Watch: ANDREW FREEMAN Steps In For JACK RUSSELL At…

Due to “health” reasons, former GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell sat out the June 8 concert by his current band JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE at the Feather Falls Casino & Lodge in Oroville, California. He was replaced at the gig by Andrew Freeman, a member of LAST IN LINE who fronted GREAT WHITE for a five-month period in 2022 following the latter group’s split with Mitch Malloy.

Video of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of Jessica Chase).

On June 4, Feather Falls Casino & Lodge shared the following statement via social media: “Regrettably, we need to inform the fans of JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE that Jack will not be performing this weekend at Feather Falls Casino due to an ongoing health issue. Performing in his place will be friends of Jack Russell featuring his band members Robby Lochner (guitar),Dan McNay (bass),Ken Mary (drums) and Tony Montana (axe/keys). Andrew Freeman has stepped up to help out on vocals. Andrew is the A-list vocalist of LAST IN LINE and also former member of OFFSPRING, LYNCH MOB and GREAT WHITE. The ‘Friends of Jack’ band will be performing all the hits plus some DIO classics! BULLETBOYS kick off the night in true Rock N’ Roll fashion! We appreciate your continued support as Jack works on getting his health in order!”

In a separate message below the above post, Feather Falls Casino & Lodge director of marketing and entertainment David Enser added: “Hello Everyone, This press release was provided by agency representing JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE & BULLET BOYS. We here at Feather Falls Casino are just passing on the information to make sure that everyone is aware of the changes. The show will go on as scheduled so with it not being cancelled we have a no refund policy. If you are still attending the show I promise you will have a great time and not be disappointed with Andrew Freeman as the front man while Jack is recovering. Thank you for your continued support, hopefully I will see you at the show on Saturday. Rock On Fellow Rockers!”

On June 6, Freeman confirmed his participation in last Saturday’s concert, writing in a social media post: “I’ll be filling in on vocals for JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE on Saturday at Feather Falls Casino in Oroville, CA. Wishing Jack a speedy recovery. That dude is tough as nails and I’m honored to fill in for him.”

Russell exited GREAT WHITE in December 2011 after he was unable to tour with the group due a series of injuries, including a perforated bowel and a shattered pelvis. Jack largely blamed these injuries on his alcohol and painkiller addictions as well as the prednisone drug he was prescribed.

Russell sued his onetime bandmates in 2012 over their continued use of the GREAT WHITE name after Jack had taken a leave of absence from the band for medical reasons. A short time later, Russell was countersued by guitarist Mark Kendall, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Michael Lardie and drummer Audie Desbrow, claiming the vocalist’s self-destructive behavior was damaging the GREAT WHITE name (they also alleged he was charging promoters less for his own touring version of GREAT WHITE). The parties settled in July 2013 without going to trial, with Russell now performing as JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE while the others are continuing as GREAT WHITE.

Freeman discussed his short tenure with GREAT WHITE in a March 2023 interview with the “This That & The Other With Troy Patrick Farrell” podcast. The Las Vegas-based musician said about his vocal approach for the gig: “I was never a big fan of GREAT WHITE. So when I went in there, there was a couple of songs that I liked. I love their first album. But I wasn’t a fan of certain elements of that. So when I went in there, I went in as like a blues guy. A lot of those songs are very bluesy and they have a very hard blues element to them, so I wanted to bring out that blues element to it. So I kind of approached it as HUMBLE PIE — kind of where they were influenced from — HUMBLE PIE or LED ZEPPELIN instead of coming like a student of Jack Russell or a student of [RATT‘s] Stephen Pearcy or a student of ’80s singers. I wanted to come in as a student of what inspired that music.”

In May 2022, GREAT WHITE announced that it had parted ways with Malloy and had replaced him with Freeman. Malloy had been in GREAT WHITE for nearly four years, having joined the group in 2018 following the departure of Terry Ilous.

Brett Carlisle made his live debut with GREAT WHITE in September 2022 and was officially named the band’s new vocalist in October of that year.