsteen length show. I supposed one could have worse problems.
What is the best part of touring this time around?
The thing that I've been noticing a lot the last couple of years is a resurgence of multi-generational audience attendance. Once of my best moments last summer was to see at a festival, a grandpa, a son, and a grandson, wearing his grandpa's Great White shirt from 1987. This little kid is singing the hooks of every song. He's like six years old, and I'm going "Wow!" That just kind of struck me as one of those things you dream about. You hope your music can make a difference for one, but that it could be appreciated by multi generations, that just struck me up side the head like a lightning bolt. It really can happen. I'm so lucky.
Hopefully we still try to make that kind of music, not try to reinvent ourselves. We are what we are. Some people call us the world's biggest backyard party band, and it's all about having a good time with us. And getting back to your other question about what's different and what's fun now? It really is a blast. I mean, I guess it still feels like we're getting away with something. Even after 25 years, I think "I get to do this for a living?"
I think it's safe to say that things are going okay for you all. You don't last 25 years without being good. You've pretty much answered my next question. I was going to ask you who your audience is made up of. I suspected that you were going to say that you've got the fans who followed you back in the 80s, and maybe some of their kids, and now you're saying that even the grand kids are attending. That's amazing.
It's crazy, because you think about when we broke out of L.A. in '87. The one thing about that, because it was classic rock and it was blues-based, it wasn't unusual to get the people in their 30's to like that music. It wasn't just the 18 year olds that were going for it. Fast forward 25, 30 years later, you have people 55, 60 years old who love the band, it makes sense that they would have kids and their kids would have kids. We've been lucky in that regard. Like you said, with having those classic strains of rock in you, like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, that's been the kind of thing that spans a lot of time, and generations.
Here's a question I'm curious about, because I know you wear a lot of hats in this band. You've mixed, engineered, produced, written, etc. I would love to get your take on today's artists. Who's in your iPod right now?
I go the gamut. It's funny I just saw a movie the other day with Tim Allen in it called Joe Somebody, and the closing song was What Happiness Is, and I did a little research and it was Verve Pipe, so I've been listening to that gold and platinum record. They were really well crafted songs. I was listening to Liz Phair the other day. I've even got Suicidal Tendencies on my iPod. I've got Billy Joel. It's just kind of all over the place. Music is music is music, you know. There's always something you can find from every style of music. I can listen to really heavy stuff, because there's a certain passion and anger in that that I derive some enjoyment from, then going all the way to the other end with pop. Music should inspire you, you should get something from that. And that's the beauty of it, as artistic as painters are, so are songwriters and singers. Everything is different. You just have to keep your eyes open for all the speciality in each bit of music.
How do you feel that the genre of Rock and Roll has evolved within the last ten years. Do you see any differences now with the new stuff coming out that you like or dislike, or has it stayed classic in your mind?
It's evolved in many different ways, I mean, the record companies are pretty much going by the wayside. One thing I miss about new artists coming out is that it's really hard to have artist development. A lot of times what they'll do is a company will put money behind an artist, and if they don't hit big on the first try, it's pretty much wallpaper. And you think about artist development, these are examples I like to put across; If you didn't have artist development, you would never have had a John Cougar Mellancamp, you'd never have had a Bruce Springsteen, you'd never have had an REO Speedwagon, a Night Ranger....the list goes on, and on, and on, and on. Bob Seger. These are guys that their first outing sold a quarter million records, next outing, maybe they went gold, their third or fourth record went Platinum, and then they became entrenched in our conscienceness. Today, what I think happens is that "hit it or quit it" mentality. They throw a bunch of money against the wall, and if an artist doesn't stick, then it's kind of like "next." The closest they've come to working on any kind of artist development would be a couple of female artists like Lady Gaga or Alicia Keys. These are extraordinarily talented people that have come up through the ranks. I heard of Gaga maybe three and a half or four years ago, so you see her career path going in terms of artist development, but something like Jonas Brothers, its immediately in your face, it's fast, and who's to say how long it's going last.
That's kind of what I miss, the bands that go out on tour and develop a following. I mean, you think about REO. How long did they kick around the Midwest before they broke? It's that kind of thing that I personally miss, and one of things that I think has changed dramatically.
As far as the music is concerned, I think there's enough stuff that sounds fresh and different from each other and that's the thing about music, but there are certain cliques about music that are very pop driven and a lot of those records are made by the same studio musicians and they start to sound a little bit the same, just plug in a different singer. But music is still music, is still music, and anything new gives people something to respond to.
Which leads me to my next question. What's next for Great White after the tour?
Well, this year, sometime during the tour, we're actually going to record a proper DVD. We'll put out an audio record as well from the live record. One of our favorite things to do over the years has been to do is live records. The studio has always been a great vehicle for us, but I think the quintessential sound of Great White is when we're actually playing, and live records really capture that. We're looking forward to doing that this year. There are a couple of DVDs that are out there that are not endorsed by the band, one-camera shoots, terrible audio etc., put out by small record companies who realize that if they put the stuff out and you go after them, it's going to cost you as much in legal fees to cease and desist on this, than what you'd recover in royalties. So it's people making small amounts of money off of you without your permission. So what we're trying to do is clean the slate this year and say, "this is what the band endorses, this is what we're really about, don't feel ripped off, pick up the real thing."
Going to see all these live bands back in the 80's was an event. That's one of the things that Jack says about the 80's in the show, we were talking about some songs have a harkening back to the feeling you had when coming to a show in the 80's and what he says to the audience is, "if you missed the 80's, you f'in missed out"...think about that. The pomp and circumstance, the fact that when you went to a show, it was a celebratory thing. It was about a smile on your face, it wasn't about a guy looking down at his shoes. You were entertained. Think about going to a David Lee Roth show or going to see Poison, when you went, it's like it was a big deal. You were entertained. I think about playing the Rosemont with Whitesnake in '97 and it was amazing.
It goes on, playing the Aragon with Tesla, years later. These are all things I remember very clearly and it was very much a celebration.
Is there anything you would like to say to Great White fans out there?
Part of the thing that comes to mind is just the absolute appreciation for them being part of our family for years and years and years, and we realize that without their support and love of the music, you and I would not be sitting here talking today. We always try to never forget that. One of the things that always hits me as funny is that people say "I'm sorry I'm asking for your autograph" and I say "You don't even realize how sorry I'll be when you stop asking."
Not likely to happen soon. This band is here to play. Great White is headed to Chicago for a live concert at the House Of Blues, and PopStar will be there to greet them. Watch for our update and news about their upcoming performance.
 Top Concert Tours of 2009 and Upcoming 2010 Events POPSTAR |  Exclusive Interview: Crowley Brothers (Vids, Songs), Pt. II POPSTAR |  Great White Performs Live at House Of Blues in Chicago POPSTAR |
