Jackyl

Modelling themselves on the classic rock groups of the '70s and '80s, Jackyl pump out loud, stomping bar-room grooves with squealing vocal wails and boundless amounts of swaggering, anarchic confidence. Formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1991, front man Jesse James Dupree, guitarists Jeff Worley and Jimmy Stiff, bass player Tom Bettini and drummer Chris Worley were proud redneck rock & rollers who blazed their way around small venues in the south playing high energy covers, before attracting the attention of Geffen Records. Within a year they'd released their self-titled debut album, which produced the singles The Lumberjack, When Will It Rain and Down On Me and went on to sell over a million copies. The band's relentless touring schedule included opening for Kiss, ZZ Top, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent and they teamed up with AC/DC front man Brian Johnson on the track Locked And Loaded as well as releasing a raucous version of Grandfunk Railroad's We're An American Band. They entered the Guinness Book of World Records twice when they completed 100 shows in 50 days and 21 gigs in 24 hours, but it was all change in 2000 when Stiff and Bettini left the band and Dupree completed his first solo album. The band continued on with new bass player Roman Glick and later albums When Moonshine And Dynamite Collide and Best In Show were well-received, while Dupree also found wider fame as part of the reality television show Full Throttle Saloon.