Tim Louie of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA/DOWN and current KILL DEVIL HILL bassist Rex Brown. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian Weekly: Was there some sort of catalyst to make you want to write a sort of tell-all book about PANTERA ["Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera"]?

Rex: I just wanted it to be in first person and to speak my truth. Ya know, I was sitting in the cheap seats just like the rest of the guys. Only four of us know what went on with that book, and as you get on through the book, you'll understand where it all will lead. If you just started reading the book, you're only scratching the surface.

The Aquarian Weekly: You mentioned how your life changed once you hit rock stardom. When was it that it really hit you that you were a certified rock star?

Rex: I don't know. You get money flying in front ways and back, and it was always not necessarily for the money, but just the critical acclaim of what you'd really worked your tail off for. It took us six years before we were even with a major label. We were turned down 28 times from different labels and stuff like that we couldn't get arrested. The point being that once you do start selling a lot of records and people recognize you and you've reached that point of… I wouldn't call it stardom because I'm not into the fame, I'm just into the jam.

The Aquarian Weekly: There was actually something funny that I read, where you mentioned that you, [late PANTERA guitarist] Dime ["Dimebag" Darrell Abbott] and [former PANTERA drummer and Dimebag's brother] Vinnie [Paul Abbott] got a strip club, and while you and Dime hung back, Vinnie would walk in with all of these bodyguards.

Rex: Yeah, well when you read the book, you will understand his persona and his way of going about things, and I'm not trying to hack Vinnie at all, I have a lot of empathy for him, but in the long run, the guy carries a lot of hatred with him that it's not right. Ya know? I understand about his brother, and well, he was my brother also, but I don't carry around this terrible vendetta against people.

The Aquarian Weekly: Did you find it therapeutic to write this book and to finally get a lot of shit off your chest?

Rex: Absolutely! It was cathartic for sure. Reliving all of those memories and stuff like that, it really made me go back and think, "Fuck, man! I wish Dime were still on this planet because God knows what would've happened." Unfortunately, he's not. I always envisioned that we would somehow try to get back together, but it was not meant to be, I guess.

Read the entire interview from The Aquarian Weekly.

Brandon Marshall of Sonic Excess recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current KILL DEVIL HILL bassist Rex Brown. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Sonic Excess: You stated in your [newly published memoir, "Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera"] several times how much you value privacy and how you preferred to stay out of the public eye. Was the decision to publish a difficult one for you?

Rex Brown: This book is just my truth about what my eyes saw. I had the really good, cheap seats. There were only four of us in the band that really knew what went on with the internal PANTERA situation. I thought it was about time for me to go ahead and spill some truths. Even with the private life I do like to lead, I think that there was something inside of me that said, "OK, Rex, it's time to go ahead and let this thing out." It's just my side of the story.

Sonic Excess: Phil [Anselmo, former PANTERA singer] has an autobiography in the works. Have you been helping him with ideas, stories, or anything like that?

Rex Brown: Hmmm… no. Phil and I are still great friends. We talked about a year ago and he said you are going to do your work, and I'm going to do mine. We are not going to talk about it in the press, and that's the way it is. I don't want to turn the fans off what he does, and he doesn't want to turn the fans off of what I do. It's an amicable decision.

Sonic Excess: Hypothetically, if PANTERA were still together, how would you want the last chapter to end?

Rex Brown: Without Dime [late PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott] around, that is not an easy question. I would just answer that I just hope we would have worked our stuff out by now. We all get into the same room, beat the shit out of each other, go to rehab together, and figure it out. We can't do it without the original band. There is just no way.

Sonic Excess: Is the PANTERA reunion talk frustrating for you?

Rex Brown: Not at all. I think it's kind of funny, in a weird way. Who are you going to get to replace Dime? Who's going to be able to play the way he did? There are a ton of players our there, there are a ton of pickets out there, and we've got a ton of offers on the table, but until things are water underneath the bridge between Phil and Vince [former PANTERA drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott], I just don't know. Let me say this also: I never say never. Phillip and I, we are open-armed. It's up to Vinnie if he wants to go ahead and do something like that, but I just don't see that in the immediate forecast.

Read the entire interview from Sonic Excess.

Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner recently conducted an interview with bassist Rex Brown (KILL DEVIL HILL, PANTERA, DOWN). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Congrats on the 20th anniversary of [PANTERA's] "Vulgar Display Of Power". The CD/DVD [reissue] comes out the day before you guys play here and includes a 1992 show from Italy. Anything you remember from that show or period of time?

Rex: That was the first time I met [then-BLACK SABBATH members] Vinny [Appice] and Ronnie James Dio. Ya gotta remember, we're just four guys from Texas. Before their set, we smoked one, and me and Phil [Anselmo, former PANTERA singer] sat behind Geezer's [Butler, SABBATH bassist] rig and watched Vinny play. You've got Geezer on your back, and that was cool as shit. It's funny it's come full circle 20 years later, and weird that it's coming out, and me and Vinny are playing [here] the next day [with KILL DEVIL HILL]. It's weird, isn't it?

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: I'll ask you something I asked Phil last September: Which song off that album best epitomizes what PANTERA stood for?

Rex: Oh, Lord. Shit, let me brush the cobwebs out of my head. There are so many on that record that are standout tracks. I don't know. For diversity, I would say something like "Hollow". The crushing end of that song, very mellow at the start. Or you have the crushing "Fucking Hostile". Even though it says "fucking" in it, it was still a hook. That whole record, I don't know, now that I'm doing these interviews and stuff, it just brings back memories of how organic it was even though we just went in and did what we do.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: What do you think of the lost song "Piss" that's on the 20th-anniversary edition?

Rex: That was one of those that we… I had one metal part, the verse part, that I was sitting around playing in the studio. Vince [Paul Abbott, former PANTERA drummer] was like, "What is that?" "I don't know, I'm just sitting around doing it." We used that one riff for "Use My Third Arm" off "Far Beyond Driven". It was just one of those tracks that we forgot about. To this day, we're scratching our chins going, "Why didn't we put that on the record?" It still holds up. It's a cool track.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Where do you stand on Vinnie and Phil not having spoken all these years?

Rex: Vinnie's just not open to talking to either one of us. Nothing to do with me. I have no problem talking to Vince. We emailed a couple times, but nothing major. You know, we keep hearing rumors about a reunion with Zakk Wylde on guitar, and that is such bullshit. You can't replace my brother.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Do you have a favorite memory or story of Dimebag you'd like to share?

Rex: There are so many. Where do I start? Over the years, there were so many shenanigans and pranks. Dime always had a camera with him. I called him "the irreplaceable arm." He always had a guitar in one hand and a camera in the other and would capture everything on film. Just pulling pranks. It's all been very well documented in the home videos, and I'm saving some of that for the book. As much as he entertained, you know, he had to have entertainment back.

Read the entire interview from San Antonio Metal Music Examiner.

t since he underwent surgery in 2005 to repair several damaged disks in his back, he's helped many friends get clean and that he has about a 50 precent success rate in getting them sober. One person that he said he couldn't seem to help was his former PANTERA and DOWN bandmate Rex Brown. "That's the only rift between me and Rex; other than that, we're fucking best friends," Anselmo said. "He just can't stop fucking drinking."

He added, "I've tried. I gave it my all and I love Rex Brown with all of my fucking heart and soul. But, goddamnit, he will not put down that fucking bottle for any of us. He is, and has been told, he is going to die. I'm gonna tell you this: He's not gonna die on my time, because he ain't drinking around 'The Kid.' Straight up. And that means he can't be around right now, 'cause he's fucking drinking. And that's that. That's that fucking story in a nutshell."

Brown, who in 2009 was diagnosed with pancreatitis, a sudden inflammation of the pancreas which can have severe complications and high mortality despite treatment, stated in a late 2011 interview about his health status, "It took them about five years to figure out what was going on. I had polyps on my pancreas, and what they did is they had to open me up. And I've never felt better in the last five years. . . I was in constant pain."

Speaking to Radio Metal on February 7, Brown was asked for an update on his medical condition in light of Anselmo's remarks. "Number one: Phil is not a doctor," he replied. "Don't believe what you read. Phil and I are very good friends. We've made a pact with each other that we wouldn't talk about each other's music. That would be cruel for the fans. I talk to Kirk [Windstein, DOWN guitarist] all the time, I talked to Pepper [Keenan, DOWN guitarist] just last week. There's no animosity going on there. As part of my musical journey, I've moved on [from DOWN and am now playing with KILL DEVIL HILL]." He added, "My health is 300 percent better since I had this operation. I feel fine, I feel like I'm 25 again. I had some problems with my pancreas, that's taken care of now. I went to the doctor two months ago; everything is fine."

Former DOWN/PANTERA and current KILL DEVIL HILL bassist Rex Brown was one of the guests on this past weekend's episode of VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show".

Commenting on his departure from DOWN, Brown said, "There's no animosity there whatsoever; I talk to Philip [Anselmo, DOWN/ex-PANTERA singer] all the time. It was [time for a] change, man. I met the KILL DEVIL HILL] guys and it was time for a change — for me, musically. And that's the way it down."

Brown, who in 2009 was diagnosed with pancreatitis, a sudden inflammation of the pancreas which can have severe complications and high mortality despite treatment, stated about his current health status, "It took them about five years to figure out what was going on. I had polyps on my pancreas, and what they did is they had to open me up. And I've never felt better in the last five years. . . I was in constant pain."

During an April 2011 interview with High Times, Anselmo said that that since he underwent surgery in 2005 to repair several damaged disks in his back, he's helped many friends get clean and that he has about a 50 precent success rate in getting them sober. One person that he said he couldn't seem to help was Brown. "That's the only rift between me and Rex; other than that, we're fucking best friends," Anselmo said. "He just can't stop fucking drinking."

He added, "I've tried. I gave it my all and I love Rex Brown with all of my fucking heart and soul. But, goddamnit, he will not put down that fucking bottle for any of us. He is, and has been told, he is going to die. I'm gonna tell you this: He's not gonna die on my time, because he ain't drinking around 'The Kid.' Straight up. And that means he can't be around right now, 'cause he's fucking drinking. And that's that. That's that fucking story in a nutshell."

Brown's replacement in DOWN is Patrick Bruders, who is also a member of the New Orleans sludge metal legends CROWBAR alongside DOWN guitarist Kirk Windstein.

Rex in October signed a deal with Da Capo Press to write a memoir. Due in the fall of 2012, "Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story Of Pantera" is described as a "starkly honest and revealing" book about Rex's time in one of the most influential and enduringly popular bands in heavy metal history, offering Brown's shocking personal insight into a band that had swapped the grimy clubs of Texas for arenas around the world but whose story would ultimately be touched by tragedy.

KILL DEVIL HILL recently inked a deal with SPV/Steamhammer. The group's debut album is tentatively scheduled for a March 2012 release. The self-titled effort is being produced by Warren Riker, who is best known for his work with DOWN, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, SUBLIME and CATHEDRAL.