REX BROWN To Tell 'The Inside Story' Of PANTERA In 'Shockingly Personal' Book

BLABBERMOUTH.NET has received word that former PANTERA bassist Rex Brown has 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.

World rights were acquired by executive editor Ben Schafer at Da Capo Press from Matthew Elblonk at DeFiore & Company with Matthew Hamilton at Aitken Alexander.

De Capo is the publisher of BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi's forthcoming book "Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath" and SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor's New York Times best seller "Seven Deadly Sins - Settling The Argument Between Born Bad And Damaged Good".

In the February 2006 issue of Revolver magazine (web site),several of PANTERA's former business associates recounted the band's amazing rise to the status of the biggest extreme metal act in the world and the circumstances that led to their eventual break-up.

Though it would be unfair to blame PANTERA's demise directly on vocalist Philip Anselmo's side band DOWN, it's clear that the project as well as Anselmo's many other projects, like SUPERJOINT RITUAL became another snowball in the avalanche of bad feeling that eventually overwhelmed the band. Certainly, the lack of direct communication between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers (Darrell and Vince) also had something to do with it, as did the "he said/they said" salvos that were fired back and forth between the two camps with Rex Brown caught in the middle via interviews in print magazines and online publications.

"Really, it was just a complete lack of communication [within PANTERA], and the wrong things being said at the wrong time," offered Kim Zide-Davis, who joined the band's management team a few months after the group's "Far Beyond Driven" CD came out. "Philip doesn't have a real understanding that he needs to be careful of who he says what to, and how people can misconstrue what he's saying. It got to the point where I'd come into the office and Phil was out on tour with DOWN or SUPERJOINT RITUAL and had just said something else. Honestly, it was gut-wrenching.

"I spent the better part of the last three years [with PANTERA] working with them on and off, trying to keep them from disintegrating. The brothers were ready to go, and so was Rex. But Philip was beyond anybody's control."

"I blame the media for making a circus out of the fact that there were a few things I wanted to get out of my system, and we were going to take a break," said Anselmo. "The media blew this 'we hate each other' thing up to the sky."

But while the "who broke up PANTERA" argument can (and probably will) rage well into the next millennium, the premature death of Dimebag Darrell ultimately renders it moot. Though drummer Vinnie Paul has vehemently stated that he and his brother would have never participated in a PANTERA reunion, Brown would like to think otherwise. "Maybe somewhere down the road we would've smoothed stuff out the four of us getting together in a room and beating the shit out of each other or whatever," he said. "We cant do that now. All that we can do now is move on and do the best we can and try to preserve the legacy that we built, and at least keep Dime's musical legacy alive."

Anselmo in early 2010 announced plans to write an autobiography, which is being co-authored by MetalSucks' Corey Mitchell.