Rex Brown is at present celebrating the legacy he helped construct, taking part in bass and revisiting the music of Pantera on the band present tour dates. However do you know that the bass wasn’t his first instrument? That truly can be the tuba.
Throughout an interview carried out with Gibson TV in December 2020 that is been making the rounds on-line, Brown goes into element about how he ultimately discovered his strategy to the instrument he is most recognized for as we speak, which is the bass.
Brown revealed his musical training began with a need to be a part of his center college band’s drumline, however as he revealed, that did not come to fruition with the band director suggesting that he play the tuba.
Brown remembers, “Dude, I weighed about 80 kilos and making an attempt to select considered one of this stuff up, that is one other story altogether. However I went on to be All-State yearly. I began at newbie class. Inside two months, I used to be within the intermediate class after which three months I used to be head chair, so one thing was occurring.”
Rex says his fast ascent choosing up the tuba led to extra alternatives inside the band, and he was requested to check out for guitar. “Each chord and each downbeat was the Chet Atkins fucking chord. No person does that, they usually could not discover a child anyplace to try this, in order that’s after I picked up the bass,” says Brown.
He remembers, “I used to be like, ‘Man, this has received to be simple.’ That they had like these ’72, ’73 Fender Jazz precisions they usually’d let me take them residence. That they had the cool amps and stuff.”
Brown says he ultimately struck up a great rapport with the band director to the place there was some belief as his ardour for the instrument grew. “I’ve at all times been a type of cats the place you simply look somebody within the eye and also you inform them the reality, that is who you’re. There isn’t any pretension there, you already know. I used to be like, ‘You thoughts if I take the bass? I would actually wish to study over the weekend.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you’ve got carried out so nicely with the tuba, so no drawback,'” says the bassist.
However in accordance with Brown, he pushed the boundaries of that belief a bit as soon as he received older. “I received sort of sneaky within the ninth grade. The door had a window that you would open up and I sort of borrowed some amps for the weekend. [The band director] discovered about it and pulled me into the workplace and was like, ‘You been taking the amps away?’ However they regarded effective. There was no scuffs or something, so I used to be like, ‘Dude I used to be gonna inform ya, nevertheless it was simply impromptu. A jam got here up.'”
As many Pantera followers know, these jams grew to become extra frequent for the teenage bassist, who ultimately crossed paths with brothers Vinnie Paul Abbott and his brother Darrell, with the three musicians forming the bottom of what would turn into Pantera.
Watch extra of Rex Brown’s story within the Gibson TV Icons video beneath.
