Great White’s Mark Kendall Discusses the Rise of Grunge in the ‘90s

2014-07-09

Story by Cat Badra

Unlike many ’80s rockers, Great White’s Mark Kendall says he welcomed the ’90s grunge movement

Not every ‘80s rock musician is a fan of the ‘90s grunge that proceeded them, but Great White guitarist Mark Kendall says the rise of grunge in the early ‘90s was a much-needed change. Speaking with My Global Mind webzine, Kendall said he “wasn’t really as bummed out as I thought I should have been” when the grunge movement came in and kicked ‘80s rock and hair metal to the curb.

“I was almost relieved to hear something different, because I really felt that at the end of the ‘80s, it was starting to get watered down,” Kendall said. “It was becoming so predictable. Everybody was writing the same songs with the anthems, and to me, it was just really bad.”

He added, “I just thought it’s nice to hear this raw music; it was such a welcome change for me. Alice in Chains, for example, I liked. Usually I’m pretty accepting when I hear music that has melody to it and that has some kind of originality. Their songs were maybe a little darker, about how screwed up the world was and doom and gloom, whereas in our era it was all about celebration and girls… Our attitude was to get away from the problem, theirs was to embrace it. And it still sounded good, and there were a lot of good bands that came out in the ‘90s. But it was a dark period for bands of our era because the momentum had shifted towards the newer bands.”

Kendall said that while some ‘80s bands simply stopped playing after grunge came on the scene, Great White still toured, but simply stayed under the radar.

“I was talking with Rudolf Schenker of the Scorpions, and he said that they basically didn’t play in the Nineties, they had a ten-year break almost, because of all the new music. We still played but we were kind of flying under the radar, because so much attention, so much deserved attention was happening with the new bands.”




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