Josh Brown and Full Devil Jacket have all the right ingredients to be a classic episode of VH1’s “Behind the Music.” The band came out of the gate blazing in 1999 with their EP A Waxbox to Put Your Frankenstein Head In, followed up by their gold self titled debut album, a high profile slot at Woodstock 99, videos all over MTV and high profile tours with Nickelback and Creed. The band was living the dream and the world seemed to be at their fingertips. Then, in 2000, tragedy hit the band. Josh nearly died of a heroin overdose and ended up not only leaving the band, but also the music industry.
Josh entered rehab and found Christianity and eventually found his way back into music with the band Day of Fire. The band was very successful earning a Dove award and a Grammy nomination. Full Devil Jacket put the past behind them in for a one-time benefit show for their guitarist who was battling cancer and that lead to where we are today. On March 31, Full Devil Jacket will release their long awaited sophomore album Valley of Bones and the guys have never sounded better. I caught up with lead singer Josh Brown as the band was getting ready to take the stage on the opening night of their tour with Adrenaline Mob and Drowning Pool.
Interview With Josh Brown of FULL DEVIL JACKET
By: Johnny Price, Lead Senior Journalist
Josh Brown: Hey man, it’s Josh with Full Devil Jacket.
Johnny (RR): How’s it going buddy?
I’m fantastic man; this is the first day of the tour. It’s been about three of four years since I’ve been out on tour. I can’t tell you the exact amount of time, but it’s definitely been over two years. It’s great to be out here on a real tour.
Dude, it’s great to see you back and congrats to you for being a part of such a great tour package.
Thank you so much man. What’s cool about it is that everybody on this tour is a bunch of veterans. They’re a bunch of guys who have been doing this for a long time. So far, it’s not a bunch of egos and it’s just a bunch of good people out here doing what they do and it’s great to be a part of that.
I’m no musician, but travelling with that kind of brotherhood has to make for a great evening, not just for all of you guys, but for the fans as well.
No doubt man, no doubt at all! The first guy that I met out here was A.J. Pero; the drummer for Twisted Sister is in Adrenaline Mob; that was fucking bad-ass!
What a way to kick things off! Josh, I know you guys have a lot to do tonight, so let’s jump right into this. Fifteen years is a long time between a debut album and its follow-up album. I know that most of the people know the history of what happened, but I want to know why get back together and do this now?
In 2010, we got together for the first time in over ten years because our guitarist Mike Reaves was battling cancer and we got together to do a benefit for Mike. That was the first time that we had the idea to put the band together. Our drummer, Keith (Foster), and I hadn’t talked since I left the band and there was a lot of bad blood there for a minute, but once we all got in that room for the right reason, we buried the hatchet and started making music again. It took that long to get the motivation and the right people involved to make it happen. It’s hard when you spend a lifetime with a bunch of guys like I have with the ones in Full Devil Jacket growing up, playing music and learning how to do shows, you can never really throw that away. There’s nothing worth being separated from your childhood friends and when Mike died, it was a real big eye opener for us. It is about music, but it’s more than just that; it’s about relationships and that’s the key right there.
Well, let me say on behalf of probably a ton of fans out there, thank you all for making amends and deciding to get this machine rolling again I think you guys have captured something really special on this album dude.
So, you’ve heard it already?
Yes I have and it’s a solid, kick-ass album from beginning to end; I freaking love it dude. I love to put my headphones on and get totally absorbed in an album and this thing takes me on a hell of a journey the more that I listen to it.
No shit? Man, that gave me chills when you said that; thank you brother.
I’ll be totally honest with you too; I’m new to the Full Devil Jacket family.
So, you weren’t necessarily a fan back then, but you are now?
Well, I wasn’t aware of the band back then and I learned about you by reading about the new album coming out.
Man, that record is specifically made for people who are trying to find something different. There are a lot of ideas and a lot of topics on there and there are a lot of things in there once you get past that surface level. If you’re one of those kinds of people, and it sounds like you are, who once you start getting into the record, you kind of dig to find the meaning of it, then this is a great record for you. On the surface, it is what it is and it will draw you in, but if you get into that lyrical content, then you’re going to go on a whole different kind of journey, just like you mentioned.
I guess it would be an understatement to say that this is a very personal album?
Man, I don’t have the ability to write a record that isn’t a personal record. I was also in a band called Day of Fire and a band called A New Rebel and all the records that I have done have been about my life, my opinions and this and that. All I know to do is to keep being creative and keep moving forward writing music so far, that’s worked for me.
You’ve chosen “Valley of Bones” for the lead-off single and video. How the hell do you pick a lead-off single from an album this solid?
You know, it’s kind of weird because the way that song came together from the very beginning was magic. The way it was written, the way it was recorded, the hooks that were created on the spot, well all felt, and I especially felt, like it was magic happening in the way that it came together. We thought it would be the first single when we cut the record and I told everybody that they had to hear this song because it was like a new direction for us or at least it was deeper than the direction that we wanted to go. Then, we kind of toyed with the idea of “Killers” being the first single and the label tested it and everybody ended up coming back for “Valley of Bones.” That was cool with me because that’s what I felt like it should have been in the first place, so we rolled with it.
Sometimes, you really just need to trust your gut instinct.
That’s it dude, you know it! If you can just take your pride out of the situation, I’m talking about myself, then I can hear my instinct and that instinct is what has driven me.
Is it tough separating pride and instinct?
Yeah, of course man, it’s a trip because singers are insecure ego maniacs. We’re insecure about everything until we think we’re totally bad-ass and then we fall flat on our faces and get up and are humble again; that’s the process man. At 38 years old, I’ve had a whole lot of humility for many years and I strive for humility and that’s what it’s all about for me. My whole life has flipped upside down twice and I’m really thankful that people are listening to the record and they get it, just like you are. You know, that tells me that I’m not completely crazy all the time.
Why did you guys go the avenue of Kickstarter for this new album?
I came to Tennessee a few years ago and we decided to record a new Full Devil Jacket record. My drummer had built a studio for us to record it in and we were going to do it ourselves. We worked on it for about six weeks and I haven’t hated anything that I’ve ever recorded as passionately as I did what we recorded in those first six weeks. I’ve never worked on a piece of music that long and hated it that much, so that told me that we needed to go get with a producer. We were completely broke, but we scrapped together enough money to record one song and then we decided to do a Kickstarter. The fans support was unbelievable! We were shooting for $12,000 and we topped out at $15,000. Then, we partnered with eOne to finish the record; we went and cut some more tracks and did some remixing and mastering. eOne has been a great label and our manager believed in this record before anyone else did we now have a team of bad-asses and it’s pretty awesome.
Full Devil Jacket – Valley of Bones (Official Music Video)
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I was looking at some of the guest appearance on the album and one that jumped out to me was Zach Myers of Shinedown. How was that connection made?
I tell you this humbly and I’m not bragging, but he will tell you the same thing. He grew up listening to the first FDJ record when he was a kid growing up. He knew that we were from the same area and our producer Justin (Rimer) was good friends with him and we asked him if he would be gracious enough to play on the record. The dude came in like a boss, totally humble and totally cool, layed down about five completely bad-ass solos and we just took our pick. That guy is a truly great musician and a truly real person and doesn’t have his head caught up his ass. I hope that if I ever have a chance to be a quarter as successful as he is that I carry that same humility with me because that dude is humble. You never know how someone who has sold three of four million records is going to act because there’s a lot of bravado and pride in this genre of music, but not that guy.
What made you decide to work with Justin Rimer on this album?
Justin’s kind of a local legend and he played in a band called 12 Stones. I was with a management company and my first manager was his first manager. We never really hung out back then, but we did have a little bit of history together. We were trying people out and we invited Justin to Jackson, Tennessee and it just clicked; when it clicks, you know it clicks. We went and recorded “7X Down” with him and it turned out amazing and we continued forward with him once we had the funds. He is a total bad-ass producer and his work ethic is like no other producer that I’ve ever worked with.
Speaking of bad-ass, I love your artwork that is used throughout the album’s packaging. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
My brother started tattooing when I was fifteen years old and I’ve been in a rock band, out on the road and around tattoo shops since that age. I’ve always drawn all over everything and I’ve painted what I could and when I hooked up with my manager, he really saw a vision with my artwork. If you go back to my older records, there was a piece of my art on everything. This go around, we’re really pushing it and my goal is to have an art show in Manhattan in 2016. It’s really my way of helping stay sane or at least a way for me to get out my insanity. I really use it to keep me from doing a bunch of stupid things out on the road.
I’ve heard from other musicians who paint that they find it very therapeutic and I think that’s just what you described as well.
No doubt man, it’s pretty awesome because all it takes to be an artist of any kind is the confidence in yourself to do something that you really like. It not really about everybody else because art is about, at least for me, creating something that gets you high. I’m not a pro painter and I don’t always know how to get what’s in my brain onto the canvas, but I go on the adventure of figuring that shit out. I have this conviction inside of me that if I believe in what I’ve done then others will too. I believe in a creator and I believe I was created to do these kinds of things.
Well, you’ve definitely created some of substance with this album. There’s so much out there that seems to be following a formula these days and, as a fan of music, it’s very rewarding to hear an album like this.
The formula doesn’t work anymore! This genre of music, nu-metal, hard rock, heavy metal or whatever, there’s a lot of it that is lacking conviction. While growing up in the 90s, you had bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Korn, Rob Zombie, Metallica, Marilyn Manson and all of these different bands that were using these certain kinds of words that brought about certain kinds of emotions and they really believed what they were singing about. Nowadays, you have bands using those exact same words, because they grew up listening to those words, but without the conviction or life experience to back that up. To me, that’s the difference between rock and roll music now and then. Even back in the 60s, even though the revolution that they were pushing isn’t the same revolution that I’m pushing, they were sold out to it. I’m sold out in my belief system and I’m sold out in what I believe in enough to put it out there on this record no matter how much danger or accolades it can give me. I think rock and roll is missing conviction these days and danger; I miss that danger element in rock and roll.
It’s funny that you mention that because I just read an interview today with Roger Daltrey of The Who and he mentioned that rock and roll today is missing anger and that a lot of younger artists need to get angry again.
No doubt man! Instead of being angry for the sake of anger, why not look around you and look at the world we live in and the way we treat each other and the injustices in the world. If you can’t find something to revolt about, then you don’t need to be playing rock and roll. If there’s no revolt in it, then it’s not true rock and roll.
What helps to keep you grounded these days?
In these upcoming days, we’ll figure that one out exactly, but I’ll tell you that the main thing that keeps me grounded and has caused me to make the good decisions that I’ve been making is my family. I don’t really care about the fame that’s out here; I grew up in Jackson, Tennessee and I played Woodstock ’99, so I’ve had a level of fame. I’m not really into fame and I don’t walk around telling everybody that I was Grammy nominated and all that stuff because the truth of it is that it doesn’t really affect my life. What does affect my life are my two daughters and the rest of my family that I love dearly. I made some really big decisions a few months ago preparing to go on the road; I made some big changes in my life because it’s really important that I come through and that’s what I’m doing.
