Jack Russell, the frontman for 80’s hard-rock band Great White, has died aged 63.
An announcement made to the artists Instagram read: “With tremendous sadness, we announce the loss of our beloved Jack Patrick Russell — father, husband, cousin, uncle, and friend,”
According to K. L Doty, the author of Russell’s biography, the singer died of lewy body dementia and multiple system atrophy.
Russell co-founded Great White with guitarist Mark Kendall in 1977. Originally called Dante Fox, the band would get their start performing in small clubs in California during the early 1980’s before going mainstream with their big hits ‘Rock Me’ in 1987 and ‘Once Bitten Twice Shy’ in 1989.
In 2002, Russell and Kendall would hire three new artists to join the spin-off band Jack Russell’s Great White.
In February of 2003, while performing at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., the band’s pyrotechnics ignited one of the worst club fires in US history, killing 100 people, including Great White’s guitarist, and leaving 230 more injured.
Though Russell tried to return to performing in 2007, he soon decided to retire, citing an inability “to perform at the level I desire and at the level you deserve.”
Russells memory lives on through his son Matthew Hucko and his wife Heather Ann Russell.
