How Pantera’s Rex Brown Went From Playing Tuba to Bass

Rex Brown is at present celebrating the legacy he helped construct, enjoying 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 really could be the tuba.

Throughout an interview performed with Gibson TV in December 2020 that is been making the rounds on-line, Brown goes into element about how he finally discovered his option to the instrument he is most recognized for at the moment, which is the bass.

Brown revealed his musical training began with a need to be a part of his center faculty band’s drumline, however as he revealed, that did not come to fruition with the band director suggesting that he play the tuba.

Brown recollects, “Dude, I weighed about 80 kilos and making an attempt to choose 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 taking place.”

Rex says his fast ascent selecting 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 one does that, and so they could not discover a child anyplace to try this, in order that’s after I picked up the bass,” says Brown.

He recollects, “I used to be like, ‘Man, this has obtained to be simple.’ They’d like these ’72, ’73 Fender Jazz precisions and so they’d let me take them house. They’d the cool amps and stuff.”

Brown says he finally struck up an excellent rapport with the band director to the place there was some belief as his ardour for the instrument grew. “I’ve all the time 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 might be. There is no pretension there, you recognize. I used to be like, ‘You thoughts if I take the bass? I would actually prefer to study over the weekend.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you have completed so nicely with the tuba, so no downside,'” says the bassist.

However in response to Brown, he pushed the boundaries of that belief a bit as soon as he obtained older. “I obtained type of sneaky within the ninth grade. The door had a window that you possibly can open up and I type 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 superb. 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 turned extra frequent for the teenage bassist, who finally crossed paths with brothers Vinnie Paul Abbott and his brother Darrell, with the three musicians forming the bottom of what would develop into Pantera.

Watch extra of Rex Brown’s story within the Gibson TV Icons video under.