Jesse James Dupree Recalls Early Jackyl Show Where Nirvana Showed Up And Was Almost Kicked Out

Think back...way back to the early 90s. The start of the grunge movement. While bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP and others were taking off, there was a rock band from Georgia that was about to take the rock world by storm as well. That band was Jackyl. The band with a rowdy, chainsaw wielding front man who was determined to keep rock alive.

This is a story where both worlds collided one night in the northwest.

On a recent Talkin' Rock with Meltdown episode, Jesse James Dupree of Jackyl told me about a show early in the band's career, where the band Nirvana was almost thrown out!

It all took place at a show in Seattle. Jesse explained "The guys in Nirvana, we were on the same label, they came out to see us when we were in Seattle. And we broke into "I Stand Alone" and they started slam dancing. And the security guards grabbed them and threw them out." He told me it was the entire band, along with Courtney Love. He went on to say he saw what happened, and yelled to the stage manager to go let them back in the side door. Jesse said when they came back in, they hung on the side of the stage until the show was over.

"At the end of the night, they were drinking draft beer out of gallon milk jugs." Jesse said he'd never forget that. "Kurt was sitting in Courtney's lap, like a child, ya know. We literally had to help him get to the car. They partied their ass off."

The reason Jesse and I started talking about Nirvana, is because in the Foo Fighters' movie "Studio 666", the Jackyl song "The Lumberjack" is used in an absolutely grisly death scene. Jesse told me he'd watched the scene the song is used in. Jesse told me he appreciated Dave Grohl using his song in the movie. "Dave is obviously hands-on with everything he does. I thought it was great placement and were proud to be part of it."

As far as Dave himself, Jesse said he's got a lot of respect for him. "I'm proud of him. When you see someone that takes a negative, adverse situation, and turns it into something positive, that's what you got to do."

-Meltdown-

Welcome to Track X Track - episode 2. This time, I'm so proud to bring you my conversation with Jackyl's Jesse James Dupree. We discuss their debut album track by track. Jesse tells me about working with a fairly unknown producer named Brendan O' Brien. "I'm proud to say that we were the first, if not one of the first, to recognize his talents as a producer to get him his first gold record."

He tells a funny story of a legendary grunge band that was kicked out of a Jackyl show. What two things did they guys have to promise to do after getting signed to a record deal? Jesse tells me all about that story, as well as a song he wrote for the band Kansas that Jackyl eventually used. We talk about the album artwork and lots more.

This is a very fun, interesting conversation about a record that broke these boys loose on the world!

Check out every song from the debut album below. A huge "Thank You" to Jesse for spending so much time with me discussing this record!

You can watch episode one of Track X Track with Brent Smith of Shinedown here.

-Meltdown-

Jesse told me this song was written around 1989. After finding out he was about to become a first time father, Jesse wrote this song not knowing if he'd ever get back on stage again with his new found responsibility. "It's overwhelming as a mid-20s guy having kids." He also talks about a very costly lunch that he partook in as the album was about to be released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPFTyYA04vU

Jesse explained that this song was released as a single, after their original plan was scrapped because someone started playing "The Lumberjack" on the radio. We'll get into that later. When asked about the girl in the middle of the song, Jesse said it was a random act of pornography that was captured on tape. He laughed, "That was just a moment in time that just happened to work out."

This may be the most interesting song I learned about on this episode. Jesse explained that he had written this song several years before the album was recorded. He was at a party where he met the singer from the band Kansas, Steve Walsh, who suggested they should write together sometime. He thought the singer was sincere, so he wrote "Down On Me" with a whole other production in mind, "Kind of like a Foreigner 'I Want To Know What Love Is' kind of a song," he said. Kansas never used it; their loss.

"When Will It Rain" was another song that was written around the time of his son Nigel's birth. He said he'd work at the bar all night, then came home where his wife handed him his colicky child. One very cold night, he went down to the basement, set up a four-track recorder and wrote the song. This song was written as a "when will I get a break" kind of a thing, Jesse said. He said the famed A&R man, John Kalodner tried to get him to change the lyric from "rain" to something else. But to him, it didn't work so it stayed.

This is one of the few songs on the record that Jesse didn't have a hand in writing. Jeff Whorley and original singer Ronnie Honeycutt wrote "Redneck Punk". Jesse talked about what a good guy Ronnie was at the time and still is. Jesse's goal was not to break up the band, which he wasn't in at the time when the song was written, but when Jeff asked him to join, he couldn't resist. And, he said, being a part of Jackyl has been raucous ever since.

This song was a staple at every Jackyl show since 1992, and even before then. Jesse talked about how he even began playing the chainsaw as an instrument in the first place. "What's a more definitive instrument for rock and roll than a chainsaw?" That's a great question! "It's everything rock and roll should be!" he said. Jesse said his dad saw him play the chainsaw at a local bar and said "You need to keep doing that." He talked about recording it in a studio actually full of chickens. That's just for starters on this song, he talked a whole lot more about it. Fun fact: Jesse actually gave me the chainsaw they used in the video when he called me up on stage in the fall of 1992. It had the bolts sticking out of the side where the camera was mounted. The band signed it and we auctioned it off for charity. Man, I wish I had that thing today.

This is probably as close to a love song as Jackyl gets. "It's the one song I felt was a little different than the rest of them." He said it's a big production song, and range-wise, it's in the key of B.

"We've been playing 'Back Off Brother' recently, and the response has been incredible," Jesse said. "This is the only song on the album that has any sort of political slant. 'Back Off Brother' was me venting," he added. Of course this makes sense, with the famous line in the song being "Uncle Sam...Kiss My Ass!"

This was another song Jesse didn't write. This song was written by Jeff Whorley and original guitarist Jimmy Stiff. Jesse told me about Jeff and Jimmy growing up in the sticks, looking for any way to get drunk. "It wasn't hard for me to wrap my head around it and sing it with everything I've got," he said. He also talked about the ending of the song in which it fades, then comes back up, and ends cold. "That's called having your cake and eating it, too," he said.

"You talk about another song that was full of fire and brimstone," Jesse said, talking about "Just Like a Devil." Jesse said that this is another song that's "up there" in the key of F sharp. He said the lyrics seem to require it.

This song is another Jackyl classic. One that's played pretty much at every show, unless there are little ears in the crowd. "It's a very "Redneck Punk" type of song," he said. He went into how A&R guy John Kalodner was the one person they wanted to sign the band. He said they were hungry and dirt poor, but so confident in what they had.

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