DOWN's BROWN: It's Amazing That We're Still Able To Get Up And Kick Ass Like We Do Every Night

Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with DOWN/ex-PANTERA bassist Rex Brown. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On how DOWN's last album, "Over The Under", has fared with the fans and press alike:

'From the critical side, we've had nothing but accolades. I'll just put it this way. One of the editors at Rolling Stone magazine is just in love with the band. I never thought in a million years that I would get a four out of five out of Rolling Stone magazine. That's pretty prestigious coming from a guy that I really respect as a journalist and also is a really great writer. We got the chance to meet him. We just got back from doing seven festivals which took us about a month to do with METALLICA in all of July and just got home the week after, and we got to meet him. He was out there doing a piece on them and was just on the side of the stage every night. But the thing went over well. It was definitely one of those records that had to come out and the timing was just kind of right for us. We've been just trying to hit every market that we possibly can. At this point in the game, we've already hit 31 countries and that's not even including South America. We've hit and seen and fuckin' conquered pretty much for a year straight . . . Y'know, because I play it all the time, I haven't really listened to it front to back… but y'know, I think it's a strong fuckin' record. I think it's one of those pieces that … I dunno… we worked really fuckin' hard on this one, y'know? Especially Philip [Anselmo, vocals]. The guy is back like I'm working in a time warp with the dude as far as his writing and his whole deal, and it's amazing that [at] our young age that we're still able to get up and kick ass like we do every night and enjoy it."

On opening for HEAVEN AND HELL in Australia in 2007:

"It was nuts! I've been through some intense fuckin' therapy. I've been on and off tryin' to figure it out. Something hit me and I've been sober for like a year and a half now. It was like… playing to these fuckin' really expensive seats at the front and seein' a bunch of old guys probably 20 years my senior sittin' down in their seats kinda lookin' going ‘Who is this?' So you really can't see past the first ten rows anyways. It was good in different cities. But overall, I thought it put us out to a broader audience and we'll see who comes back and who doesn't.”

"I think for the circumstances dude… like the doors weren't barely open, everybody was havin' a pint before we were even going on. It's kinda hard to relate to somebody … it's like THE BEATLES trying to play to Shea Stadium (New York, U.S.A.) and the guys are like a hundred yards away. So we'd just get up and play our set and do what we do and that's it, y'know? Love it, hate it, whatever you think. A lot of kids apparently dig it in Australia or we wouldn't be coming back."

Read the entire interview from The Metal Forge.