Greg Boland

Greg Boland plays the bass guitar and does backing vocals for Jaded Poet.

Involved in music since he could walk and talk, he cycled through many instruments before settling with the deep vibrations of the electric bass. Four solid strings of sonorous warmth, my brother.

The quiet one of the band, he lets his instrument do most of the talking. In fact, once Greg went seven months without speaking a word. He was on a quest for Zen. When it was over, he reported that he had learned more about the world and the people around him during that time than at any other. His broken silence, however, was not planned. During a concert at a large outdoor festival, some maniac had been throwing bottles at the stage all day. Security could never find him. When Jaded Poet took the stage, the moron had graduated to actually shooting at the stage with a .22 caliber pistol. When a bullet ricocheted off one of Kenny's cymbal stands, Greg saw the asshole, set down his guitar, pushed through the crowd, and held the offender in a chokehold until security finally grabbed him. Greg didn't speak during any of this. Only after returning to the stage did Greg break his silence. He stepped to the microphone and after thirty weeks of not speaking a word, quietly muttered, "Stupid motherfucker." The crowd went wild and as the sun set, JP launched into an unbelievable ovation that is still talked about today.

When Greg is not playing the bass, he hones his already sharpened skill with a crossbow. He can put a crossbow bolt through the tire of a motorcycle traveling at 85 mph. This was performed under the close supervision and assistance of a stuntman pal of his. The things you do to win a bet.

In 1991, Greg spent a month in a South American rain forest. He brought his crossbow with him, as usual when he travels, and stayed in a small motel of sorts just on the edge of the jungle, right along the Amazon River. He and his friends learned of a tribe of people living a few miles into the jungle and ventured in to investigate. With the help of a local guide to translate, Greg and his friends actually hit if off with the folks in the jungle. The were first amazed at Greg's modern weapon, but their amazement for the device was quickly overshadowed by their amazement of his skill with it. The Amazon tribe called him "Mowamba Yebbi," which translates to "White Man with Third Eye." I guess they believe his dead-on accuracy must come from a hidden third eye.

He's also quite vigorously studied thermodynamics. However, he doesn't use his knowledge in this field much anymore except when telling the rest of the band secrets to keeping their beers cold. And they do appreciate that.

Greg's influences include Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Krokus. Although he never performed with Jaco Pastorius, they did coincidentally share a row in first class on a flight from L.A. to New York in late December of 1986, less than a year before Pastorius' death. They traded stories of wine, women and song (oddly, they spoke very little about playing the bass), drank the plane dry of vodka, then sang a harmonized version of "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" to the lucky few in first class. Greg kept the shot glass he was drinking from and still has it to this day.