Chainsaw-wielding ’90s rockers Jackyl are heading to Reno for another stop on their never-ending tour.
Yes, I said chainsaw-wielding. Jackyl’s top hit “The Lumberjack” may be the first, and only, song to feature a chainsaw solo. Gimmicks aside, Jackyl’s self-titled debut album established the group as a serious member of the ’90s rock scene, mixing the popular hair-metal sounds of the era with the band members’ Southern charm and musical influences. Songs like “Down on Me” channel a bluesier, twangier Guns N’ Roses vibe, while “I Stand Alone” blends driving, head-banging rhythms with poppy chants and subdued, ethereal grunge elements.
Jackyl are slated to perform on Tuesday, March 24, at the Cargo Concert Hall in Reno. It’ll be yet another date for the band whose Instagram bio proudly claims “ALWAYS ON TOUR!”
“We never could really do a proper tour shirt like other bands, just because they have a stop and start date, and we don’t ever quit,” said Jesse James Dupree (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, gas chainsaw).
Dupree said Jackyl’s consistent touring allows the band to give back to the fans.
“I work with Harley-Davidson and all the “Rolling USA” campaigns and giveaways, and I do a lot of stops with the dealerships on ticket giveaways for our shows, and then they give away motorcycles,” he said. “I’ve been able to hand the keys to about 30 different Harley-Davidson motorcycles over the last four or five years, so I get to be Santa Claus. We’re also promoting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally every year at every show that I’m at. My partner and I have the Full Throttle Saloon at the Pappy Hoel Campground out there, and we’ve got such a great lineup this year with Sammy Hagar, Journey, Rob Zombie, Blackberry Smoke and Jackyl. It’s our New Year’s Eve that happens in August every year, and it’s where everything culminates for us.”
Music fans may be intrigued to learn that a Jackyl show in 2026 isn’t just a nostalgic celebration of 30+ year old music.
“We’ve never been limited or conducive to just the songs from the ’90s,” Dupree said. “We’ve had albums that have done really great on streaming and everything. Songs like ‘Screwdriver’ and ‘Encore’ and ‘Secret of the Bottle’ and ‘Just Because I’m Drunk’ are songs that, if I start singing the first line, the crowd just picks it up and runs. It’s very sad that radio doesn’t mean what it used to mean, but at the same time, radio is not the end-all, be-all, or the metrics for whether or not people know the words to your songs or stream your music.”
Always being on tour means the band has numerous opportunities to shake things up, and even dive into non-Jackyl material.
“The show is constantly changing, and we will swap stuff around,” Dupree said. “We just pulled a song off the first album that we hadn’t played in forever called ‘Brain Drain.’ We pulled that out, and people loved it, and then we’ve got a brand-new song that Robert Patrick (T-1000 in Terminator 2) sang with me in the studio. It’s actually a song that I did, so it’s not necessarily a Jackyl record, but we don’t look at it that way. We just played in Kansas City, and Jeff Worley, the guitar player, he’s got a solo album called Worley the Pirate, and his daughter sang on some of his songs, so she came out and sang her ass off, and we played stuff. We’ve been together so long that we don’t really draw boundaries like this. We change it up and have fun.”
Jackyl’s trip to Reno is a part of a conscious effort to spread their backwoods sound along the West Coast.
“We have not been to the West Coast as much as we should be, and as much as I’d like to be, because we stay so damn busy,” Dupree said. “We could stay busy all year long just in the Midwest, but that’s not just us. Sammy Hagar’s band could stay full-time in the Midwest, and it’s the blue-collar music that I grew up with. We do need to make it more to the West Coast more often, and we’re making an effort.”
On the band’s current run of shows, they’ll share stages with music legends like Buckcherry, as well as up-and-coming acts in local scenes, such as The Electric in Reno.
“It was a big deal for me when I was growing up to have some opportunities like that, so we generally do allow the local promoters to pick local bands that need an audience to play in front of, especially if it can help make the night a better night,” Dupree said.
Dupree recalled a number of bands—like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Creed—who all opened for Jackyl before becoming huge music sensations, and shared his thoughts on whether bands in the modern era still have the power to “blow up.”
“Most bands that go to that next level, for the most part, you see them making a gradual ascend,” he said. “I can’t remember the last band that really popped out and just blew up. It’s pretty much a level playing field that everybody’s just out working toward building, and it just kind of gradually ascends. My brothers in Blackberry Smoke, I produced their first album and carried them out on the road with us for a few years, and they’re celebrating 25 years now. They’re doing really great, but it’s been gradually ascending to the point where they are. It’s a different time, and people are so fragmented. Especially since COVID, everybody’s just spread out over so many different mediums, so it is really hard to reach the masses in one swoop. You have to build it one portal at a time, one show at a time, one video at a time, and out of all that will come something else. The one thing that will never change is the fact that things always change.”
Jackyl know gradual ascension very well—and even after 35 years as a band, a majority of the core members and crew from the early days remain a tight-knit group.
“I think it’s a testament to the guys in the band that we’ve been able to maintain the relationship that we have with each other in a respectful way, and just get through the whole career,” Dupree shared. “We’re pretty much locked into a routine, including our road crew. Our guys have been with us forever—longer than any woman or anything.”
Jackyl will perform at 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 24, at the Cargo Concert Hall, at 255 N. Virginia St., in Reno. Tickets are $33.31 in advance. For tickets and more information, visit cargoreno.com.