Grimm Jack drop video for new single “Crazy”
Grimm Jack drop video for new single “Crazy”
New York rockers Grimm Jack consisting of Billy Kohout (lead vocals), Jimmie Mack (guitars), GG Zen-Garten (bass) and Joey Masters (guitars) have unveiled a video for their latest single “Crazy”. The drums on the new single were performed by Dave Leeds.
In an interview with Sleaze Roxx back in January 2016, it was noted that Grimm Jack had been around for over 30 years [37 years now] but the band did have a 20-year hiatus at one point. With respect to the group’s history, Kohout indicated: “Yeah. We had a little bit of a hiatus but during that time, I had taken over the reigns and it actually was in existence for a while but it kind of shifted gears in members so I was really for some of the time the only original member. You know, the original line-up had taken a hiatus for quite some time. To get that line-up together was in true Spinal Tap form [laughs]. There had been a lot of bad blood that had transpired so I figured that 20 years had gone by and it seemed like a good time [laughs].”
In terms of how it got to the point that there was so much bad blood between the band members, Kohout opined: “In typical rock and roll fashion I think. You know, we were doing so much work in such a little amount of time and it was the decadence of the ’80s so there was that whole lifestyle involved. We were showcasing with a major record company at the time. We were touring. There was too much going on and not enough oversight to kind of monitor what we were doing. And we kind of self-destructed from the inside out. In true rock and roll fashion, there is always a woman involved.”
The singer added: “So that had a little something we will say to do with it [laughs] and you know, it kind of became just me. It was me and Tommy. Tommy Lestat I think was the last standing member and then he jumped. I just kind of took it over from there. There are actually a bunch of songs that were recorded if you go on the reverb site or the reverbnation site. They are listed and [they are] a little different than the original Grimm Jack stuff but similar. It’s still me singing and you know, I was writing. But coming back to this point, this is something that I didn’t expect because five years ago when we put this together, I was contacted by Jim to do a project with him. It was him and the bass player G.G., and I heard some of the stuff that he did with a solo project that he had going on called Charming Bastards.
I wasn’t really knocked out about it enough to make me part of that thing but I had not spoken with Jimmie in a while so it intrigued me to sit down with him and listen to some music and kind of rekindle that relationship. Within half an hour, we started talking about Grimm Jack and I said, “Why don’t we just start by playing some old Grimm Jack songs?” Man, I love those songs. We had such a great time playing them and writing them and recording them. And relatively fast, it was like “Let’s get the original line-up — try to get it back together.” Within a few days, we met at a local pub that was kind of central to everybody and after a little bit of drinking, [we] decided to give it a shot and five years later, here it is you know? We have a couple of videos out. We have a new record that is doing great. It’s just awesome. I feel like, it is, you know, it’s like reuniting with the long lost family and I am happier now than I think that I have been in my whole career. Every minute with those guys is just magic.”
Grimm Jack‘s “Crazy” video: