BASSIST GREG CHAISSON LEAVES JAKE E. LEE’S RED DRAGON CARTEL
On the heels of singer Darren Smith announcing that he was leaving the band, Red Dragon Cartel bassist, and Lee’s former Badlands bandmate, Greg Chaisson has announced that he has decided to depart the group as well.
Chaisson said, “I’m afraid to say real life just jumped right up and got in the way of my good time. I can no longer take any more time away from my regular job. I want to thank everyone in the Red Dragon Cartek organization, and most of all, my best friend Jake E. Lee. And a very special thanks to all of you who have treated me so great! They will continue on without me and it will be fantastic as always.”
Chaisson’s replacement will be Anthony Esposito, who has previously played with Ace Frehley and Lynch Mob. In addition, it has been revealed that singer Smith’s replacement will be Michael Beck who is the owner, engineer, and producer at SoundVision Recording Studio in Mesa, Arizona.
Red Dragon Cartel’s self titled debut album was released on January 24th in Europe and January 28th in North America.
Greg is known in the industry but I think RDC needs name people to suceed but maybe Jake is just looking to perform and not for the money. I think when someone try’s to push a different direction on his music he will walk away.
Maybe me being Irish has something to do with this, but I would’ve told Sharon to go ahead give me that plane ticket. There’s no way I could have continued to work with someone with such bad ethics. If Jake had called her bluff there’s also a chance she would’ve honored her verbal contract. But that is really abusive behavior. I have to infer that this incident did some long term damage to Jake’s psyche.
Anybody remember the band Red Sea? Man I miss stuff like that.
The way the industry is, (or has been) players do need to get ‘real’ jobs and that’s the sad truth. They work twice as hard for little glory.
Jake’s return to the music biz is off to a rocky start, but I wish the best for him. I don’t want to see them fizzle out playing clubs. When it was his turn to step up with Ozzy, he delivered. I remember his previous lead singer listing countless excuses why he didn’t perform well at their West Hollywood debut performance in 2013, and then said “But I don’t want to make any excuses”. I believe he blamed among other things, El Nino, the Yetti, and the metric system ;). Maybe he and Stephen Pearcy should hook up.
Concerning Red Dragon, Jake was in a situation with third or fourth rate musicians. None of them were anywhere close to his level, and looked as though all had day jobs.They performed and played like weekend warriors. As a result, Jake’s playing suffered, the guy was carrying three guys on his back, and the strain was evident…That singer thinks he’s Ian Gillan, and that off handed type of performance barely works when Ian does it. It is really quite painful for me to witness an incredible talent such as Jake’s trod upon by ruthless managers, health problems, and the latest: a bunch of guys with no chops including a smug lead singer. Here’s to Jake’s health and well being,