Share Ross was born “Sharon Howe†on March 21, 19-sixty-something in Glencoe, MN. Raised by a wonderful father and a very musical mother whose six brothers and sisters all played multiple instruments as did Grandma and Grandpa which resulted in wild jam sessions every time that side came to visit. Eventually, Share chose bass after being well schooled on piano and messing around with guitar. She attended Berklee College of Music in Boston as a bass player and composer; cut her teeth on the Minneapolis jazz scene; played every state in the continental US; worked as crew aboard a 52 foot yacht and sailed the Caribbean for six months surviving a hurricane at sea; had two back operations; kicked a hospital morphine habit and all this was by the age of 21.
Then it was time to try the big city. LA. Share packed her car and bass and drove cross country to the sunshine. Setting out with a plan to be a session player, she ended up playing for a lot of various groups like The Drifters, The Coasters, Del Shannon along with a lot of bands in Hollywood. Eventually, she landed the gig with 70′s Australian pop sensation Helen Reddy. It was during her years with Helen that she realized she truly wanted to play her own music and began pursuing a rock band again.
At one of her session gigs, Jan Kuehnemund saw her playing and gave Share her phone number. A couple of months later, Share called her up hoping to connect with Vixen and meet other people in that scene. Funny thing was, she called on the very day that Vixen fired their bassist. A few weeks later, she was firmly esconced in the band and shortly thereafter, the band was signed to EMI Records.
Vixen toured heavily, playing an average of 320 gigs per year. Eddie Money, Bad Company, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne, KISS and The Scorpions were the acts that brought Vixen out on tour with them.
Share was asked to be part of ‘super group’ Contraband and the band rehearsed and recorded a bunch of cover tracks. It was at this time that Vixen realized there was some bad blood between their manager and their record label. Vixen discovered they no longer had a record deal by reading about it in Billboard magazine when the then-President of EMI announced he would no longer work with any artists or bands managed by Allan Kovac.
Without a deal and searching for a direction at a time when Nirvana was hitting its stride, the band fell apart. Singer Janet Gardner and Share had a deal for a little while with John Kalodner at Geffen but eventually that fizzled out, too.
Texas blues guitarist, Gary Myrick rang Share one day and mentioned he was looking for a bassist to replace Paul Simonon of the Clash in his band, Havana 3 AM. Share auditioned, got the gig and had a blast playing and recording with the group. It was Gary who persuaded her to sing lead on a song which led to many groups being started by Share as she tried out fronting a band and writing her own material. The Ex’s, Confusion, Sub-cool, and finally, as guitarist and singer… Bubble.
Along the way, Share and Bam (Dogs D’Amour) started hanging out and found that they not only did they write music together very well but they enjoyed each other’s company. They wed in 1996 and when they returned from their honeymoon, their guitarist moved in and lived on their couch.
Before actually recording with Bubble, Share and Bam co-wrote all the music and played on the album for MTV Veejay Jesse Camp. A somewhat disastrous effort but it did get them the funds to purchase their own equipment which then led to the first Bubble album recorded and produced by themselves.
It was during this time that the Dogs D’Amour began working on another album. But bassist Steve James did not want to pursue the project at that time so Share was asked to be the bassist. The band recorded demos in London and then finally recorded at Share and Bam’s studio to produce Happy Ever After. In 2004, The Dogs toured with Alice Cooper for his European tour.
Bubble also toured endlessly up and down the west coast, Japan and the UK. Various member changes happened along the way and after 3 albums, 3 eps and several bassplayers, Share and Bam have decided to take a break and have started recording new material under the possible name, The Lovestains.
Tidbits
> Share taught bass at BIT (Bass Institute of Technology) from 1987 – 1990.
> Her bass hero for years was Jaco Pastorius and she owns the #003 Jaco Pastorius fretless bass.
> In her youth, she swore she’d never play in an all-girl band.
> Share was classically trained on piano and still plays Bach, Beethoven and those other cats on the ivories.
> She once auditioned to be the bassist for Barry Manilow and sat next to him on the piano bench and sang the harmony to “Mandy†with him. (She didn’t get the gig as she did not play upright bass.)
> Share was introduced to Darryl Jones (the incredibly talented bassist for the Rolling Stones) at a club and immediately said, “Wow. You were the bassist for Miles Davis when you were 19!†They became friends right away and Share has met Mick, Charlie, Ronnie and played pool with Keith.
> Bubble entered the John Lennon Songwriting Contest to ‘test out a credit card to see if it worked’ and ended up winning the whole thing – Song of the Year with their track “Sparkle Star†off their first album.
> Share also won Best Female Guitarist in Los Angeles twice.
