Mark Kendall
Of
Great White

BM: Is it true, that you came from a very musical family?

MK: Yes, my father was a jazz trumpet player who could read and write music. My mom was a singer and my Grandfather was a master piano player at 13 years old and played all his life. Just about everyone played piano and sang on my mother’s side.

BM: What styles of music did your family introduce you to?

MK: It was mostly jazz but at an early age I was captivated by melody from the singers, so I used to sing along to their records.

BM: Your father gave you your first guitar, what was it and do you still own it?

MK: He bought me an acoustic Kay guitar when I turned 9 years old; I no longer have it.

BM: Growing up through your teenage years what styles of music and artists influenced you?

MK: When I was 14 it was all Carlos Santana, once again his melody and feel. Then Johnny Winter, Alvin Lee, Richie Blackmore, Terry Kath (original Chicago guitarist), and Dicky Betts etc...

Before the bands’ name was Great White, the band went by Dante Fox.  How did you come up with the name Dante Fox?

MK: Our bass player Don Costa came up with the name. He said it was his friends name from San Diego. We were so tired of thinking of names I said, sounds good enough to me. [laughs]

BM: How long would you say Dante Fox played the club scene before being discovered by Alan Niven? And how did Alan discover the band?

MK: 3 1/2 years. Alan Niven introduced Don Dokken to Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mench who became Dokken’s management team. Alan asked Don who’s a good band in town in the L.A. area? Don told him he should check us out. He saw us twice and wasn’t sold. He came a third time and we played “No Doctor” by Humble Pie on the encore and he loved it and felt he wanted to sign us.

BM: In 1982, why did Alan want to change the bands’ name from Dante Fox to Great White?  I’ve heard the story of how he came up with Great White but for those that have not do you care to re-tell it?

MK: He liked the band but literally hated our name. The night at the Whiskey that he decided he wanted to work with us, he was standing outside of the club after the show. He claimed I drove by in a car, stuck my head out the window and screamed something to the crowd standing outside. The kid next to Alan pointed and said, there goes ‘Great White’! Something clicks in Niven’s head and he said, that’s their name!!!

BM: Was there any resistance from any of the members in changing the bands’ name?

MK: Jack and I hated it right away! When he told us his idea we said, “But we will lose our following.” He said “Don’t worry about those 70 people, I’m taking the Band worldwide!” We said ok then later on we thought of the shark and loved the name!
BM: After the first E.P. was released wasn’t it a little weird to be dropped by EMI and then signed by Capital, since Capital was owned by EMI?  Can you explain the difference?

MK: The E.P was on our own label. Our first full length album was on E.M.I. We were happy to leave E.M.I. America because they didn’t want to do the normal artist development thing with us, which was common back then; we immediately felt no loyalty. We put out ‘Shot in the Dark’ on our own after parting ways with E.M.I. and got a marginal hit with ‘Face the Day’ On KLOS in Los Angeles which became number 2 song of the year. KLOS was the biggest radio station in the Los Angeles area. It also received air play in Texas and Arizona. A&R man Ray Tuskin from Capitol Records came down and watched us play at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and committed to signing us on the spot. Everything happens for a reason so we thought of it more like a miracle than it being weird. Getting a second chance doesn’t have to happen, we fought hard for that second shot, but your stars have to line up. Our angels were working overtime at that point but we were eternally grateful for getting rewarded for our hard work.
BM: “Rock Me” was the bands very first stand out hit.  What made that song translate so well with hard rock fans as oppose to say, “Shot In The Dark”?

MK: Our song writing improved over time. “Rock Me” was a well written song with dynamics and a big chorus.

BM:  It was you manager’s idea to record Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”.  What was your initial response as far as covering the song or the label taken the song as the first single from ‘…Twice Shy’?

MK: We thought it was a good track, but I had no idea it would ever be released as a single. We completely made it our own even changing lyrics in the chorus. Ian’s version “Da I,I, I’m once bitten twice shy babe.” We say “ My, My, My .”  We weren’t that confident with the release SHOWS WHAT WE KNOW!!!!

BM:  How do you feel every night as you play the song knowing that you will go down in hard rock history for mainly being known for a cover song as opposed as an original composition?

MK: We had to put covers on our records, it keeps them from getting scratched. We had many hits we wrote, ‘Once bitten twice shy’ was never a hit till we did it and made it our own. If people think this is our only song, they have never read Billboard Magazine or followed charts of any kind and certainly have never known any of our 13 studio albums.

BM:  On March 30, 1990, touring for ‘…Twice Shy’ and ‘Hooked’ you took time away to film an episode of MTV’s Unplugged.  This had to be right up Great White’s Alley.  How much fun was it playing in that format?

MK: we were on the first episode of unplugged for MTV. MTV always treated us awesome, even a number one video on their station for 4 weeks. Don Henley, Damn Yankees and us did our shows the same day. We had a great time playing our stuff on acoustic guitars and giving people a different look at our songs.

♫♫♫ When they performed Led Zeppelin’s "Babe I’m gonna leave you" for MTV’s unplugged, it was preformed that night without no rehearsal, the first they had even attempted it was live for the taping. ♫♫♫

BM: If you listen to the first six albums in order, you can hear the band progressing into a heavier sound yet keeping that blues feel that Great White is known for.  In your opinion what would you say was the contributing factor in this?

MK: Not too many bands had the blues overtones in the 80’s. Eddie Trunk said that’s what separated us from the other bands, it didn’t make us better; just different.

BM:  I don’t want to say it was a drastic change however, your next release ‘Sail Away’ contained more ballads (an almost back to your roots if you will).  What was some of the reasoning behind this?

MK: Alan Niven came up with the idea. We had never pre-planned what kind of record before nor have we done it since ‘Sail Away.’ I thought the record was good, kind of the way Zeppelin did ‘Led Zeppelin III’.

BM: In 1998, you made the decision to release a live CD tribute solely to the great Led Zeppelin.  What made you decide to do this?  Out of all the great Led Zeppelin songs how did you narrow them down to the fourteen you recorded?

MK: We did it for the fans. We did three shows of Zeppelin only for the fun of it. The tapes sat around forever! Finally, we put it out for the fans since they liked our take on “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”. We just learned a bunch of songs. I don’t remember how the songs got picked, we just didn’t want to do songs we played as teenagers. We wanted to play songs we had never played before.

BM:  Was there ever a discussion to release a DVD version?

MK: No.

BM:  In January of 2000 you made the decision to take a hiatus from Great White.  This lead to the other members leaving the band. Why did you decide to take the hiatus? (It was during this time Mark began his struggle for soberiety.) (As of 11/2/2018 Mark has been ten years sober!)

MK: We all took a break because Jack wanted to take a fly at a solo career. I made two records and so did he. In 2006 we put the band back together. I really enjoyed my time jamming with amazing musicians away from Great White Like Dicky Sims from Eric Clapton. He was a great keyboard player who played on “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Cocaine”. His sound was bad ass!!

BM: The hiatus caused the rest of the members to also leave the group.  Looking back on it did you think the band would ever get back together?

or were you just ready to call it quits?

MK: It didn’t cause anything, we all wanted the break from the start!

BM: In 2006 the band re-formed and released ‘Rising’ in 2009.  What was some of the reasons for the re-formation?

MK: It felt like it would be fun to play all together again and I was right, I’m still doing it. [laughs]

♫♫♫Editor’s Note: At this point during the interview Mark stated ‘Rising was the worst Great White CD they had ever released!  This may have been the first time in an interview where an artist had almost put down their own material. ♫♫♫   

BM:  While Jack was in the hospital you toured with three different lead vocalists that filled-in? (Jani Lane of Warrant, Paul Shortino of Rough Cutt & King Kobra and Terry Illous of XYZ)

MK: Yes.

BM:  How did Great White decide Terry was going to be the band’s front man?

MK: After he blew us away and completely killed it, 80 shows in a row.

BM: As a band how difficult was it to let Jack go?

MK: We didn’t let him go, we suggested he go get well and then come back healthy. Instead of coming back, he decided to sue us for our band name. His idea was to get all new musicians and take our name, we were forced to defend ourselves.

BM: ‘Elation’ was the first CD with Terry.  How different was the songwriting and recording process with Terry as opposed to Jack?

MK: Not much difference really. Terry is a musician as far as he comes with ideas on guitar, Jack sang, nothing has changed with the way we write. WE STILL GET IN A ROOM AND SAY, WHAT DO YOU GOT? [LAUGHS]

BM:  While we are on the subject of songwriting, there is something I have always wondered about your lead guitar parts.  Your lead guitar solo sections especially the minor solos, for example, “Call It Rock ‘N’ Roll” are placed perfectly.  How do you decide when and where you are going to place them?

MK: After the rhythm guitars and vocals are on the tracks, I just play where it feels right. I come up with the best guitar melody I can that will compliment any given song.

BM: In your opinion out of all the releases and songs within the Great White catalog which ones would you say completely capture your vision of the Great White sound?

MK: The ‘Once Bitten’ album felt the most natural.

BM: At what point did you make the decision to get clean?

MK: After going in and out of sobriety since 1991, I just said I’m going to start listening instead of doing everything my way. My way was not working, I will have 10 years sobriety 11-2-2008.

Editor to Mark- “Me along with the staff of Blast Magazine are very proud of you.”  Mark – “Thank you so much”.

BM: If you don’t mind me asking, what prompted you to want to get clean?

MK: Pain!

BM:  What is next for Great White?

MK: After doing shows in the USA we are doing a proper tour in Europe, South America, China, and Australia starting in November if everything works out.

BM: Do you have as much appreciation now, playing the old songs as you used to?

MK: I’m so grateful for all of our songs, I will never get tired of playing them.