Rising

Rising, Great White's eleventh studio album, came out in Europe on Frontiers Records on 13 March 2009 and in the United States on Shrapnel Records on 21 April. Since Back to the Rhythm the band had completed a world tour celebrating its first 25 years, which included fourteen concerts in Europe, after which bassist Sean McNabb opted out. His replacement was Scott Snyder, formerly of Ramos and Accomplice, who joined singer Jack Russell, lead guitarist Mark Kendall, guitarist and keyboard player Michael Lardie and drummer Audie Desbrow for the sessions. Lardie again produced, engineered and mixed. According to the sleeve, the album was recorded at Desbrowland Studio in California's Inland Empire and mixed at Java Jag Studio in Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the songs are credited to Russell, Kendall and Lardie, with Desbrow sharing the writing of "Down on the Level". Kendall said that had the band made this record in its heyday it would hold up against anything it had done, and that with Russell singing and himself and Lardie on guitar the result would sound like Great White in any era. Lardie heard the songs as more introspective and closer to real life, and felt that writing some of them only after the sessions had begun gave the tracks a freshness. The European edition adds "Let's Spend the Night Together", credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, as a bonus track, and King Records' Japanese edition of 27 May 2009 adds another song by the same pair, "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'", while the American CD has the eleven album tracks. Rising turned out to be Russell's last studio album with Great White. When he took a leave of absence for medical reasons, Jani Lane of Warrant sang with the band on tour, and in 2010 Terry Ilous of XYZ took over. In March 2012 Russell sued Kendall, Lardie and Desbrow over the use of the band name; the parties reached an agreement in July 2013, and from then on he performed as Jack Russell's Great White.