American musician

Musical artist

Rex Robert Brown (born July 27, 1964) is an American musician, best known as the longtime b*ist for heavy metal band Pantera (1982–2003). He is a former member of Down (2001–2011) and the former b*ist for the band Kill Devil Hill. He released his debut solo album Smoke on This… in 2017. For the first time in Brown's career, the work features him not only as a b*ist but also as lead vocalist and guitarist.

Brown aut*d a book called Official Truth 101 Proof, which was released in April 2013. The book do*ents Pantera's formation, career, and disbandment.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Pantera
  • 2.2 Down
  • 2.3 Other work
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Playing style and equipment
  • 4.1 B*es
  • 4.2 Effects
  • 4.3 Amplifiers
  • 4.4 Accessories
• 5 Discography
  • 5.1 Album appearances
  • 5.2 Collaborations
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

Rex Robert Brown was born in Graham, Texas, on July 27, 1964. His father was 40 when Brown was born, and died in 1971. He was raised by his mother and sister. Brown was first introduced to music through his grandmother, who taught him to play the piano when he was a child, and turned him onto ragtime music and Scott Joplin. Brown was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Brown became a fan of ZZ Top and Def Leppard as a youth, and started playing b* when he was twelve years old. He remains a fan of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and hardcore punk.

Career

Pantera

Main article: Pantera

Pantera was formed in 1981. Brown joined Pantera on b* in 1982 replacing Tommy D. Bradford and adopting the alias "Rex Rocker". Brown was a cl*mate of, and played in the high school jazz band with, drummer Vinnie Paul, and guitarist Dimebag Darrell (then known as Diamond Darrell). Brown was credited as "Rex Rocker" on Pantera's first four albums: Metal Magic (1983), Projects in the Jungle (1984), I Am the Night (1985), and "Power Metal" (1988), he would be credited by his birth name starting with the band's fifth album Cowboys from Hell and onwards.

Pantera recruited vocalist Phil Anselmo to replace Terry Glaze in 1987. With Anselmo taking over as the new frontman, the band's fourth album, Power Metal, was released in 1988. By 1990, the band had been signed with Atco Records, and released their fifth album, Cowboys from Hell, which proved to be the band's turning point to commercial success. Over the course of the band's walkthrough in the 1990s decade, Pantera released four more studio albums, Vulgar Display of Power (1992), Far Beyond Driven (1994), The Great Southern Trendkill (1996), and Reinventing the Steel (2000). After releases of a 1997 live album and a greatest hits compilation, Pantera was nominated for four best metal performance Grammys, for "I'm Broken", "Suicide Note Pt. I", "Cemetery Gates", and "Revolution Is My Name".

In 2001, Pantera went on what at the time was believed to be a temporary hiatus, mainly due to Anselmo's focus on side projects. Pantera would officially disband in 2003.

Down

Main article: Down (band) Brown performing with Down at Gods of Metal 2009

In 1998, during his stay in Louisiana, he was invited by Phil Anselmo for a jam session that included all the members of Down except their b* player Todd Strange, who left the band. That night they ended up writing several demos for what later became their second album recorded in the fall of 2001 at Anselmo's barn that had been transformed into a professional studio. The album was released on March 26, 2002, and became the first Down release featuring Brown on b*. The band, however, went on hiatus again at the very end of 2002.

In 2006, the band reunited and started writing the material for their third studio album. Down III: Over the Under was released in 2007. The band toured as the opening act for Metallica. During that time, he became good friends with James Hetfield, who—similarly to Brown—completed an alcohol rehabilitation course back in 2002.

Wanting to explore different music, Brown left Down in 2011.

Other work

Brown performing in Nashville, Tennessee, 2017

In 1999, Brown, Dimebag Darrell, and Vinnie Paul teamed up with country artist David Allan Coe in a project called Rebel Meets Rebel. This group released an album on May 2, 2006 on Vinnie Paul's Big Vin Records label.

Brown has worked previously with Jerry Cantrell on five tracks included on the album called Boggy Depot as well as eleven tracks with Crowbar on the album Lifesblood for the Downtrodden. He has also provided b* work for Crowbar in 2004 and 2005 and to Cavalera Conspiracy in 2008. Rex revealed his new project Arms of the Sun, a project also featuring John Luke Hebert (of King Diamond) on drums, Lance Harvill on vocals and guitar, and Ben Bunker (of Gryn) on guitar. The group has completed work on thirteen tracks at Willie Nelson's Pedernales Recording Studio in Austin, produced and mixed by Terry Date. In February 2011 it was announced that Brown had amicably left Arms of the Sun. A replacement b*ist has not yet been announced.

In March 2011, it was announced that Brown had formed a new band, Kill Devil Hill with Vinny Appice (Heaven & Hell, Black Sabbath, Dio) on drums, Mark Zavon (RATT, W.A.S.P., 40 Cycle Hum) on guitar and Dewey Bragg (Pissing Razors) on vocals. The group has demoed around 10 songs, which, according to Appice, sound "like a cross between Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains and a little bit of Led Zeppelin thrown in. It's heavy, but with a lot of cool hooks and melodic overtones, too." Kill Devil Hill released their debut album in May 2012 to critical acclaim, and continue to tour in support of their music.

In 2013, Brown released an autobiography, *led Official Truth: 101 Proof, which chronicles his personal life and journey through Pantera, including the events leading to the band's disbandment.

In 2015, Brown penned the foreword to the book Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990s, by author Greg Prato. Rex was also interviewed for the book (as well as his former bandmate in Pantera, Anselmo, among many others).

Brown's first solo album, Smoke on This…, was released on July 28, 2017 via Entertainment One.

Personal life

Brown does not "subscribe to any particular organized religion", though he says he believes in God and the Ten Commandments.

In August 2009, Brown was excluded from the Down tour due to acute pancrea*is. He then had his gallbladder and polyps on his pancreas removed. "Rex has been through hell, man", said bandmate Pepper Keenan. "He was cut from rib to rib and they cleaned him out, but he's in top shape again. After twenty-five years on the road – drinking every day and whatnot… well, the old days are over, my friend."

Playing style and equipment

Brown in 2017

Brown was a jazz b*ist and was offered a scholarship by the University of North Texas, but declined. He often plays with a pick.

Brown was notable for often contributing walking b*lines underneath Dimebag Darrell's guitar solos. Standout tracks include "Floods", "Walk", "5 Minutes Alone", "Throes of Rejection", "Cowboys from Hell", "Living Through Me (Hells' Wrath)", "I Can't Hide", "Use My Third Arm", "Where You Come From", "This Love", "I'm Broken", among others.

In Pantera's earliest days, Brown was witnessed playing an Ibanez Roadstar b*. In the late 1980s, he switched to Charvel b*es and played a white 5 string and a black 4 string model. He used these b*es exclusively through the Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power albums, before he briefly used a 4 and 5 string model Ernie Ball Music Man StingRay b* during the Vulgar Display of Power tour as well as a Fernandes Telecaster shaped b* for the "Walk" music video.

In 1993, Brown began endorsing Spector b* guitars, notably all his b*es had humbuckers. He continued to use Spectors until 2015, with his own signature model. Shaped somewhat similar to a Gibson Thunderbird, the Spector Rex Brown Signature b* comes in several different finishes and is available in 4 and 5 string models. In 2011, Spector released a new signature b* by Brown named the Spector RXT. The b* has the same electronics as his first signature b* but instead of a Thunderbird, it is shaped like a Telecaster. Although this was released to the market by Spector, it was originally intended to be released by ESP Guitars under the LTD banner. Several prototypes and pre-production models exist, some of which are owned by Brown and can be seen used while playing with Down in 2009.

After over 20 years of using Spector b*es, on July 6, 2015, Brown announced that he had left Spector and is now a Warwick artist, by showing a photo of his new Warwick b*.

B*es

Effects

Amplifiers

Accessories

• EMG P-J Active b* pickups
• Ernie Ball Cobalt Hybrid Slinky b* strings (.45-.105)
• Dunlop Tortex 1.0mm guitar picks
• Dunlop Tortex 0.88mm guitar picks

Discography

See also: Pantera discography

Album appearances

Collaborations

• 1998 – Jerry Cantrell – Boggy Depot ("Dickeye", "My Song", "Keep the Light On", "Satisfy", and "Hurt a Long Time")
• 2008 – Cavalera Conspiracy – Inflikted ("Ultra-Violent")

References

External links

• Pantera's Rex Brown – Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? on Loudwire.com