{"id":12275,"date":"2013-03-28T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=12275"},"modified":"2013-06-17T11:46:14","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T11:46:14","slug":"feature-rex-brown-03-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-rex-brown-03-13\/","title":{"rendered":"REX BROWN – Dragging The Waters (March 2013) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

REX BROWN – Dragging The Waters<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMarch 2013<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bassist Rex Brown \u2013 formerly of Texan metallers Pantera and currently of metal supergroup Kill Devil Hill \u2013 was queried regarding the possibility of an autobiography by Edinburgh, Scotland-based author Mark Eglinton, who the musician had worked with previously. This initial query would be the catalyst for March 2013 autobiography Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark said \u2018You\u2019ve really not said anything in the press; you\u2019ve really not stepped out, and said your truth or whatever,\u2019\u201d Rex recalls. \u201cIt took about six months for me to finally just say \u2018No, I haven\u2019t.\u2019 I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s ever a right timing for this, but for me there was a lot of truth that I wanted to maybe get out of my system in a weird, subconscious way. I decided to go ahead, and go down that path. I had to go through the horrible tragedy of Dime, and the dark places that I went to. I had to deal with all those. I guess it was about time to go ahead, and put my story out. As hard as it was for me to do something like that, the timing couldn\u2019t have been better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly 60 hours of interview footage was recorded in Spain during 2010, the four-stringer renting a cottage during several days of off-time from touring commitments with American metal assortment Down. \u201cDuring the six months of me saying \u2018No\u2019, me and Mark discovered we were into the same kind of music, that we listen to the same kind of stuff or maybe we did at some point back a few years ago,\u201d he discloses. \u201cIt just became a friendship, so I started to trust him more. I figured that he was a really good writer. He really pulled a lot of stuff out of me that I haven\u2019t really talked about, especially to the press. That was for no reason other than I was just up for the jam, man. I couldn\u2019t care less about the press, but then everything went awry. It wasn\u2019t a break-up of the band, but more a breakdown of the band communication-wise. I just didn\u2019t say anything in those years that went by. I had a few small children, and I was watching them grow. We just needed a break, as I say in the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rex\u2019s lack of affection for the press in general is quite evident, but perhaps deepened following the December 8th, 2004 fatal shooting of Pantera guitarist \u2018Dimebag\u2019 Darrell Abbott. That evening, Dimebag was performing at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio as a member of Damageplan. \u201cThat was a very deep thing after the tragedy, and everything that went with it,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cI had to dig deep, and of course I got this terrible disease after that. It took me two years to rehab off of that. I just felt the time was right. I\u2019m in a good headspace now; my life is wonderful, and my life was wonderful except for that little period of time. Sobriety and everything else kicks in, and makes you think \u2018Why would you wanna be 77 and tell your story about Pantera?\u2019 My life\u2019s good, and it felt good to tell the story now. Hey, look… This is my side of the story, but it\u2019s my truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Touching upon sensitive topics such as Dimebag\u2019s murder as well as personal experiences with alcohol dependency was \u201cpretty difficult\u201d, the rhythmist confesses. \u201cYou have to remember the good times also, though,\u201d he advocates. \u201cLife is good, bad, and ugly, but I have to remember all those good times that I did have with it. I think that was the main difference in me saying \u2018Yes\u2019 to this. I\u2019m just telling my story, and if you\u2019re gonna write something that says Official Truth<\/em> on it then you better tell the truth. That\u2019s all I can tell, but this is also just my side of the story. I have collaborations and corroborations in there with me about what was going on at the time, but it took four individuals to make Pantera. We were four strong, good musicians that all got together, and made that history. This isn\u2019t some made-up story. It\u2019s just no-holds barred, and gets down to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018Diamond\u2019 Darrell and Rex \u2018Rocker\u2019 performing live with Pantera (1987)<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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The touring lifestyle consequentially means Rex must frequently combat the temptation to consume alcohol. \u201cLet\u2019s just put it this way,\u201d he begins. \u201cI get so much of a rush off of the fans and what they give back these days, more than I did in the past. We were a party band back in the day, because we were young men. These days, it\u2019s a different story. Of course, there are times when you\u2019re maturely irresponsible. I\u2019ll put it that way, but those times are very, very few and far between. Not often, but seldom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bassist refuses to confirm whether he attends AA meetings. \u201cI don\u2019t really wanna get into that,\u201d he dismisses. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was really magic at work with what\u201d Pantera did in respect to February 1992 opus Vulgar Display Of Power<\/em>, Rex believes. \u201cWe re-released that in May 2012, but yeah, when I look back on it, it was a very poignant moment in the band\u2019s chapter of metal,\u201d he observes. \u201cHow do you say favourite though? Do you have a favourite interview that you like better than the next one? My opinion changes. That\u2019s the way I look at, the way you look at your interviews. That\u2019s my honest answer. I like Reinventing The Steel<\/em> (March 2000) a lot also, but then again I like… Like you say, one day it might be this record, and then another day it might be that one. I don\u2019t go back and listen to a lot of that old stuff, but I have been lately. This book was very cathartic for me, writing and having to go back. I just didn\u2019t wanna know after Dime\u2019s tragedy. It took me awhile to get out of that. That was a very dark, deep time in my life, but now it\u2019s time to go ahead and rejoice. It took me awhile. I miss the dude a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vulgar Display Of Power<\/em>\u2019s 20th anniversary reissue during May 2012 included the previously unreleased composition \u2018Piss\u2019. \u201cIt\u2019s so funny,\u201d the musician remembers. \u201cVinnie found \u2018Piss\u2019 and so on in the vaults somewhere, and it was just one of those songs that didn\u2019t make it onto Vulgar Display Of Power<\/em>. I wrote the main riff of that song. I was just messing around with it, getting the sound for the day when we were in the studio. We ended up using that in \u2018Use My Third Arm\u2019 (on March 1994\u2019s Far Beyond Driven<\/em>) as part of that, but whether there\u2019s anything else in the vaults? I\u2019m not sure. I can\u2019t recall if there\u2019s anything. We would only write ten to 12 songs for a record, plus there was a soundtrack here and there that we wrote for. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat means there might be something which\u2019ll turn up, but I\u2019m really not certain that that\u2019s gonna happen. I think that at that point after Vulgar<\/em>, we just pretty much wrote ten, 12 songs, or whatever it was, and that\u2019s all we wrote. We always had the DAT rolling though, so there\u2019s nothing that was maybe recorded. We just have these outtakes of how we maybe started a song. We could go back, and listen to those DAT tapes. Terry Date has about 600 hours worth of tape of us in the studio during those years, so I\u2019d be interested in trying to get those back and listen to them. As Kill Devil Hill is recording right now though, that\u2019s just not a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

May 1996 full-length The Great Southern Trendkill<\/em> \u201cwas kind of lost\u201d on Rex, however. \u201cThat\u2019s a fan favourite,\u201d he appreciates. \u201cWe really experimented on that record more. Before, the songs were more structured. When we did Trendkill<\/em> though, it was more of this kinda… Just from an artist point of view, that one was the one that we just kind of went off on. So yeah, I like it. Like I said man, I like all of them. That has a lot of depth in it, and a lot of stuff that was just off the cuff. One of my favourite songs on that record is \u2018Floods\u2019 for obvious reasons, but there\u2019s also tons of other great songs on that record. You have to remember, man; I\u2019ve written a lot of songs over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pantera 1984 (l-r): Rex Rocker, Terrence Lee, Vinnie Paul and Diamond Darrell<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Pantera made \u201ca conscious decision to distance\u201d itself from its 80s catalogue, meanwhile, which consists of four full-lengths; Metal Magic<\/em><\/a> (June 1983), Projects In The Jungle<\/em> (July 1984), I Am The Night<\/em> (August 1985), and Power Metal<\/em> (June 1988). \u201cYou\u2019ve gotta remember, I was 17 when I got into the band,\u201d the four-stringer stresses. \u201cMost bands don\u2019t last for five years, much less the 20 that we did. I think we would\u2019ve lasted for longer if Dime was still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The possibility of re-releasing Pantera\u2019s 80s catalogue hasn\u2019t been discussed. \u201cAre they relevant now?,\u201d Rex questions. \u201cMaybe to some people. I still love Projects In The Jungle<\/em>, stuff like that. That record was pretty good for a bunch of 18-year-old kids, but at the same time that\u2019s part of the past, and sometimes we don\u2019t live in a part of the past. We need to… Hey, look man. I put my pants on and my boots on just like everybody else does. We just get up in the day, and make the best of the day that we can for that day. If there was an opportunity to put those out \u2013 which for surely there is \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t bother me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texan quartet favoured a glam image during the 80s, that respective image discarded prior to the issue of July 1990\u2019s Cowboys From Hell<\/em>. Nonetheless, the rhythmist harbours no regrets regarding Pantera\u2019s chosen 80s image. \u201cThat\u2019s just a part of the past,\u201d he reasons. \u201cWe wore what we wore then because you had to put a little bit of shtick onto what you were doing to even get considered to play in these clubs. Do I look at the natural progression of the band, and what we did? Absolutely. I wear different stuff today than I did when I played in Pantera.\u201d<\/p>\n

The death of Dime notwithstanding, personal differences between vocalist Phil Anselmo and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott \u2013 Dime\u2019s brother \u2013 would have to be resolved before a potential Pantera could take place. \u201cI know it\u2019s a clich\u00e9 to say, but I never say never,\u201d Rex muses. \u201cI think it would be great to get in a room, rehash all of these old stories that we have, think about the good times and not the bad, and put that water underneath the bridge and down the river so to speak. At the same time though, I can\u2019t give you that answer because that hasn\u2019t happened yet. Until that does happen, for now we just have to leave it in the past. I would really like that to happen, but time will only tell. I\u2019ll put it this way, dude. We\u2019ve been offered millions of dollars to get back together \u2013 a lot of money. We\u2019re not doing it for the money. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have to be organic, but how do you do that without Dime in the band? It would be kind of hard. It\u2019s so easy for people to answer that question, but unless you were in the band and know exactly what happened and what went on, then you don\u2019t know. I try to explain that in the book. Again, let\u2019s not take things out of context man. I just wrote a book. I\u2019m here talking to you about it, and that\u2019s what I wanna talk about. I don\u2019t wanna talk about anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The name of Black Label Society \/ erstwhile Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde has frequently been mentioned with respect to Pantera\u2019s vacant guitar position. \u201cThere are all kinds of names out there; there are all kinds of great players who would like to be involved,\u201d the bassist notes. \u201cFor me it would be cool just to have a tribute, but until the three of us get in a room together and figure things out, then there\u2019s really no use in me wasting my breath. Dude, I\u2019m not trying to be a dick. I\u2019m just saying. That\u2019s a very tough situation, to say \u2018Oh, yeah, yeah… That would be great, man. Everything\u2019s gonna be just fine.\u2019 No. There are a lot of things that have to be worked out before any of that could be a consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The foreword for autobiography Official Truth, 101 Proof<\/em>, meanwhile, was penned by Dug Pinnick, the bass guitarist and vocalist for Springfield, Missouri-based rock act King\u2019s X. \u201cDug has always been a mentor, and from the very first he was one of the guys that just kind of really had this…,\u201d Rex searches. \u201cA lot of people helped us along the road, but we were still playing the club circuit, and playing different covers and stuff like that. We just finally decided \u2018Well, look… We\u2019re just gonna play one show,\u2019 and the club owners at first were very hesitant. We were playing six nights a week, and three sets a night. We just had this strong material, and the crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger in Texas, and on the rest of the circuit that we were playing. Dug was the perfect choice to write a foreword. He was there from kind of the beginning of… Not the very, very first, but he was there from the sidelines pushing us on. I\u2019m a huge King\u2019s X fan, as Dime was. It felt very fitting to have one of my favourite guys and mentor write a preface to my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copies of Official Truth, 101 Proof<\/em> have been mailed to both Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul, though the pair are as yet to provide feedback. \u201cThey can write their own books, if they like,\u201d the musician concludes. \u201cPhil and I have a very good relationship, but I haven\u2019t spoken to Vin in a long time. My arms have always been open to that cat. As I say in the book, I just wish that everything would be water underneath the bridge. That will hopefully break in, and then we can all sit in a room and laugh about all of the good times that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official Truth, 101 Proof<\/em> is arguably quite critical of Vinnie Paul, suggesting Rex dislikes the sticksman. \u201cI don\u2019t dislike Vinnie, but we\u2019re very estranged,\u201d he clarifies. \u201cI would say we had a good working relationship, let\u2019s just put it that way. That\u2019s fair to say, right? Everybody has to like each other in a band, but towards the end it got to the point where we just all needed to take a break from each other. There was that breakdown, and then the terrible tragedy with Dime. My whole thing with Official Truth is that this is just my story, and I just think that fans should read it. I don\u2019t wanna get too… You can read a different line out of that book if you want, but nothing\u2019s malicious. This is just the way that I saw things. If other people wanna write a book, they can write their own story on it. Whatever. It\u2019s so hard to put 20 years of your life into 300 pages of a book. I\u2019ve got 600 pages of stuff on the cutting room floor that the publisher didn\u2019t feel should be in the book, but it\u2019s all just crazy anecdotes of Dime and all of the shenanigans that we used to get into, and everything else, anecdotes that maybe weren\u2019t chronicled in all of the videos.\u201d<\/p>\n

These 600 pages could form the backbone of an additional tome. \u201cI\u2019d like to do that,\u201d the four-stringer admits. \u201cRight now, I\u2019m just trying to plug this one. I\u2019ve never done a book tour before, so all of these interviews are coming my way. I also have a band that I\u2019m in right now. Like anything else, this is my journey. As a musician, I\u2019m playing with some of the baddest cats that I\u2019ve ever played with. I\u2019ve been blessed three times, let\u2019s put it that way. Dude, that\u2019s what I\u2019m alive for man. It\u2019s like you. You\u2019re a scribe and love doing what you\u2019re doing, or else you wouldn\u2019t be doing it. My take on it is that I still love jamming, and that\u2019s all there is to it. I\u2019m doing so very accurately and well, and I\u2019m not trying to be arrogant in that statement. I\u2019m just saying that… Shit, I ain\u2019t washed up, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kill Devil Hill (l-r): Mark Zavon, Vinny Appice, Dewey Bragg and Rex Brown<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Official Truth, 101 Proof<\/em> sugarcoats nothing, but Rex harbours no regrets with regards to the book in general. \u201cYou can\u2019t live your life and just go \u2018Oh, man… There are so many things you could\u2019ve done better,\u2019\u201d he submits. \u201cThe same with Kill Devil Hill. I\u2019ve always wanted to do this. I wanna get over to England; I wanna play about several weeks worth of dates, make a big splash, and then figure it out that way. That\u2019s our next plan. We have nine songs in the bag as we speak, nine tracks that are done. We\u2019re also working on another four that we\u2019ve already demoed out. We\u2019ve been working with Jeff Pilson at his house, Jeff Pilson of Dokken fame. He\u2019s a great engineer and brings a lot of stuff to the table that we might not have thought about. If you like the first one though, then this one is gonna knock your damn boots off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The follow-up to Kill Devil Hill\u2019s May 2012 self-titled debut will be \u201csimilar in vein. It has heavy parts to it, but the vocals are really just… it\u2019s time for Dewey (Bragg, vocals) to fly where he needs to fly. He\u2019s doing a lot more lyrically, but then he\u2019s the guy that\u2019s gotta sing it every night. It\u2019s more of a collaborative effort than the first one, I would say. It\u2019s still as heavy as piss, but the heaviness has these melodies over the top of it. I can\u2019t put my finger on it, man. It just works. When you know something like that, you feel that. We haven\u2019t played these songs live yet, but I just can\u2019t wait to get on the stage to do some of these songs live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera<\/em> was released in North America on March 12th, 2013 and subsequently on the 28th in the United Kingdom, all via Da Capo Press.<\/p>\n

Interview published in March 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REX BROWN – Dragging The Waters Anthony Morgan March 2013 Rex Brown Bassist Rex Brown \u2013 formerly of Texan metallers Pantera and currently of metal supergroup Kill Devil Hill \u2013 was queried regarding the possibility of an autobiography by Edinburgh, Scotland-based author Mark Eglinton, who the musician had worked with previously. This initial query would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,590],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pantera","category-rex-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12275"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12309,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12275\/revisions\/12309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}