Jack Grisham

Jack Grisham is the vocalist for the deathrock/hardcore punk band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty).

T.S.O.L. was one of the more popular hardcore bands, along with Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Social Distortion.
Before T.S.O.L. reunited with their original lineup, Jack kept himself busy as lead singer of the Joykiller and a bid for governor of California on a social democratic platform. Jack is currently living in Southern California with his wife (Maggie) and his two children (Anastasia and Georgia). Jack is presently performing in the Kuehn and Jones Orchestra under the name of "Jack Lloyd Jones" and is recording his 15th album.

Biography

Early Life

Grisham was born in the East Bay area of Northern California. His father was a career military man, spending 30 years in the Navy and Coast Guard. 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.

Grisham credits his older sister, who was part of the hippie subculture (or as he calls it, "Late 60's protest crap"), for exposing him to his first creative influences. 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 Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. 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 to Long Beach, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. 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.".^[2]

Adult Life

While still in his teens, Grisham started experimenting with 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."^[3]

T.S.O.L.

Eventually, Grisham and Barnes were joined by Ron Emory and Mike Roche. 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 a fans from the hardcore punk, art punk, death punk, horror punk, and goth genres. During his time with T.S.O.L., the band was notorious for their controversial, shocking, and political lyrics.

The original T.S.O.L. broke up in the early 1990's, 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 hair metal , touring and recording under the name T.S.O.L..

Recently the original T.S.O.L. reformed, minus Todd Barnes who died of a brain aneurysm in 1999.^[4]

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.

Jack Grisham and the West Coast Dukes

Currently, Grisham leads the pop-alt group Jack Grisham and the West Coast Dukes.

Politics

In 2004, Grisham ran for Governor of California after Gray Davis was recalled.

Trivia

In the 1984 Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia, Grisham appeared with T.S.O.L. performing "Wash Away" and "Darker My Love".
Grisham once played saxophone live onstage with the band Buthole Surfers.

External links

References

[1] ZZZlist.com Journalist Ro Hurley

[2] ZZZlist.com Journalist Ro Hurley

[3] 2008 ZZZlist.com Interview

[4] Todd Barnes' page on the official TSOL website

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