About Josh Brown
Born
1976
Genre
House
Heavy metal vocalist Josh Brown is best-known for his stint with Full Devil Jacket; in fact, there would have been no such band without him, a development that would reduce many headbangers to severe depression as well as leave gaping holes in the soundtracks to films such as Scream 3. While the axemen in the band had indeed assembled by the mid-'90s, the musicians had no vocalist with which to express their spiritual philosophy. With not a whole lot of songwriting talent between them, there was also an acute shortage of said philosophy in rock lyric form. Bassist Kevin Bebout arrived for his own audition with Brown in tow, and it wasn't long before the new frontman had come up with a ditty entitled "Full Devil Jacket" from which the ensemble's name was plucked. Members of the group were all locals from Jackson, TN, a city so dull that it is often mistaken for its Mississippi namesake; critical references to Brown as a musician from the latter state stem from this error. Some of the highlights in Brown's and the band's career history make it seem like this hometown's drab and dirty nature is able to spread like a virus of some sort. Tom Zutaut, an A&R dude affiliated with Island Def Jam, claims to have caught Brown and mates performing at a Tampa livestock festival, leading to speculation concerning just how many hard rock outfits have been approached by talent scouts while the scent of cow manure wafts through the immediate environment. Woodstock '99 was a bigger deal, obviously, although reports indicate it didn't smell a whole lot better. The group also performed on the new millennium Warped Tour and received a nice boost when a Full Devil Jacket track was chosen for placement on a promotional compilation handed out free to the first 100,000 customers buying a new release by genre stars Megadeth. Then Brown wound up ousted from the group, sadly enough over so-called "spiritual differences." It is worth lamenting that artists who created the unforgettable songs "Screaming Jesus" and "Dead Mother F****r" are not able to smooth out spiritual disagreements, but that's the music business. Perhaps a healing service would help! The Full Devil Jacket name itself will also be dropped due to the split. This Josh Brown should not be confused with the New York City singer, songwriter, and guitarist usually known as Josh Roy Brown. ~ Eugene Chadbourne
