Great White’s Mark Kendall part one chat with LRI

Great White sharks live a long time; proud, muscular beasts that control their domain and will probably continue to do so for eternity.   The legendary L.A. rock band of the same name shares a lot of the same characteristics of its animal namesake.  The band has been spending recent months out playing glorious outdoor summer rock gigs and doing it better than ever.  While the band has made many a hit record those who are in the know are aware that the live show is what the band does best.  We recently had an in-depth chat with new vocalist Terry Illous but that was heavy on conversation about his days in another L.A. band XYZ.  We still had some GREAT WHITE questions after all these years of loving the band and co-founder/guitarist Mark Kendall was very gracious and answered some of them for us including the past, the recent stint with Jani Lane and where the band is headed.  Read on….

Mark Kendall:  We loved jamming with Jani. He was completely professional in  his preparation and he sang great. It was horrible losing him! I was working  with him closely and supporting his sobriety, as I do with 6 others.  At his  memorial,  I wanted people to know that he wanted to be sober more that anything. I  sent him daily prayers and we spoke on the phone about our individual walks with sobriety.  Unfortunately,  his demons overcame him and it was very sad.   I also let people  know about his talent at the memorial.  The guy had phenomenal talent not only in song writing but in music in general.  He also played drums on Warrant records and is solely responsible for the band even having a career.   I didn’t let any MORE  information out of the bag but I will say I was upset that  none of the WARRANT  members showed up to his memorial.

MK:   Thank you John!!   I think the way we keep ourselves from going through  the motions is that we have kept making new music over the years. We also have  extended jams that bring the crowd into the show and it’s a little different  every night, which is what keeps it exciting for US. We don’t know exactly  what’s going to happen from night to night.  That is refreshing for a band.   If we were just going out and only playing Once Bitten Twice Shy every night we would probably have to go on  suicide watch, (laughs).

MK:   Sure it’s fun to show people how we used to do it in 1982!!!  We like to take them through a little journey with our discography, so going  back to the beginning makes sense…….That stuff rocks.

MK:  We love Terry and everything he brings to the band. We will all  have to wait and see what happens. We are all having a lot of fun at the moment  and it is a pure joy working with Terry….

MK:   I have been writing off the hook lately and I hope we get in  the studio soon. You definitely haven’t heard our last record or anything like that, I  assure you.  We love to create and will definitely be doing a new record.

MK:  Well, first of all we were working with the legendary  Producer/Engineer Michael Wagener so we were very excited and had high  expectations. I still love that record even though it wasn’t a big seller for  us.

MK:  That happened in the mid 80s. The more I wrote the more my  influences started to show up along with everyone else as well. Everyone in the  band has different influences and mine mostly stemmed from the blues style  players and our style began to evolve.

MK:  Yes, I wish we would have taken a break before we recorded  Hooked. We needed to follow up our Once Bitten……and Twice Shy Albums with  something very, very strong and I believe we fell a little short and just needed to take a  little time off to accomplish what we needed to do.

MK:  The band has never picked a single in its entire career. Our  job has been to write the best music we can that we love to play. After it’s on  tape, you hit your knees and pray other people like it too (laughs).  I have never  written a single per say but I have written songs that have become singles.  The  record company usually has a song they want to put out as a single or  whatever.

MK:  There is really not much difference between now and back then.  Our fans have always been extremely important to us and we usually don’t hit the  road after a show until everything is signed and all pictures are taken.  Sometimes it takes a while but we always have a good time and our fans are VERY loyal so it’s nice to actually take that time.

MK:  I’m probably not as much of a gear head as Rick, however I am  always looking to improve on my tone.  I have a lot of influences. Carlos  Santana, Johnny Winter, Alvin Lee, Richie Blackmore, Billy Gibbons and many, many  more………

MK:  We just interchange those  songs we don’t HAVE to play and that helps a lot.  It is  difficult deciding what makes the set at this point but it’s also quite fun actually…..

MK:  Not too many people are aware that Great White was my nick  name and it’s how the bandname was conceived!!   We came up with incorporating  the shark image well after the fact.   Go to  http://www.edromanguitars.com and check out my  new guitar. THE SHARK IS BACK FOLKS!!! Thanks for the support from all the Great  White fans around the world. WE LOVE YOU  ALL!!!!