Jack Grisham

Jack Grisham
Background information
Birth name Jack Grisham
Also known as Jack Loyd Grisham, Jack Loyd Jones, Jack Greggors, Alex Morgan, Jack Ladoga, James DeLauge, Jim Woo, Arthur Chance
Born (1961-07-22) July 22, 1961
Long Beach, California, United States
Genres Punk rock
Hardcore punk
Anarcho-punk
Deathrock
Horror punk
Instruments Vocals, piano
Years active 1979–present
Associated acts T.S.O.L.
Cathedral of Tears
Tender Fury
The Joykiller
Jack Grisham and the West Coast Dukes

Jack Grisham (born on July 22nd, 1961) is an American rock musician, raconteur and political activist from Southern California. He is the vocalist for the punk band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty), which emerged from the late 1970s Los Angeles hardcore punk rock scene, along with Black Flag, Circle Jerks and Bad Religion. Grisham has also fronted the bands Vicious Circle, The Joykiller, Tender Fury and Cathedral of Tears. He records with T.S.O.L., The Joykiller and the Manic Low

Biography

Early life

Grisham was born in Hayward, California and then moved to Long Beach. Grisham's father, a career military man with 30 years in the Navy and Coast Guard, died in 1984. Grisham's mother was a military housewife. Grisham was one of five children and has an older sister, two older brothers, and a younger sister.

Grishams older sister was part of the hippie subculture (or as he calls it, "Late 60's protest crap"). As a result, by the time he was six years old, Grisham was reading publications like Fritz the Cat and Zap Comix, and listening to albums by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, The Beach Boys, The Ventures, etc. Grisham cites the albums We're Only in it for the Money and Let it Bleed as two of his musical influences.

In his early life, Grisham's family moved back to Long Beach, California. Growing up, he was a rebellious youth heavily into surfing, skateboarding, and in his words "causing trouble."[1]

While in high school, he met future T.S.O.L. drummer Todd Barnes through a girlfriend. Grisham and Barnes became friends, and took off with the girlfriend's guitar and amplifier and began playing around with sounds. In the beginning, Grisham claims, "All we did was make a bunch of noise and yell,"Fuck the neighbors" all day."[1]

Adult life

While in his teens, Grisham started experimenting with mood altering substances. Soon he became addicted to drugs and alcohol. He recalled, "I was a nut. I used to think I didn’t have a problem because I didn’t shoot up and I didn’t take acid."[2]

After several minor tangles with the law stemming from his drug and alcohol abuse, Grisham married a 16-year-old girl in Mexico, which he claims got him on the road to sobriety. When asked how he got sober in a 2008 interview, Grisham said, "Actually, I married an underage girl. I wanted her to get clean. I said I would support her. I was like, "Hey, I’ll support you so you can get help. I’ll go to the meetings too. Then she ended up leaving and I ended up staying."[2]

Grisham has been sober since January 1989. He has two daughters, Anastasia and Georgia, and resides in Huntington Beach, California with his wife Robin and her/their three children, Dexy, MacGowan and Avalon. .[3] When not working on a music project, Grisham writes and practices hypnotherapy.

True Sounds of Liberty (T.S.O.L.)

Childhood friends Grisham and Barnes were joined by Ron Emory and Mike Roche to form T.S.O.L. The original line-up of the band was vocalist Jack Grisham, guitarist Ron Emory, bassist Mike Roche, and drummer Todd Barnes.

T.S.O.L.'s initial line-up gained fans from the hardcore punk, art punk, death punk, deathrock, horror punk, and goth genres. During his time with T.S.O.L., the band was notorious for their controversial, transgressive, and political lyrics.

The original T.S.O.L. broke up in 1983, and Ron Emory and Mike Roche enlisted vocalist Joe Wood, Grisham's brother-in-law at the time, and drummer Mitch Dean into the band, playing music that started as punk rock but with each new album changed to blues-inspired (hair metal). They spent several years touring and recording under the name T.S.O.L.

The original T.S.O.L. reformed in 1989, but Todd Barnes died of a brain aneurysm in 1999.[4] T.S.O.L. has been touring and recording steadily since 1999.

The Joykiller

Grisham and Ron Emory formed The Joykiller in 1995 along with Billy Persons (The Weirdos/Gun Club) on bass, Ronnie King on keyboards, and Chris Lagerborg on drums. The Joykiller released three albums on Epitaph records prior to disbanding in 1998 and had a minor radio hit in the Netherlands with the song "Go-Bang." They later released their Greatest Non-Hits in 2003.

Jack Grisham and the Manic Low

In the fall of 2011, Grisham launched into another musical endeavor with his band "the Manic Low". Their debut album, Songs For An Up Day, was released on Moonlight Graham Records in June 2012.

Jack Grisham's LOST Soul

In 2012, Grisham began auditioning a few additional musicians for a new band called Jack Grisham's LOST Soul, to play gigs covering T.S.O.L. and The Joykiller songs. Grisham is lead vocalist; T.S.O.L.'s Anthony “Tiny” Biuso is on drums; on guitar, D.I.'s lead, Clinton Calton; on bass, Trevor Lucca; and on keyboards, Greg Kuehn.

Hypnotherapy

Grisham has received full certification as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Master NLP Practitioner. He has an office in Huntington Beach.

Film

Grisham appeared as himself in the movies American Hardcore and the Geza X film Rage: 20 Years of Punk Rock West Coast Style (2001)(he also wrote the title track "Spit Up the Rage"). In the 1984 Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia, he appeared with T.S.O.L. performing "Wash Away" and "Darker My Love."

Politics

In the early years of T.S.O.L., Grisham was an outspoken anarchist, and his lyrics were often highly critical of the government. Songs such as "Abolish Government/Silent Majority," "Peace Thru Power," and "Property Is Theft" were standard in T.S.O.L.'s song sets.[5] Grisham later changed his anti-government stance, stating, "What I realized about anarchy is that we are not responsible enough to be anarchist. There’s no way possible. We're not responsible enough to be that. That's a heavy concept."[2]

Grisham was one of 135 candidates who ran for governor in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election, receiving 2,200 votes. He ran on a social democratic platform as incumbent Democratic governor Gray Davis was recalled.[6] During his campaign, he stressed health care and education, and supported the teaching in school of religious tolerance.[7]

Writing

In 2011, Grisham released his first novel An American Demon: A Memoir.[8] This book has received favorable reviews by several sources.[9] In August 2015 Grisham released A Principle of Recovery: An Unconventional Journey Through the Twelve Steps, a book that walks you through the twelve steps of recovery(AA) from Grisham's perspective as a long time member of Alcoholics Anonymous (although he won't publicly admit that because it goes against fellowship traditions). Grisham is currently working on an illustrated book of short stories.

Bibliography

Novel

Discography

Vicious Circle

T.S.O.L.

LPs

EPs

Singles

Compilations

Bootlegs

Movie soundtracks

Filmography

The Joykiller

Tender Fury

Cathedral of Tears

Jack Grisham/Mike Roche/Ron Emory/Todd Barnes

T.S.O.L./Slayer

Rob Dukes lead singer for the metal band Exodus did background vocals on the Joykiller albums Static and Three. Rob is a friend of Jack's and credits him as being one of the people who helped save him from a drug and alcohol death.

The Manic Low

Jack released, with his group the Manic Low, a 17-song album entitled Songs for an Up Day. The record was released on Moonlight Graham Records in June 2012. The album features Grisham's Joykiller partner, Sean Greaves, on guitar and bass, Rob MiLucky from the Devil's Brigade on guitar and Paul Roessler on keyboards.

References

  1. 1 2 "Home". Zzzlist.com. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  2. 1 2 3 "Jack Grisham". Zzzlist.com. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  3. ↑ Blank, Alan (January 13, 2009). "TSOL singer reflects on rise of music and surf industry". Huntington Beach Independent.
  4. ↑ Archived June 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "T.S.O.L. Concert Setlists". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  6. ↑ "T.S.O.L. Frontman Running For Governor Of California". MTV. 2003-07-30. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  7. ↑ http://www.lacitybeat.com/cms/story/detail/?id=259&IssueNum=16. Retrieved July 8, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "An American Demon: A Memoir: Jack Grisham: 9781550229561: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  9. ↑ Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Archived February 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
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