Great White became a household name during the height of the ’80s heavy metal/hard rock scene, becoming favorites of MTV viewers with hits like “Rock Me,” “Save Your Love,” and their cover of the Ian Hunter classic “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.” 

Singer Jack Russell parted ways a little more than a decade ago, forming Jack Russell’s Great White, while his former bandmates continued on as Great White. 

Jack Russell’s Great White will hit the stage at Piere’s on Dec. 17, with opening acts Livewire and Reload.

Still market for songs

While many of the ’80s hard rock bands have long since been forgotten by most, Great White holds a special place in the hearts of fans, and their songs continue to resonate, a tribute to their quality and timelessness. 

Largely rooted in the blues, songs like “House of Broken Love,” “Lady Red Light,” and “Desert Moon” are as fresh today as they were nearly four decades ago. Though he wasn’t part of the writing and recording process for those songs, lead guitarist Robby Lochner told Whatzup he believes the songs continue to have life because there is still demand for them to be played on classic rock radio and digital stations like Sirius XM’s Hair Nation. 

“Whenever you have music that makes it out there pretty far like their’s did, it continues to resonate as long as there are people who are still listening,” Lochner said. “And the thing is, the people who love it are playing it for their kids, too, and now their kid’s kids are hearing it and loving it, so it continues to have life.”

Along with Russell and Lochner, the current lineup of JRGW features guitarist Tony Montana, who worked with the original Great White as a bassist during the MTV heyday. 

Leadership role

Though Russell is the face of the band, Lochner is the day-to-day leader, wearing many hats, including musical director and manager. He said he never sought out those roles, but never fought taking on the responsibility either. When he joined in 2011, he thought the gig might last a touring season or two, but “it just kind of continued and it seemed like every step of the way something kept falling in my lap.”

“I just let it all happen,” he said. “I don’t know. It’s a rock band, so is there really a musical director? Everybody in the band is very capable, so if somebody’s doing something wrong or right, everybody points it out. I didn’t force anything. When something needed to be done, I was the one stepping up to do it.” 

Jack Russell’s Great White has put out one album, 2017’s He Saw It Coming, along with a Led Zeppelin tribute album, Great Zeppelin II and an acoustic version of Great White’s Once Bitten called Once Bitten Acoustic Bytes. 

“There are songs that we’ve had that have been kind of sitting around and one of them is almost done. It just needs some solos on it,” he said of new music. “That song was going to be on the last record, but Jack keeps thinking he might want to re-sing some stuff. It’s a slow kind of bluesy song like ‘House of Broken Love’-esque, but more Zeppelin-y feeling. For me, I think it’s really good. Hopefully we can have a single out maybe January-ish.”

Playing the hits

When Russell, Lochner, and the rest of the band visit Fort Wayne for the first time in about four years, Lochner plans for a night filled with hits. With so many songs to choose from, settling on a final set list could be problematic, but it’s actually a simple process. 

“I let Jack do it,” Lochner said with a laugh. “It’s his job. He decides what he wants to play, but you have to play certain hits that people expect to hear, like “Lady Red Light,” “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” and “Rock Me,” because those are songs that people want to hear. But when we do a longer set like we will do in Fort Wayne, then you can go into some deeper cuts, too.” 

The reality of playing many of those same songs at each and every show could mean the band might get into a rut where they just show up and go through the motions, but Lochner knows fans see right through those types of performances. 

“Every time that we play a song, we’ve gotta treat it like it’s brand new,” he said. “You have got to keep that excitement in you, otherwise people feel it. I just have fun with it. I think this band has a certain something. There’s a sense of urgency when we play and you can feel it.”

Compare that to some bands of the same era that seem to simply want to collect that paycheck and move on to the next gig. 

“There are a lot of bands that we play with that get up there and are like, ‘Here we go playing the songs again and going through the motions,’ ” Lochner said. “They are just kind of over it … I mean, not all of them. There are definitely bands that are still putting it out there, but I see it in some bands that don’t seem too thrilled to be playing in those songs.”

While we’re assured the hits will be aplenty and the band will be on point, Lochner said he didn’t know if Russell would be moving around in the way most remember since he is still rehabbing from hip surgery. 

“He’s getting stronger each time that we play, but what level he’ll be moving around, I don’t know,” he said. “He will still sing and sound like Jack Russell, which is important, and the rest of the band will be playing with that sense of urgency like we’re there and we mean it. We want everyone to have fun.”