REX BROWN On Possible PANTERA 'Reunion': 'I Never Say Never'

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.