Mike Preston Interviews Jack Russell for Psycho Babble TV

I’m with Jack Russell of Jack Russell’s Great White, who’s got a brand new album out called He Saw It Coming, which I am pleased again I don’t even have to bullshit you and tell you I like it. The voice is still there.

Ohh, yeah. Thank you.

Yeah.

I I, you know, it’s on loan. I’ve always said that, you know, I mean, and and I’m fortunate that I still have what I have when I was in my 20s.

Yeah, and it’s not like you saved it through clean living.

No.

You’re looking.

No, no,

You’re lucky to have that voice.

I’m lucky to be alive. You kidding?

Absolutely. Absolutely.

I’ve been. So it’s funny. I, I, I would, I put some on the internet, I said, yeah, “I’ve been sober for a year and a half now.” Somebody goes, “You know, he’s been sober for a year and a half so many times…” I’m like, “Oh, man, this ones, this ones for real.” Because I was in the hospital for five days the last time I drank, I was in a coma. I woke up and the doctor’s like, “You know, if you do this again, you’re going to die.” He goes “I don’t know who the hell you are. I’m just telling you this for your own edification you know?” And I was like Janie Lane, (who was a good friend of mine) or be alive? So it was like, pretty easy choice.

That’s great.

Just laid out black and white like that. I can get it, you know.

And yeah. And there’s a song on the new album called My Addiction.

Yeah.

Tell me about writing that song.

Well, that was really that, you know that. The song was actually one of those songs like Save Your Love. It was just one fluid thought.

OK.

I sat and just wrote it. Without stopping. It was like weird, but it was it was easy because it’s my life,

Mmhmm.

You know what I mean? And I put so much myself in this record. It’s the most autobiographical record I’ve ever written. You know, there’s only a couple songs, which is a stray from me that that weren’t autobiographical. Like Spy Versus Spy, for example.

Yeah, yeah,

I did that from the old man magazine thing, you know, and I just wanted to write as I go, man. It couldn’t. I’ve seen so many spy movies. They go, maybe I didn’t get this in a movie, you know?

Ohh, that’s so cool.

So, you know, we’ll see.

Well, and there’s another song on the album that I started listening to Blame It on the Night and it starts how you think, oh, this is this is a good time rock’n’roll song. Blame It on the Night and you pay attention to lyrics. It’s a lot more sinister. Tell me about that song.

Well, that song was written about my wife’s childhood and her upbringing. She was molested by her father and she, I mean, she was two years old and they used to beat her, her dad. She just got a picture in their family album where she’s got a black eye at two years old. What two year old Kid deserves to get hit by her father? Her father’s huge and he’s a cop.

Yeah.

Was a cop, you know, I mean, and I finally called him on it.

Ok.

I called him on the phone and said, you know what? You just disgust me, you know, I just.. “I never did that”. I’m like, you know what? I believe my wife. Why would she make that up? And her whole life she was, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry”. She’s sorry for the sun, you know, she’s sorry for the clouds. I’m like, “Honey, it’s not your fault”, you know? But that’s the way she was brought up, you know, she’s walking on egg shells and she was like straight A student, you know, nursing school, everything. She excelled. Valedictorian and all this stuff, you know, cumlaudi, whatever, you know, I don’t know what it is. I dropped out of high school, but, you know,

You graduated cum louder.

Yeah. Yeah cum louder. Yeah or cum harder.

Now we talked off camera a little bit you were telling me that you may have a book coming out are you are you working on

Ohh yeah yeah I mean it’s gonna be called Dancing on the Edge, but it should be called You Ain’t Gonna Believe This Crap you know I mean I mean literally I mean I’ve I’ve. I should not be here right now. I should not be a rock star. I was, and this is the absolute truth. This is where the album title came from. This is where the picture came from when I was six years old. And I’m being completely honest about this. I was going to be archaeologist. This is before I was six. I was almost six and I wanted to be like Doctor Leakey and I wanted to go over like gorge and Africa and dig up human remains.

And you know, my parents bought me The Beatles Help album for my 6th birthday. Can I put it on my little record player that we had back then, you know? I don’t know. I’m talking about, you know, looking in the Encyclope… looking up on the Internet, you know, And I remember it was black and had like, little knights, you know, and the were jousting, you know, I mean, that was the theme. And so I put it on. I’m listening to it. And all of a sudden I had this feeling this overwhelming like it was nothing short of the clouds opening up, you know what I mean? And I just go, “I’m gonna be a rock star”. I knew it. I mean It wasn’t like I thought, wished, dreamed, hoped. I mean, I knew it like it was just put into my head, like, OK, I knew it like the sun was coming up tomorrow and it for a six year old kid that was just I can’t tell you how heavy it was, you know, I was like, Oh my God, you know, So I never worried about what I was going to be because I always knew that was my destiny.

For better or worse, this is what it’s going to be.

So now I was telling you also when I was 18 years old, I was really into cocaine. You know, I’ve been, I’ve been fighting drugs and alcohol my whole life, you know, and for whatever reason, you know, there’s obviously something, you know, wrong in here or wrong in here and. Well, I used to rob people for drugs. I didn’t have any money. So the logical thing was I don’t want, you know. Still, I don’t want to break into house and have to sell this stuff. It’s too much of a hassle. So I went right to the source. So I had this, I borrowed this revolver from a friend of mine and I loaded it only because when you pulled a revolver on somebody, you can tell it’s not loaded. I mean,

You can see the bullets in the chamber. You know, then they. Loaded and I was never ever meant to fire it.

Right.

It was like scare people, you know. So this one time we had already done this a few times. It was no problem walking blah blah blah, me even one guy who said Oh no, not again. I’m like, you know, like I had to laugh and they have sorry.

“Yeah, it’s us again.”

I won’t, I won’t take your money, though. Keep your money. You know, I mean, and got conscientious, right? Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so this one time I heard that this guy, a friend of mine’s, an old friend of mine from junior high school was dealing. So I went to his house with a friend of mine to to rob him and I had smoked some PCP before I went in and I blacked out. And apparently from what the court transcripts say, because I don’t remember any of this, I I went inside and my friend that was with me saw me just tripping out and he split because this guy’s like losing it.

So I went outside and there was a maid watering and I went up to her and this like I said, I don’t remember. This is from the court transcript and I go where’s the coke? And she and she thought that I was a friend of the guys playing a joke on her. So she goes no coke. Just Pepsi go frigerator help yourself. And you know, it wasn’t funny this well, I don’t remember, but I mean, it wasn’t funny at the time. But when I later after I got out of jail, I read the transcripts, I’m like, Oh my God, no Coke, just Pepsi. Pepsi, Pepsi cheap cheap like in Saturday Night Live. I’m like, this is not even real, you know.

I was in the house. The father was down the hill with the horses. He looks up and sees this guy hassling with the maid and he’s got a gun. The gun goes off. I don’t even remember that. I don’t remember any of this. Right. Apparently he goes up with his, gets his briefcase full of money and gets in this bathroom. Somehow we get in the house, she gets away from me, goes in the bathroom with him and it’s like there’s two inch thick oak door and they said it was pounding on it, put in big cracks in it. And then they said I shot through the door. The bullet went through the door and hit a Saint Christopher medallion over her heart and ricocheted into her shoulder.

Oh, wow.

And I’m like. You know, when they I came out of the house, I woke up on my knees and there’s a door and there’s a gun. I didn’t know I shot it. I go to unload it and I put the bullets on the water. And I heard all the swat team “Come out with your hands up”. I’m like what? And then I remember what I was there for. So I took the bullets out. I didn’t even notice I, you know, shot two bullets

But you didn’t know you had shot a person.

No, I didn’t. I didn’t know I shot the gun. I didn’t even notice. I was just trying to get him out. Something on the side of a waterbed came out through the gun out and the guys all tackle me. Would you shoot it for? I’m going shoot who? And they told me what happened. I’m like, I heard my dad’s voice. “You know, one of these days you’re going to get all hopped up on this stuff and you’re going to shoot someone” I used to laugh. I didn’t even have a gun! What do you mean I was going to shoot somebody?

I go out, I shot somebody. Can’t believe it, you know? So they gave me 8 years.

Okay.

And I’m like Oh my God. I’m done.

So much for being a rock star.

Yeah, but I thought that’s not right. I know I’m going to be a rock star. So I go to jail and and I’m telling him I’m sitting there after I get eight years, I’m back in the holding cell. I’m just crying. I go, I go how much you gotta go 8 years. goes “well, dude, don’t you know?” I go “what” he goes, “you’re going to YA California authority”. You got you. “So?” he goes, “well they resentence you again” So anyway, so I get up there and they put me in this lodge and it was like for Medium, you know, there you got your protective custody people, and then you got your, you know, Medium people. Then you got your gnarly stabbing your mom people and they got the drug program. They sent me, they sent me to the medium one and I met with the drug program people and they go well, no, first I went to board, OK, and there’s four people sitting down.

18 months and they go around another 21 months I’m thinking. OK, that’s not three years, you know, So I got to spend 3 months on this in this place without trying to catch any time, you know, and you get in a fight six months and these people make you get in fights like the gangs when they go, you start, you punch that guy, man, we’re gonna stab you. So you know, you want me to punch the guy, you got six months so I was going, there’s no way I’m not going to catch time when I’m in here and the drug program guys came up and met me and then they go, yeah, we’ll accept you in, but you gotta wait till you have 18 months.

I’m like, ohh, God. So three months I got to get by without getting in a fight. So and I was, you know, I I didn’t take crap from nobody back in those days. You know, I mean you look at me funny, I knock you on your butt you know, 18 and you know, 19 at just 19. So two didn’t know the next day the guy the guys come up and they call me in again. They go “We’re going to make an exception in your case the first time ion history. We’re going to bring you down with 21 months. You’ll be out in 11”. I’m like, “What?”

And the guy that ran the program’s name is Jim Russell, which was my uncle’s name. I was like, that was so weird. So they brought me down and did my 11 months got out a year later I signed my first record contract. So I mean, you know, if somebody would have told me that was going to happen before I would have went “You’re out of your mind. There’s no way it’s going to happen”. And it did. It just shows you that was. Wow. Divine intervention, predestination, whatever you want to call it.

Absolutely.

You know I just call it. I put so much energy in my life thinking about being a Rockstar, going and picturing and visualizing it. You are the secret, right?

Yes.

I didn’t have my whole life, you know,

Well, and there’s a lot of life lessons in that story.

Yeah.

I think the the important one for the kids at home to know is the prisons are full of people who said I never intended to shoot anybody,

Right.

But.

And it was life changing stuff. Yeah, I mean, to say the least. And so it’s a long story,

But you gotta write a book,

I mean. I’m going, yeah, that’s not, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in my life,

Right.

You know what I mean? but it was a really poignant story. And and, you know, if I could say anything to anybody, man, it’s just, you know, Don’t get into drugs, if and if you have, get the hell away from it because it’ll ruin your life. It’ll take you down so fast. And you may not be as lucky as me.

Yeah, I would piggyback on that. Get help you, you don’t have to do it alone.

No. Absolutely not.

You know, there’s a lot of people in the same boat too so get some help.

Well one of my good friends was in jail for seven years. He started robbing banks. He got out of jail for five years. Got sober, Met this chick. She was doing drugs. Year later, he was doing heroin and he started robbing banks. I saw him on TV. I’m like, “What are you doing?” and then all of a sudden they go, “We finally captured him, the scourge of the South Bend, the Balding Bandit”. And I’m like, ohh, no God, it’s not. It’s bad enough getting busted for robbing banks and you going to jail with a moniker like that, you know?

The Balding Bandit

Hey, this is Jack Russell from Jack Russell’s Great White and you are watching Psycho Babble.