‘America’s Deadliest Rock Concert’ Program, on Great White Tragedy, to Air

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Great White’s Jack Russell, in the aftermath of America’s deadliest rock concert

The deadly nightclub fire that left 100 people dead at a 2003 Great White concert is the subject of a new program, America’s Deadliest Rock Concert: The Guest List, premiering Sunday, February 20, 2022, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on REELZ. The two-hour program centers around the deeply personal stories of lives forever altered by the tragic incident that also left more than 200 injured and devastated the tight-knit community of West Warwick, Rhode Island. It is also a story of the triumph of the human spirit, as seen in a community’s resilience and the recovery and rebirth of Joe Kinan, who was the last survivor pulled from the fire and the most severely burned.

Watch two exclusive clips from the program below.

On that fateful night on Feb. 20, 2003, more than 400 music fans packed into the Station nightclub. Just seconds after 80’s rockers Great White took the stage, pyrotechnics ignited a fire that raced up the walls and across the ceiling of the packed venue. In less than 90 seconds, most of those who hadn’t already made their escape would be trapped inside. The Station fire was a perfect storm of human error that became one of the worst nightclub tragedies in U.S. history. It remains America’s deadliest rock concert.

The film contains rare and jarring footage from the first news crews on the scene who were tasked with reporting the horrific event as survivors were pulled from the fire and Great White frontman, Jack Russell, faced the cameras and broke down with grief.

Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider once played the Station nightclub and many other small town clubs like it –as was common for metal bands of the 80’s. Snider was instrumental in bringing together fellow recording artists for a fundraising concert to benefit survivors and victims’ families.

“Nobody deserves to die because they wanted to see a band,” Snider says in an interview from the film.

From the announcement: Russell emerged from the experience a changed man carrying with him the burden of accusation for what transpired that night and in a series of highly revealing interviews he shares his post-fire search for peace after a near two-decade journey of crippling heartbreak and depression as a result of surviving the tragedy. In the afternoon before the concert Russell met many Great White fans in the West Warwick area and graciously added their names to the guest list for the show that night. For many of those fans what appeared to be their lucky day turned out to be their last.

Weeks after the fire, a charred handwritten notebook page was recovered from the Station nightclub ashes that contained rows of names and above them were the words “Guest List.”

Watch the full trailer

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