Jan 5, 2018
My very first interview for this podcast was a wheels-off train wreck. It was recorded a little over eight months ago. To make matters worse, the interview was with a celebrity. My guest was Rex Brown, best known as a member of metal pioneers Pantera. He also happens to be a friend and former band mate going back to our high school years–a blessing and a curse on this occasion.
The problem? The moment we started our Skype call, I encountered technical issues. Did I mention this was my first ever interview for the podcast? We went ahead with the interview, and Rex dutifully gave me a hard time for not having my sh*t together. That's what high school friends do, call one another out on our respective BS.
When we spoke, Rex was exuberant about the upcoming launch of his first solo album, Smoke on This. I think he also saw our interview as a nice opportunity for us to catch up. It was indeed. The timing was perfect and preceded the promotional activity that he was about to immerse himself in. He was in great spirits as Smoke on This was already looking and sounding like it was going to be a big success.
After listening to the playback, I decided the audio was not good enough to use for my first episode. It was important for me to start the podcast with high-quality content and audio. I sat on the recording for a while before telling Rex that I’d decided not to use it. He seemed a little disappointed. It had been an enjoyable the conversation, which he quite possibly thought turned out to be a decent interview as well. We both figured we could do it again sometime. The question was when?