The Cupertino Courier

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Marine boyfriend inspires singer's music

By Crystal Lu

Jennifer Grinels, a Cupertino-born singer and songwriter, composed 11 songs for Little Words, her first full-length album. Two of those song are dedicated to her boyfriend, decorated U.S. Marine Capt. David Russell, who has completed two tours of duty in Iraq and is preparing to go back a third time.

Grinels said the extreme emotions love brings, and her separations from Russell, inspire her as a songwriter. She began composing music and writing lyrics when she was a student at Monta Vista High School in the mid-1990s.

Now an award-winning musical actor and singer in Southern California, Grinels returned to the Bay Area this month for an album-promoting concert in San Francisco and stayed with her parents in Cupertino. She attributes part of her success to the music education she received in her hometown.

"The music programs of my schools gave me early training," said Grinels, who first performed in a musical at age 5. She grew up singing in children's musicals and school choirs.

During her junior year, Grinels and high school classmate Larry Cheuk formed a rock band, Triptonite, with two students from Homestead High School and another two from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. Grinels was the band's singer. The band frequently performed on high school campuses during lunch hour as well as at community centers until it broke up in 1997 and band members went on their separate ways to college.

Grinels majored in musical theater at the University of California, Irvine. After graduation, she began her music career as a singer/guitar player in Los Angeles. Then a musical audition brought her to San Diego, where she continued to get parts in musicals. She won the 2000-01 San Diego Playbill Billie Award, the city's equivalent to a Tony Award, for her performance as the narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Grinels and Russell met in March 2006. She was on stage playing Peron's mistress in the musical Evita , and he was sitting in the front row with his Marine buddies. After the show, six of the soldiers brought bouquets of flowers backstage and asked six of the actresses out.

According to Grinels, Russell didn't tell her at first that he was a war hero.

"He's modest," she said.

Russell received a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star for risking his life to save his comrades in Iraq. He was one of the four medal-winning servicemen featured in GQ magazine in December 2006.

Grinels and her family, especially her father, Sam, are proud of Russell. Sam Grinels served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966 to 1972.

Russell is leaving again for Iraq in November. Before that, he was able to spend his 27th birthday with Grinels on Aug. 15.

"He's an old 27-year-old," said Grinels. "War ages people.''

Grinels wrote a birthday song for Russell last August, when he was stationed in Japan. This month, she was happy to sing it to him in person.

Before their next separation, Grinels and Russell will go on a tour around the country to promote her new album.

For more information about Grinels, visit www.myspace.com /jenngrinels.