From Pantera to Kill Devil Hill, bassist Rex Brown has come to personify the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, and he's got the stories, the surgeries, and the scars – as well as the hard-won sobriety – to prove it.

“All I’ve ever known in life is bass,” Brown told Bass Player in 2017. “There’s not a lot else that l care to do, or be as good at, but I know the bass guitar. I know how to play them, how to fix them, how to build them, and how to break them.”

Standing toe to toe with Pantera guitarist Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott, wielder of one of rock’s most massive guitar tones, Brown asserted his own sonic identity while also keeping pace with drummer Vinnie Abbott’s jackhammer beats.

“With Pantera it was so hard because that guitar sound was so big, the reverb on the snare was so loud. Dime would hit at like, 3.5 to 4 kilohertz, and that's where I would try to get my bass attack.

“If it were up to Dime, he would have had me to play everything in unison. But being a bass player, I felt that there were certain variations I could play within the riff – and within the context of the riff – that made it unique.

“It would have been very easy for Dime to just pick up a bass and play along with his guitar tracks, but as a bass player who knows composition and how things fit together, I didn't want to do that all the time.

“I wanted to have a huge, monstrous sound underneath Dime, but we were flying at 188 beats a minute. I had to be articulate, and sometimes, you can't do that when you have a huge sound.”

What's the secret behind your distinctive tone?

I don't think I got my SVT until the first official Pantera record. But once I got my SVT stacks, that changed everything. For so many years, I had to play so hard to be overheard above the reverb of Vinnie’s snare and over Dime’s crazy guitars. That's probably where it culminated.

I also downstroke a lot, and I can play incredibly tight. I attack the bass; I don't just sit there and stumble around. When you hit a note, you gotta fucking hit it. That's your note – go get it, and don't pussyfoot around with it.

Has your bass playing changed over the years?

I still get up every morning and play the bass for 30 minutes. And if someone asked me to get onstage any open night, I would get up there and unleash it.

I’m not a Billy Sheehan type of player. I love Billy and he’s a good friend, but my mentality is more to push that bottom as much as I can and incorporate the riff into what I’m doing to lock it all down. However, at a point I got sick of being just the pocket guy, so l started stepping out and playing in different ranges, too.

What were the biggest things that sculpted you from your time in Pantera?

I don't have enough breath, and you don't have enough tape, for me to explain that even remotely. You have to all strive for a common goal, and eat, sleep, and breathe it until you reach that shit.

I was 17 when I joined the band in 1981, and it's been my life ever since. Vulgar Display of Power came out in 1992, which is probably my favorite record, and I remember finishing that album like it was yesterday.

How important are chops?

It's all about the song. It's not about ego or who's playing where. It's about knowing when to play, when not to play, and what's going to hold down that fort.

I can sit and play guitar all day long, but when it comes to bass playing, it's a totally different game. I have to keep that low-end so everything else can breathe and so that the vocals paint the picture.

But ‘The Riff’ is sacred, right?

When you're talking about very specific riffs – something like I'm Broken – you'd better believe it. But there's a certain way you can instil that main riff while still putting your mark on it.

It's all about knowing when to shine and knowing when not to. I definitely tried different things during the lead section, but not all over the song.

Some bass players these days play and play even when the vocalist is singing, and it just clouds everything up.

Did you guys work out how you'd support Darrell’s guitar solos?

Some of the Pantera basslines I'm proudest of happened underneath Dime’s solos. Sometimes l'd say, ‘Let me try a part for the solo,’ and we would just jam it; if it worked, it worked. Pretty much any time he’d go to the upper register, I'd keep it real solid on the bottom, down with the kick.

So if you notice in Rise, for example, it's me just playing straight 16ths or eighth-notes. And a lot of those times when he went in the upper register I would play eighth-notes or 16ths under him, and then when Dime came down, we would play everything in unison. But you know, we didn't even think about it back then. It was just second nature. It was magic.

NAMM 2025: Pantera bassist Rex Brown has joined forces with Morley on a new signature wah pedal based on his long-serving Pro Series II unit, ‘Old Blue’.

Brown has been using Morley pedals since the 1970s, but reportedly picked up Old Blue at some point in the 1990s. Since then it’s found use on Pantera records, including The Great Southern Trendkill and Reinventing the Steel and has been a pretty constant feature on his live ’board, to boot.

“Old Blue is more than just a pedal,” states the press release. “It’s been Rex Brown’s trusty sidekick for over three decades.”

The new signature wah build is available exclusively from Sweetwater and offers a “modified recreation” of Old Blue.

As such, it features the same through-hole circuitry and componentry of the 1990s Pro Series II, but is modded per Brown’s preference, to offer an “intense monstrous sweep” more in keeping with the brand’s ’70s builds.

“It is virtually immune to outside noise and EMI [electromagnetic interference],” notes Morley. “You can also get phase shifter-like tones when slowly rocking the treadle back and forth.”

The advantage of the ’90s build – and one of the key selling points of Morley’s design ever since – is the wah’s switchless activation. This means it can be engaged by simply moving the rocker (as opposed to the Cry Baby-style under-toe switch) and bypassed when you step off it.

Then there’s a wah-level knob offering an additional 15dB of volume, a premium buffer circuit, an LED indicator and a glow-in-the-dark foot plate grip.

Further personalization comes in the amusing redesign of the logo, which sees a small Rex taking the place of the traditional Morley Man icon.

The demo video also showcases the wah’s capabilities when paired with guitar – and it’s said the late Dimebag Darrell was also known to borrow Old Blue in the studio.

Tantalisingly, Morley pitches Old Blue as the first in a series of Classic Series pedals that it plans to unveil this year, so it looks like we can expect more vintage-inspired signature models and reissues to come.

“That’s my little secret weapon... Old Blue,” summarizes Brown – and, for those willing to part with the necessary $179 to secure one, it can be yours, too.

Head to Sweetwater for more information.

Dimebag Darrell’s legendary guitar playing and pioneering heavy metal style is powerful enough to bring a tear to anybody’s eye, but for Rex Brown, the late Pantera electric guitar hero’s playing once made him cry for another reason altogether.

In the new issue of Guitar World, the Pantera bassist and former Dimebag bandmate was asked – alongside a huge array of other big-name guests – for his favorite Dimebag guitar solo.

Brown didn’t have to think hard for his answer, and cherry-picked Dimebag’s lead effort from Pantera’s famed cover of Planet Caravan by Black Sabbath, which featured on Far Beyond Driven in 1994.

However, as he recalls, the solo ended up bringing a tear to his eye when he had to fight Dimebag from cutting it altogether.

“Planet Caravan,” Brown answers when asked. “[Dimebag] thought it sucked, and I told him to leave it alone, so he comped it and stayed with that one. I was literally in tears.”

Brown’s affection for Planet Caravan shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, he’s previously spoken at length about just how much he appreciates Dimebag’s display on that particular track, and admitted he had to “leave the room” while he was recording because of how good it was.

Speaking to Tone-Talk in 2022, Brown recalled, “We actually learned the song in about 15 minutes. I played fretless bass on it, and played synthesizer on it. Vinnie played the bongos.

“Now this is very, very important. Dime, when he went to play that lead, the first one, I had to leave the room because it was so fucking good.

“Planet Caravan, it’s like an E9 kind of a chord, and just the way that Dime played, it was the perfect chording for him to play over,” Brown expands. “And the way he put those notes together, just off the fly. You know, he always came in with something, but we cut this so quick that, I think we’d gone out to dinner and he just came back and let it let that one have it.

“It was like... I won't say Eruption, because that changed fucking everything for everyone. But I will say that it was one of those moments for me, of listening to that and being right next to my best friend [who] just played it. So [I] keep that in my heart.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which features a full tribute to Dimebag Darrell.

NAMM 2025: Rex Brown has rejoined Spector as a signature artist mere months after the Pantera bass guitar player launched an Epiphone signature guitar.

The NY-based luthier has championed Brown’s “unparalleled talent,” calling him a “pivotal figure in the heavy metal scene”. Notably, the high-profile return comes after the long-awaited release of his first Epiphone build earlier this year.

The bassist’s low-end contributions were a key component of Pantera’s success, underpinning Dimebag Darrell’s groove metal fireworks. Spector basses were his weapon of choice for the band’s last three records, Far Beyond Driven, The Great Southern Trendkill, and Reinventing the Steel.

Brown switched up his rig for his latter days with Down, the doom-laden project he started with Phil Anselmo in the wake of Dimebag’s death, 20 years ago this December. He pivoted to Warwick for a signature in 2015 and dropped his first Epiphone Thunderbird signature at the start of 2024.

However, when Pantera reunited in 2022, Brown brought his collection of Spector basses along for the ride as he entered his fourth decade of using its instruments, which have starred at the shows alongside his Epiphones.

“Spector Basses have been a staple of my sound since ’93,” Brown beams. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play ’em and beat the hell out of ’em for all of these years. The tonal mixtures of their basses have grown into legend. I couldn’t be happier to come back to Spector after all these years, a company on the cutting edge of brilliance.”

“Rex Brown and Pantera changed heavy music forever, becoming icons in the metal genre,” says Spector’s Taylor McLam, believing it was “instrumental in achieving the band’s signature sound”.

Intriguingly, a final comment from the luthier – “I’m excited to see what we can create as we head into 2025” – and a press tease that says, “This collaboration promises exciting future endeavors, including the development of signature models in 2025” – all but confirms that another Rex Brown signature, perhaps one that harks back to the height of Pantera’s powers, could be in the pipeline.

As for how this all affects his relationship with Epiphone and Gibson, it remains to be seen. Dual-brand partnerships are not uncommon these days, so Brown could perhaps continue to endorse both companies in the new year.

Visit Spector for more.

Known as one of the originators of the “groove metal” sound pioneered by Pantera in the early '90s, Rex Brown leaves his mark no matter what band he’s playing bass with, often flirting with the guitars long enough to keep the riffs tight before throwing something unexpected into the mix. It helps that he also throws down some of the heaviest string bends this side of Geezer Butler.

Unlike most bass guitar players, at least those outside the thrash metal scene, Brown has been required to hone a precision-engineered picking technique over the years. This was largely thanks to the superhuman downstrokes of his late colleague Darrell 'Dimebag' Abbott.

“On some of the really tight songs that we did, Dime recorded guitar tracks on left and right and a double in the centre,” Brown told Bass Player. “So when we were rehearsing, we would turn the drums off. I'd play with him, just guitars and bass, which sounds weird – but that was how we got it so tight. Nowadays you could sit there and get it perfect with Pro Tools, but I'd rather get it right beforehand.”

Since the early Pantera days, Brown has become more focused on heavyweight jams, a radical departure in that the bass now has more space to move around. "Yes sir, and I've enjoyed that! These days I'll listen to the demo on the day we go into the studio, rather than cram myself with it. I just go off instinct.”

He adds: “I love the feeling of recording naturally, rather than bouncing around with Pro Tools and all that. I'm not into that. Sure, Pro Tools is a necessary evil at different times: you can always take those recordings off the floor and move them just a hair. Sometimes it makes sense to do them that way, but I would rather get it right the first time. I hate punching in stuff. If you don't have your basslines down, man, you shouldn't be doing what you're doing.”

Over the course of Pantera's celebrated 1990 major-label-debut Cowboys From Hell, and four more studio albums, including Vulgar Display of Power, Far Beyond Driven, The Great Southern Trendkill, and Reinventing the Steel, Brown refined a brutally fast style and a midrange-heavy approach that proved metal bassists didn't have to live in the shadows.

Dimebag Darrell's murder in 2004 put an end to Pantera’s 23-year career. But the wiry Brown – always restless, always working – has never been one to be idle. His discography includes stints with Down, in which he joined Pantera vocalist Philip Anselmo; Crowbar, which he produced; Alice In Chains guitar hero Jerry Cantrell; the Sepultura/Soulfly-related Cavalera Conspiracy; melodic Dallas rockers Arms of the Sun, and the hard-rocking Kill Devil Hill.

In December 2022, Pantera reunited for their first tour in over 20 years. The new lineup features guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante.

Fans may have noticed that Brown still wears protective tape on his fretting hand when playing live. This stems from a dog bite over three decades ago. “That injury is still there, and it's gonna be there forever, because my dog bit through the nerve. First I used Band-Aids on it, and then duct tape, but I started looking around for something tougher because those things didn't work. 

“Back then we were playing arenas, and a lot of them were hockey venues, so I found this hockey tape: the kind that players put around their hockey sticks. I went through tons of that stuff: I found a really cool roll in Kansas that had skulls and crossbones on it! I usually wrap that finger in three layers of tape, and when I get off stage, which is usually after an hour and a half, that tape is worn all the way down to the very first layer.”

Over the years, Brown has come to personify the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, and he's got the stories, and the scars – as well as the hard-won sobriety – to prove it. His action-packed memoir, Official Truth, 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera, co-written with Mark Eglinton, is chock full of tales about Pantera's off-the-charts debauchery, but it also serves as a cautionary tale about what can happen to four extremely driven people who reach every goal they set out to achieve.

Epiphone has partnered with Rex Brown to release a more affordable version of the Pantera bassist’s Thunderbird signature bass guitar.

Notably, the latest addition to Brown's humble line of signature guitars is also his debut Epiphone offering, and arrives nearly two years after the flagship Gibson Thunderbird iteration debuted in 2022.

Cosmetically near-identical to its $2,799 four-string sibling, the Epiphone variant of the flagship Brown bass retains the muted-yet-classy gold-on-black aesthetic, though drafts in a few functional appointments that help bring the overall price down.

This time out, Epiphone has opted for a slightly different body composition: rather than utilizing a mahogany body, a nine-ply neck-through-body mahogany and walnut neck combination – which is finished with a C-shape profile – is favored. 

Some more unsurprising spec sheet inclusions include a standard 34” scale length and mahogany body wings, as well as an 20-fret Indian laurel fingerboard, which in turn relegates the Gibson model's rosewood alternative.

Some tonal sacrifices have been made, and as such the RexBucker pickups found on the Gibson template have been swapped out for a set of standard Epiphone ProBucker 760 bass pickups.

Accordingly, the control circuit has been suitably simplified: gone is the push/pull active/passive switch of the Gibson, and in its place are standard passive electronics – two volume controls and a master tone knob, to be precise.

The bridge has also been changed, altered slightly from a Hipshot bass bridge model to a Babicz FCH 3-Point alternative.

Finishing touches include all gold hardware – including the Thunderbird logo-embossed gold pickguard and Mini Clover tuning buttons – a reproduction of Brown’s signature and a doodle of the Pantera legend's logo on the rear control cover.

“Rex Brown, renowned for his electrifying stage presence and transformative impact on rock and metal with bands like Pantera and Down and his hard-rocking solo album, is a rhythmic powerhouse fueled by an unwavering passion for the bass,” Epiphone wrote in a statement.

“Rex forged his career anchoring the rhythm section of one of the most iconic bands in history, and now he is thundering his way into the Epiphone core lineup.”

Now the moment you've all been waiting for: the price. Well, as expected, it's comfortably more affordable than the Gibson version, weighing in at $1,299. And, as an added bonus, it also comes with a Rex Brown signature hardcase.

Head over to Epiphone to find out more.

Rex Brown has announced that he will miss the remainder of Pantera’s ongoing South America tour after falling ill with COVID-19.

The bass guitar player was missing from the band’s two shows in Santiago, Chile on December 11 and 12, with “health issues” cited as the reason for his absence. Now, Brown has issued a statement via Pantera’s social media channels confirming his Covid diagnosis and his absence from the rest of the band’s 2022 shows.

“I caught a very mild strain of Covid, but because of our own protocols, I simply do not wanna risk getting my brothers or the crew sick,” he writes. “I’m feeling better and am on my way to a speedy recovery. Merry fucking christmas and see you all next year!”

Cattle Decapitation bassist Derek Engemann – who also plays with Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo in Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals – and former Down bass player Bobby Landgraf assumed low-end duties for the gigs, and look to be sharing the role for the band’s two remaining South America shows in São Paulo, Brazil.

After wrapping up at Knotfest Brazil in São Paulo on December 18, Pantera will enjoy a quiet start to 2023, before heading to Europe for a string of dates from May 26. And from August 2023, the band will embark on a tour of the US, their first in over 21 years.

The band’s 2022 setlist, though tweaked here and there, has included a host of classic Pantera cuts, including A New Level, Mouth For War, Strength Beyond Strength, Cowboys From Hell and Walk.

A regular fixture of the show has been their cover of Black Sabbath’s Planet Caravan, which the band play while a tribute to Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul appears on screens either side of the stage.

Zakk Wylde has looked well at home onstage with the band, despite admitting that he still needed to learn some of Dimebag’s guitar parts as late as mid-October, and later revealing that he was using YouTube videos to grasp them.

His rig for the shows so far has included Wylde Audio Warhammer electric guitars – the closest thing in his company’s product lineup to Dimebag’s trademark MLs – walls of Wylde 4x12 cabs and some of Dime’s own pedals, courtesy of the late guitarist’s guitar tech, Grady Champion.

Last month, Wylde spoke with Guitar World about his approach to the gig, explaining how he didn’t expect to go into it and sound like Dimebag Darrell.

“No matter what I do, it's going to sound like me,” he said. “I can practice all I want and stay as faithful as I want, but I am never going to escape that. It's like if Dime were still here, and he played Miracle Man or No More Tears – even if he played them spot on – it would still sound like Dimebag Darrell playing Zakk Wylde.

“So, that's a challenge, but it's not a bad thing at all. It's like if Randy Rhoads were to play Eddie Van Halen's Eruption, no matter what he did, it would sound like Randy playing, not Eddie. You're never going to mistake Randy for Eddie or Eddie for Randy, and it's the same thing here with me playing Dime's stuff. 

“So, the way I look at it is I am going to go in, learn the parts, be as faithful to what Dime did as possible, and just be me. I'm gonna have fun with it, knowing that I am not expecting myself to sound like Dime, and no one else should either, which is how it is when I play with Ozzy or whatever else.”

The newly reformed Pantera are now well into the swing of their highly-anticipated 2022 run of dates, after kicking things off last week (December 2) with their first show in 21 years at Mexico’s Hell & Heaven Metal Fest.

Since, the four-piece – which now comprises core Pantera members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown, as well as guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante in place of Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, respectively – have played three more shows in Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

Notably, though, Brown – the band's bass guitar player – was absent at the latter show at Knotfest in Santiago, Chile on Sunday (December 11).

Exact details of Brown’s absence have not been confirmed, however Knotfest Chile organizers have attributed it to “health problems," while local radio station Futuro reports that he missed the show after contracting COVID-19.

According to Blabbermouth, following the band’s show at Knotfest Colombia in Bogotá on Friday (December 9), Brown flew home to the US to quarantine, and will therefore miss the remainder of Pantera’s upcoming South America dates. They include tonight’s (December 12) show in Santiago, and a December 18 show in São Paulo for Knotfest Brazil.

Filling in for Brown at yesterday’s show – and presumably for the band’s two remaining 2022 dates – was former Cattle Decapitation bass player Derek Engemann, who also plays with Anselmo in Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals.

In a post on social media, Charlie Benante shared a video of the Santiago show, with the caption: “Chile was on fire! We missed Rex tonight, get better buddy! Damn it was a hot one.”

Sunday's set included a host of classic Pantera tracks, including A New Level, Mouth For War, Strength Beyond Strength, Cowboys From Hell and Walk, as well as a cover of Black Sabbath’s Planet Caravan.

Despite admitting that he still needed to learn some of Dimebag Darrell’s guitar parts for the Pantera shows as late as mid-October – and later revealing that he was using YouTube videos to grasp them, Zakk Wylde has settled nicely into his role as guitarist in Pantera, employing Wylde Audio Warhammer electric guitars – the closest thing in his company's catalog to Dimebag's trademark MLs.

Wylde is also bolstered by guitar tech Grady Champion, Dimebag Darrell's own tech, who signed up for the new Pantera shows earlier this year, and even furnished Wylde with some of Dimebag's own pedals. 

Last month, Wylde spoke with Guitar World about his approach to Pantera's 2022/2023 shows, stating, “No matter what I do, it's going to sound like me. I can practice all I want and stay as faithful as I want, but I am never going to escape that. 

“It's like if Dime were still here, and he played Miracle Man or No More Tears – even if he played them spot on – it would still sound like Dimebag Darrell playing Zakk Wylde.

“So, that's a challenge, but it's not a bad thing at all. It's like if Randy Rhoads were to play Eddie Van Halen's Eruption, no matter what he did, it would sound like Randy playing, not Eddie. You're never going to mistake Randy for Eddie or Eddie for Randy, and it's the same thing here with me playing Dime's stuff. 

“So, the way I look at it is I am going to go in, learn the parts, be as faithful to what Dime did as possible, and just be me. I'm gonna have fun with it, knowing that I am not expecting myself to sound like Dime, and no one else should either, which is how it is when I play with Ozzy or whatever else.”

Judas Priest electric guitar hero Richie Faulkner and Pantera bass guitar titan Rex Brown have joined forces to create a new metal supergroup, Elegant Weapons.

Also featuring longtime Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis and former Rainbow frontman Ronnie Romero, Elegant Weapons will release their first album, Horns for a Halo, in spring 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The band's music, Faulkner says, is "a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society – heavy, catchy, and with melody."

Elegant Weapons, Faulkner says, stemmed from his desire to make an album outside of Judas Priest with Scott Travis. "[Adding] to that Rex Brown’s unmistakable tone and attitude," Faulkner added in a press release, "is something special. 

"Having those guys as the rhythm section is a guitar players dream. The icing on the cake was Ronnie Romero. One of the new breed of instantly classic vocalists, Ronnie brought a character and a swagger to the songs that is instantly iconic, making these songs his own."

Horns for a Halo was produced by Andy Sneap, who has served as a touring guitarist for Judas Priest since 2018, when Glenn Tipton retired from touring with the band due to his battle with Parkinson's disease. Sneap also co-produced Priest's most recent studio effort, 2018's Firepower.

Horns for a Halo, Faulkner says, is "Sort of old school and modern at once if that makes any sense, and actually down-tuned a whole step." 

The Marshall Plexi guitar amp, the guitarist says, played a significant role in the LP's modern-with-a-vintage-twist sound. 

"It [the Plexi] basically does one thing, but you’ve got to crank it to 11 for it to have that distorted sound," he explains. "It hasn’t got a lot of bells and whistles on it or different channels and effects. It basically does one thing and does it very well. But again down-tuning creates more of a modern sound, and by using the classic sound of the Marshall Plexi, you get that juxtaposition, that contrast. 

"All told," the guitarist adds, "there are a lot of guitar solos and the songs are on the heavier side. And even though there’s a lot of melody, it’s still going to shake your bones.”

For more info on Elegant Weapons, keep your eyes on the band's social media accounts in the coming weeks and months.

Pantera and Down legend Rex Brown has joined forces with Gibson to create a new signature Thunderbird bass guitar.

The metal bass titan's first collaboration with Gibson, the Rex Brown Thunderbird was reportedly two-and-a-half years in the making, and features a mahogany body and mahogany neck with a slimmer-than-usual profile and a 34", 12" radius rosewood fretboard with 20 Medium Jumbo frets.

From there, though, things get a tad more interesting. 

Sounds on the four-string, for instance, come by way of a pair of "Rexbucker" Thunderbird pickups, controlled by two volume knobs, and a master tone knob that's outfitted with push/pull active/passive switching.

Hardware, meanwhile, is all-gold (an elegant touch against the bass's ebony finish), and includes a Hipshot bass bridge, Graph Tech nut, and Hipshot Mini-Clover tuners with a metal-friendly Drop D Xtender.

The four-string packs plenty of other one-of-a-kind appointments, too, with Brown's signature adorning the bass's truss rod cover, a self-portrait sketch of Brown on the backplate, and 'R.B.'-stamped pickup covers.

“Before meeting up in Nashville for a tour of Gibson USA, I got to meet the whole team at Gibson,” Brown said in a press release. “Cesar Gueikian (Gibson's Brand President), and I forged a strong bond that day, that I can only describe as ‘long lost brothers.' He invited me to his home that night and we played music into the wee hours.

"Gibson has come so far, in such a short amount of time," he continued, "and I’m beyond delighted to be in cahoots with this extraordinary bunch of music professionals. This new Thunderbird with Gibson is a life-long dream.” 

The Gibson Rex Brown signature Thunderbird is available now – with a Modern Series hardshell case included – for $2,799.

Brown is the second hard-rock A-lister to be honored with a signature Thunderbird bass this year, following the unveiling of the Gibson Gene Simmons G² Thunderbird back in April.

For more info on the bass, visit Gibson.

Online instrument marketplace Reverb.com has partnered with former Pantera bassist Rex Brown to sell more than 70 pieces of music gear used live and in the studio throughout his career.

“I’ve picked up so much great gear over the years—I just don’t have enough f*cking room for it all,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of history here and a lot of really great guitars. I hate getting rid of this stuff, but I’d rather get these into the hands of the fans or players who can put them to use rather than have them sitting in a warehouse.”

Among the items in the Official Rex Brown of Pantera Reverb Shop are:

A Scala Custom Guitars "Broken" Reverse T-Style guitar that has “some of the best detail in the biz,” according to Brown. “What can I say but Leo F*cking Scala—one of my favorite builders. This dude makes some of the coolest axes on the planet, but I’ve got too many.”

Multiple Prestige electric guitars used on Brown’s first solo album, Smoke on This... “I’ve had an incredible relationship with Prestige out of Canada since around 2015,” Brown said. “When you listen to these guitars, they sound and play almost identical to a Gibson—I shat you not!”

A Spector RXT Prototype #1 bass guitar that Stuart Spector made for Brown in 2011. According to Brown, this guitar is the only one of its kind in the world since the model never went into production. “As with all Spectors, this one is as cool as it gets! I hate getting rid of it, but I just don’t play it anymore. I’m glad it’ll go to someone who plays it and that a portion of the proceeds will go to charity,” he said.

A Fender 5-String Jazz bass that Brown used on Rebel Meets Rebel, the country metal album created by David Allen Coe, along with Brown, Dimebag Darrell, and Vinnie Paul. “This bass has a lot of history,” Brown said. “I used Fenders in the studio the last half of the 1990s, so this one has been knocking around for a while!”

Several amps and dozens of pedals. Of his pedal collection, Brown says: “Around 2014 or 2015, I geeked out hardcore on pedals. At the time, I thought I had to have every pedal in the world and then some. I have a feeling I’m not alone here.”

The Official Rex Brown of Pantera Reverb Shop launches July 30, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity through Reverb Gives, Reverb’s charitable giving initiative. To preview the items, head here.

Sure, there was Pantera and Damageplan. But how many of you remember Dimebag Darrell's other band, Gasoline?

No biggie if you don't; it was more of a side project for Dimebag and Vinnie Paul.

Regardless, as recently reported by Loudwire, on New Year’s Eve 2001, Gasoline took the stage and asked Pantera bassist Rex Brown to join the fun. It was reportedly the last time Paul, Brown and Dimebag performed live together.

A Loudwire reader known as "Mr. Chris" was at the fateful show and filmed footage of the performance. You can check it out below.

Here is Mr. Chris' description (the info he posted directly to YouTube with the video below):

"This is my PERSONAL UNSEEN RARE FOOTAGE of Dimebag’s RARE AND UNRELEASED BAND GASOLINE. This was a party band for fun only. These were just jack around tunes made to be funny and have a good time. These weren’t meant to be serious by any means. The NEW AND UNRELEASED ANYWHERE ELSE songs…’GASOLINE’ and ‘GOING WITH THE GUT.’ This is the LAST TIME REX VINNIE AND DIME played live together. The last song they got up and jammed Led Zeppelin‘s ‘Moby Dick.’

"I hated sitting on this for so long but it’s time the world gets to see it and enjoy it like I do. I’ve been lucky enough to have this since 2001 and I’ve never given a copy away and never let it out. Please respect that it’s mine and I will not tolerate anyone stealing it. This is OWNED BY ME. If the family wanted it…that’s another story. This show was a very special night…New Year’s was always a big deal for the brothers and usually they did a new years gig for fun with Pantera but after Phil became harder to deal with they had to do their own thing on New Year’s. Pantera never played again and I’m thankful I saw the last moments these three stepped on stage together."

Vinnie Paul—the legendary drummer for Pantera, Damageplan and Hellyeah—has died at the age of 54. His death was announced in a post on Pantera's Facebook page, and confirmed by his representative.

"Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away," the Facebook post reads. "Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah. No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time."

Paul—born Vincent Paul Abbott—formed Pantera with his brother, guitarist Dimebag Darrell, in 1981. With frontman Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, the band went onto enjoy tremendous commercial success, and became one of the most influential bands of their time.

After Pantera's dissolution, the Abbott brothers formed Damageplan. Damageplan released one album before Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a concert in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2004.

Since 2006, Paul was the drummer for Hellyeah, a heavy metal supergroup that also includes Mudvayne vocalist Chad Gray and Nothingface guitarist Tom Maxwell.

Our thoughts go out to Paul's family and friends during this difficult time.

Former Pantera bassist Rex Brown has premiered the music video for his song, "FaultLine."

The video for the Smoke on This track shows Brown, his band and his crew setting up for a performance. You can watch it above.

“Sometimes you’ve got to go backward to go forward,” Brown told Guitar World this summer regarding Smoke on This. “You don’t want to sound like those old bands, but by god those are your influences.”

“Anybody that’s going to listen to this record thinking it’s a Pantera record, just don’t bother. It’s not. And it doesn’t sound like Down or like Kill Devil Hill,” he said. “If you’re a musician and you’re not stretching your boundaries, if you haven’t found that 13th note even though there’s 12, then you ain’t looking, Jack. That’s all there is to it! Any respected artist that’s been as successful as I have that ain’t looking for that 13th note is either dead or they’re fucking stupid.”

To read our full interview with Brown from the July 2017 issue, look no further.

Awhile ago, legendary Pantera bassist Rex Brown stopped by the Guitar World studios in New York. Though he was there primarily to give us an exclusive playthrough video of "Train Song"—a central track off his solo album, Smoke On This—he also candidly discussed his musical and personal relationship with the band's guitarist, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

Brown discusses how he occasionally played uncredited rhythm guitar (with Dimebag playing uncredited bass) on Pantera tracks. He also gives us some fascinating insight into how he and Dimebag collaborated on the arrangements of Pantera songs.

“I’ve learned a lot," Brown told Guitar World in an interview back in July. "If you sit and write riffs with Dimebag Darrell for 20-plus years, you better learn something. If you don’t, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

“When I pick up an instrument, I attack it." “I don’t just baby it, I don’t sit there and strum it. I want to hear every note, you know what I’m saying?”

You can watch our discussion with Brown below. To read our full interview with Brown from the July 2017 issue, look no further.

For heavy music fans, the name Rex Brown is synonymous with viciously rhythmic, cowboy-from-hell bass playing. But the Texas-born metal veteran is about to torch sonic expectations with the release of his first-ever solo album, Smoke on This.

After years laying down the low end with Pantera, Down and most recently Kill Devil Hill, Brown is strapping on a six-string, taking center stage and debuting his whiskey-soaked, 101-proof croon on a mix of adrenaline-charged boogie, melodic ballads and more.

And though he’s been wielding a four-string bass in the public eye for 30-plus years, swapping instruments was a natural move for the musician.

“I’ve been playing guitar since I was nine or 10 years old. I played guitar on Pantera, you know? Underneath Cowboys from Hell, that’s me. ‘Cemetery Gates’? All the acoustics are me,” he reveals, while also acknowledging that he’s benefitted from some world-class instructors. “I’ve learned a lot. If you sit and write riffs with Dimebag Darrell for 20-plus years, you better learn something. If you don’t, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Brown has backed a number of serious players over the years, like Dime, Down’s one-time tag-team of Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell and Kill Devil Hill’s Mark Zavon. After Kill Devil Hill wound down touring in the wake of 2013’s Revolution Rise, Brown took some well-needed time off in his current home base of Nashville before connecting with current co-conspirator and guitarist Lance Harvill. Friends since the “Dallas Days” in the Eighties, they reconnected with grand plans to work outside of the box.

“We got together and told each other we were going to pull literally everything we had off of our phones, any ideas we had,” Harvill explains. “We just dumped them into a giant barrel and Rex went to town shaping everything.”

The anything-goes treatment yielded an especially diverse collection of cuts, from the hard-wired rock licks of “Lone Rider” and the slippery, bottleneck leads on the Southern-boogie blast “So Into You,” to the lush, melodic mid-album ballad, “Fault Line.” But regardless of the style of the track, Brown is consistent in his approach to the guitar.

“When I pick up an instrument, I attack it,” he says. “I don’t just baby it, I don’t sit there and strum it. I want to hear every note, you know what I’m saying?” Brown, who naturally also handled bass duties on Smoke on This, remarks that the album is “where I’m at today, and where I want to go,” but also acknowledges that pieces from his past pop up in places.

He cites the massive influence of ZZ Top’s Southern stomp on his own songwriting; his love of Led Zeppelin creeps into “Buried Alive,” an introspective piece contemplating pain and the loss of Dimebag Darrell; and there’s even a Pink Floyd–style psych-trip baked into “Best of Me.”

“Sometimes you’ve got to go backward to go forward,” says Brown. “You don’t want to sound like those old bands, but by god those are your influences.” While in tune with his past, Brown is adamant about pushing himself forward, noting that Smoke on This isn’t a retro record, nor a retread of anything in his impressively prolific back catalog.

“Anybody that’s going to listen to this record thinking it’s a Pantera record, just don’t bother. It’s not. And it doesn’t sound like Down or like Kill Devil Hill,” he says. “If you’re a musician and you’re not stretching your boundaries, if you haven’t found that 13th note even though there’s 12, then you ain’t looking, Jack. That’s all there is to it! Any respected artist that’s been as successful as I have that ain’t looking for that 13th note is either dead or they’re fucking stupid.”

Legendary Pantera bassist Rex Brown will release his new solo album, Smoke On This, July 28. In anticipation of the album's release, Brown recently stopped by the Guitar World studio to give us an exclusive playthrough of "Train Song," one of the album's central tracks. You can check it out below.

For another early taste of Smoke On This, check out Brown's "Crossing Lines," which we premiered back in April.

You can preorder Smoke On This right here. For more information, follow Brown on Facebook.

Rex Brown—he of Pantera, Down and Kill Devil Hill fame—has premiered a new song over at Loudwire. You can check out the tune, "Crossing Lines," below.

The song is from Brown's upcoming album, Smoke on This, which will be released June 28 via eOne.

“My motto these days is ‘Shake some shit up,'” Brown says about the album. “I’ve had my ups and downs, like anybody in this business. I wanted to feel like a true artist again, where I can write and record songs without worrying about any of the bullshit.

“We’re not going to necessarily cater to metal fans, but the guys who grew up with Pantera, a lot of them love all the same stuff that I grew up on, too. This is just something else I’m doing for fun, man. And musical freedom. Fun has to come into it or I’m not going to do it.

"I’ve had a tremendous career and now I feel like I’m 30 years old again. This has given me that freedom I needed. I’ve got so much more in me. I’m just getting my feet wet.”

For more about the album, including ordering info, head here.

Prestige Guitars has announced that Rex Brown of Pantera, KDH (Kill Devil Hill) and the Rex Brown Band has joined the company’s A&R roster.

Brown is using three Custom Prestige solid body guitars.

The first is a Custom Burl Premier with a Seymour Duncan P90 (SP90) in the neck and a JB (SH-4) in the bridge with all-gold hardware. The second is a Custom Troubadour with Seymour Duncan Saturday Night Special pickups. The third is a Quilt Maple Heritage Standard with a Seymour Duncan ’59 in the neck and Custom Custom in the bridge.

“We can’t tell you how proud we are to welcome Rex Brown to the Prestige family," says Adrian O’Brien, Prestige’s VP of artist relations. "Rex’s contributions to hard rock and metal through Pantera and Kill Devil Hill are immeasurable. He is a tremendously talented songwriter, and though best known for his time with a bass slung over his shoulder, he is a monster guitar slinger and vocalist as well.

“Rex has just wrapped recording of his solo debut with the Rex Brown Band in Nashville, and his new project is going to absolutely blow people away. To have him using Prestige Guitars on the new album and on tour, we are just totally and completely honored.”

For more on Prestige Guitars, visit prestigeguitars.com.

From the May 2013 issue of Guitar World.

While Pantera vocalist Philip Anselmo and the Abbott Brothers—guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul—were flinging insults at each other in the press throughout 2003, bassist Rex Brown remained largely silent.

His ex-bandmates viciously blamed each other for the demise of Pantera, the band that held the torch aloft for metal throughout the Nineties and paved the way for metalcore.

But Brown refused to choose sides. By then, he and Anselmo were performing together in Down, and fans might have expected he would take the singer’s side. But Brown continued to say nothing. Instead, he let the resounding notes of his bass express the pain and frustration he felt for what had become of his band.

“Vinnie drew this imaginary line in the sand,” explains Brown, who is currently wrapping up the second album by his new band, Kill Devil Hill.

“He said, ‘You’re either on our side or not.’ I didn’t want to take sides. Every fucking day before Dime was killed [in December 2004], Vinnie would email me when Phil would say something stupid in the press and go, ‘See what your boy said?’ I was like, ‘Dude, why is he my boy? Because I wanted to get out of your bus because you were throwing fucking tacos at everybody because you’d lost your mind on booze?’ The whole thing was ridiculous, but I never talked about it.”

Until now. In his revealing memoir, Official Truth 101 Proof: The Inside Story of Pantera, Brown stops short of blaming anyone for Pantera’s breakup and the subsequent murder of Dimebag Darrell. Instead, he and co-writer Mark Eglinton spend the majority of the book addressing the formation and development of Pantera through five legendary albums. In the process, Brown analyzes how four musicians that were once closer than most families grew apart because of their differences in personality, musical tastes and choice of extracurricular activities.

Brown has particularly strong recollections of the six major-label albums he recorded with Pantera. In this Guitar World interview, he gives us an unvarnished, no-holds-barred look at the making of those records and of his life with the original Cowboys from Hell.

Cowboys from Hell (1990)

While we were writing the songs for Cowboys from Hell, we were listening to a lot of different kinds of music—a lot of Metallica, Slayer, Mercyful Fate and Minor Threat—and that changed our sound. We had grown such a huge following in Texas by then that we could play one set a night and draw 2,000 people. Since we didn’t have to play six shows a night anymore, we had more time to spend in the Abbotts’ studio [Pantego Sound], and we became total perfectionists.

Vinnie would lay down all the drums, then Dime would play guitar. We’d put the bass on last. We turned all the drum channels off, and I just played along with Dime’s track. That became known as “the microscope.” If something was off, we’d get a razorblade and cut and splice the tape. We didn’t have Pro Tools back then. And that’s what created our trademark sound, where the guitar and bass are just spot-on.

By that point, Dime had already surpassed all of his influences as a player, and we were making a lot of money playing Friday and Saturday nights within a radius of Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Shreveport and New Orleans. Then, after getting turned down 29 times, we finally got signed to Atco. The thing is, that actually made our financial situation worse at first. We weren’t playing shows, so we didn’t have any money coming in. So I had to get a job. Me and our lighting guy, Sonny, got gigs putting up lights for fashion shows. It actually turned out real cool. We met all these fashion models, got laid all the time and made a month’s rent a night.

But playing with Pantera back then was even better. We were such good friends, and our chemistry was undeniable. Dime would make these riff tapes on his four-track and bring them in, and we’d turn them into songs. One day, Dime came in with this tape loop of a lick he played over and over in a high register. It drove us crazy, because he wouldn’t stop playing it. That’s what became “Cowboys from Hell,” and it was the start of the power groove every band follows today.

As much as you still hear that song, when it came out no radio stations would play it. One of my favorite memories is when we did “Cemetery Gates.” Dime already had the riff in the song where it starts getting heavy, but we didn’t have an intro. One day, I picked up an acoustic guitar and messed around with a part, which we recorded.

We recorded a piano in reverse so that it created this big swell of sound at the end of the section. When we put the acoustic intro together with the heavy part, there it was. That was huge for us, and that’s how all those sessions went. We were all working together with Terry Date, who we liked a lot, even though our first choice was [famed metal producer] Max Norman. But he canceled at the last minute and we got Terry, who we bonded with from the start.

Vulgar Display of Power (1992)

When we got back from touring for Cowboys, the music scene had changed so drastically. You had Nirvana on one side and Metallica’s Black Album on the other. As good as that record is, it’s no Master of Puppets. We figured this was our chance to be the heaviest game in town. Dime had riffs pouring out of him. He’d bring them in, and it was hard to choose between them, because they were all so good. One time, Dime and Phil walked out and smoked a joint and came back with the idea for “A New Level.” A couple hits of weed and we were all flying. It was so easy to play, but it was the chemistry we had that made it sound so good. That’s how it was with us. I mean, anybody can write something like “Walk,” but to play it like we did, with that groove—that’s pure chemistry. Even “Fucking Hostile” is totally brutal but hooky as hell. This was the second record we did with Terry Date. He and Vinnie worked hand in hand to get the perfect sound, and Dime was writing riffs that were better than any band out there and taking his solos to an entirely new place. That record just came easy. All the riffs on Cowboys had been written by me and Dime. Philip came in with his own ideas on Vulgar, and that made us even heavier. After it was mastered, we had a tape of the record and we put it in a cassette player and played it for everyone at the label, and their jaws hit the fucking ground. If you play an album for someone and they say, “Yeah, man, I fucking love it,” that’s cool. But when nobody says anything after it’s done and they all have blank stares on their faces, and then someone finally says, “Holy shit!” then you know you’ve done something great. As blown away as everyone was by Vulgar Display of Power, it was the tour opening for Skid Row that changed everything for us. Vinnie had met up with them on tour and drank so much that he threw up all over their dressing room. But they had a good time, so they asked us to go on tour with them. Philip was really resistant at first, and I told him, “Look, there’s two ways we can look at this. We can view it the hard way and say, ‘Fuck you all! We’re gonna tear you apart!’ Or we can take the crowd with us every fucking night,” which is what we did. We turned all these hair farmers into Pantera believers. Vulgar was our second real record, so no one could say Cowboys was a fluke. The songs came out at the right time, and we tore it up every night.

Far Beyond Driven (1994)It would have been easy for us to write another Vulgar Display of Power, but fuck that. We wanted to try something completely different that was even heavier. We moved everything up to Jerry Abbott’s new place in Nashville, and that’s the first time we started taking breaks between recording. We’d do three or four songs, put them on tape, let them sink in and then go back in and do more. That was about the time that Dime started messing around with the Whammy Pedal and Vinnie was getting completely crazy about getting this clicky sound on his drums, and that required a lot of takes and a lot of tweaking our sound. We drove Terry crazy. But we had been playing through the same gear for 500 dates between 1989 and 1994, so we felt it was time for experimentation, and we did tons of takes of everything, which is why it was our most expensive album to do. “I’m Broken” was the first single. That was a classic southern groove, and we remixed that thing 16 times. But we were raging. Take a song like “Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills.” Where the fuck does that come from? Out of the blue! We just bashed it out. Dime came up with a lot of those riffs at soundchecks, and he wrote other ones on the shitter. He always had an acoustic guitar in the bathroom. He’d go in there to take a dump and come out with an amazing song. We also covered Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan.” I played keyboards on it and fretless bass. Vinnie played congas. And Dime’s solo…to this day, I can’t listen to it. Just talking about it chokes me up. And Dime did it first take.Everything was happening. We renegotiated our contract with Warner Bros., and they gave us a huge amount of money each. When stuff like that happens, it can either ruin you and wipe the band out or you can bond together, which we did. Part way through the recording, we left Nashville and went back to Dallas Sound Lab, in Texas, and from then on it became one big fuckin’ party. We were boozin’. Vinnie was doing a lot of Ecstasy. Me and Dime were just taking little dabbles here and there, but Vinnie was out of his mind, and he was co-producing this thing, so he’d sometimes get real crazy. It took a long time to finish the overdubs, because the brothers were partying so heavy, but we were still “all for one, one for all,” even though Philip had moved back home to New Orleans when he was done with his vocals. That removed him from the equation, which was probably a good thing.

The Great Southern Trendkill (1996)Metal is a full-blown contact sport, especially the way we did it. So it was only a matter of time before Phil was gonna need something for the damage he caused himself. We used to jump 15 feet in the fucking air, and I’d usually land on my feet and feel the shock on my knees, which are shot now. But Philip would make these giant jumps and land on his fuckin’ ass. I used to always think, Fuck, man, that’s gonna hurt later.Back then, we would wake and bake. That was just a given. So that made us a little foggy. But at one point, I noticed Phil was fuzzier than usual. One day when we stared doing The Great Southern Trendkill, he looked at me and slapped his armpit [a technique to inflate a vein prior to shooting heroin]. I went, “What!?” I’ve never stuck a needle in my arm. I used to watch some of my friends shoot up, but I would never do it. No way. I hadn’t seen that reference in 10 years, and Philip doing that at me made me go, Oh shit! I hope he’s not doing what I think he’s doing. Sure enough, he was doing smack. And he was a wreck through the writing sessions of Trendkill. We were all so burned out by that point. A lot of the discipline and structure we used to have went out the window. I’m not crazy about two or three songs on the album, but there’s a lot of good stuff on it. It was all created very spontaneously. We didn’t go back and re-record anything.That record was even more experimental than Far Beyond Driven. Far Beyond still had a coherent structure, and on Trendkill there was hardly any. Dime wasn’t even bringing riff tapes in anymore. So we winged it, and Terry just rolled tape, and a lot of the random stuff we captured is pioneering. And of course, the more we worked on them, the more cohesive the songs became. It was the first time Philip didn’t track vocals with us, which left Dime leery, because he didn’t know what to do with the leads. But he got it done anyway, and it was killer. Just listen to “Floods.” That’s the three of us locked in, and it’s got all these different shades to it and all these dynamics, and Dime’s solo couldn’t be better. In the end, we were psyched about the record, and we toured it to fucking death.

Former Pantera bassist Rex Brown joined fellow Pantera alumnus and current Down frontman Philip Anselmo on stage at the Download festival on Sunday at Donington Park in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. They performed the Pantera classic "A New Level."

Anselmo performed at this year's Download with his backing band, the Illegals, featuring guitarist Marzi Montazeri (ex-Superjoint Ritual), drummer José Manuel Gonzales (Warbeast) and bassist Steve Taylor.

Check out fan-filmed footage of the performance here:

Rex Brown knows a thing or two about bass. The man has been pounding out well-known, monstrous basslines for close to 30 years, starting with Pantera's first album, Metal Magic, in 1983.

Brown, who was inspired to play bass by Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones and Geezer Butler, teamed up with like-minded musicians Vinnie Paul, Terry Glaze and Dimebag Darrell in 1982. Phil Anselmo joined the band in 1987, forming what is considered Pantera's classic lineup.

I sat down with Brown at a recent tour stop in Marlborough, Massachusetts, to talk about all things bass-related and Kill Devil Hill, his new band with Black Sabbath and Dio drummer Vinny Appice.

GUITAR WORLD: Kill Devil Hill's self-titled debut album is out now. Why should people hear it?

Why should people hear it? Because we worked our asses off on it. We've got an extremely talented bunch of people on this thing. I'll just put it to you this way: Everybody in this band has their own individual aura. When you put all of that into this big kettle, it comes out to be this killer record. We’ve gotten a lot of critical acclaim with it so far.

What was the recording process like?

Bass-wise, I knew exactly what kind of sound I wanted. We had Jay Ruston (Steel Panther, Meat Loaf) mix this thing and Warren Riker (Down, Corrosion Of Conformity) produce, and we had a deadline. We had 30 days to do the album. Vinny's drums were done in four days. We were that tight, and we knew exactly what we wanted for the songs. We worked really hard. I was going back and forth to LA every three or four weeks, staying at Mark the guitar player's house, working out arrangements and putting my spin on things. But most of the material was pretty much written as far as vocals and melody lines were concerned.

I wanted to hear something that was more … you know, I worked with Phil Anselmo for 24 years. That's a long time to work together, so it was time for a change for me. Then Vinny Appice handed this to me, and at first I was like, “Well we need to get in a room together and see how it feels." When we plugged in we all just got along so great. It sounds cliché as fuck, but that's exactly what happened.

How did this partnership happen with you and Vinny Appice?

We've known each other for 20 years. We used to tour together back in the day, me in Pantera he in Sabbath. The craziest part is that I used to sit behind Geezer's amps and watch him and Vinny play together in Black Sabbath. I would feel the dynamics. Geezer’s my favorite bass player, so I would sit and just watch every night and take it all in. So now I know where Vinny will go with certain things, playing-wise. I know every Sabbath song ever made so just playing with this cat is great. I've been blessed three times with great drummers. Vinnie Paul, Jimmy Bower from Down, he’s a great drummer, and you can't mess with this motherfucker Appice, that's all there is to it.

Your tone on the new album is great. What were you using in terms of amps and effects?

I went back to four strings around 2002 or 2003 for Down. And I quit playing for a couple years too. I was just burnt — 250 dates a year, you just get burnt, or you need to play with somebody else and get some change happening. So my whole deal was like, "Let's go back to four strings, make it simple. Let's go back to pedals instead of going with these huge racks, and let's just go straight through the amp. Let the amp do the talking."

When you hear us live, you’ll here exactly what I mean. The tone’s ballsy; I’m using a number of different things and test-driving different stuff. I really like this Blowtorch [overdrive distortion pedal] MXR got me. It has a parametric equalizer on it and a gain boost. We experimented with a lot of stuff in the studio, including EarthQuaker pedals and wah pedals that make a huge sweep from mid-range up to the high-end.

I use an Ampeg SVT 4 and a chorus for just a little bit of presence. It definitely makes a difference. I've also got a distortion plus wah by Morley. I’ve used that one forever, and it has never let me down. It's got the full sweep on it, and when you let off of it, you don’t have to hit a switch or anything. Damn, I’m giving away all my secrets [laughs].

What are your main basses these days?

I've probably got about 40 Spectors. They sent me this white one I’ve been playing lately. It has a mahogany neck all the way through, but it has alder wings. It's got a wild mid-punch to it. It really helps me cut through the guitars nicely, and it gets this huge low end. It's amazing.

What's are your favorite songs on the new Kill Devil Hill record?

I like “War Machine” a lot. That was the first one Vinny sent me. My next-door neighbor works for Pixar and Nickelodeon and has a million dollar studio in his house. He’s always been very supportive of whatever I need with projects and stuff, so he helped me track that one. It took me more time to tune than it did to lay down the bass track for that song.

Probably my favorites are “War Machine” and “Rise from the Shadows." But I like the whole record, really. I keep listening to it. It's one of those things where usually when I get done with a record, I just let it fly out the fucking door. This album is different. I keep listening to it, and every time I hear something new. Also the way Vinny and me play it now, we sync up and lock in so tight. That's truly the most important thing for a bass player, having a drummer you can sync up with solidly.

Here's a question from Branson Cobb in Arkansas: Who inspired you to play bass?

That's a tough one. I had a sister who was 17 years older than me; she gave me all The Beatles' records, all of The Rolling Stones' records, so I would say as far as melodic bass playing goes, it was Paul McCartney. As for metal bass, it would be Geezer Butler for sure. And don't ever forget John Paul Jones!

What would you recommend for young bands trying to make it today?

Find a good drummer.

Any comments on the current state of the music industry?

Don't get me started. It all sucks, man. There's nobody out there willing — unless you're like a huge, established multi-platinum artist, that you can really count on to do anything for you. So you have to do it yourself, which is fine for me. Hell, I've done that for years. It's all about comfort level at this age.

This question is from Jeremy Jewell in Kentucky: Do you guys have a ritual for loosening up before a show? Do you do warmups or stretches?

I stretch every night, you’ve got to. I also make sure to do some arm windmills, and if we’re at a hotel or something like that, I’ll lift some weights. Light ones — something not too heavy, but a lot of repetitions.

Anything else you want to say to the fans?

Get your ass down to a fucking Kill Devil Hill show and learn from the goddamn legends! That's all there is to it!

Kill Devil Hill with Alice Cooper:

• 11/23: Denver, CO @ The Paramount Theater
• 11/24: Salt Lake City, UT @ Bar Deluxe*
• 11/25: Reno, NV @ The Grand Sierra Theater
• 11/27: San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield Theater
• 11/28: Bakersfield, CA @ Elements Venue*
• 11/29: Los Angeles, CA @ The Orpheum Theater
• 11/30: Las Vegas, NV @ The Pearl Theater
• 12/1: Fresno, CA @ Babylon*
• *Denotes headlining date

For more information, visit Kill Devil Hill's official website and Facebook page.

Dave Reffett is a Berklee College of Music graduate and has worked with some of the best players in rock and metal. He is an instructor at (and the head of) the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal department at The Real School of Music in the metro Boston area. He also is a master clinician and a highly-in-demand private guitar teacher. He teaches lessons in person and worldwide via Skype. As an artist and performer, he is working on some soon-to-be revealed high-profile projects with A-list players in rock and metal. In 2009, he formed the musical project Shredding The Envelope and released the critically acclaimed album The Call Of The Flames. Dave also is an official artist endorsee for companies like Seymour Duncan, Gibson, Eminence and Esoterik Guitars, which in 2011 released a Dave Reffett signature model guitar, the DR-1. Dave has worked in the past at Sanctuary Records and Virgin Records, where he promoting acts like The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Korn and Meat Loaf.