Unapologetically
ALL of Them
Rattler Reb Hillbilly Power Metal Bio
Veterans of performing clubs for years and taking all they have learned and putting it in this band.
Theatrical (check), entertaining (check), loud and aggressive (check), loving and compassionate (check),
...One thing for sure, they are Rattler Reb and you can’t put a label on them. Rattler Reb is unapologetically all of them, and most of all….songs that mean something.
It is January of 2023. Kaney Jaxx is on his way home from work. He checks his voice mail and is informed a song he entered in a contest a few months back has been chosen as one of the finalists. He doesn’t think much about it. His visions of rock and roll stardom disappeared a decade or two before. He has continued to play guitar in his living room, write songs, and record, but that is about as far as it has gone (he last played on stage in 2012 at a place called Vamp’d in Las Vegas). A month passes and he receives another phone call that his song has won the contest. It’s official, When You Got Nothin’ is named by Nashville Music Awards as the rock song of the year.
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Flashback; December 27th, 1984
Hair was big and metal was the craze. Four teenagers under the band name Dezire (Kaney, Rick, Vernon, and Stacy), walk into LSI Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. In less than ten hours the infamous “The Awakening” album is recorded. It will be released in March of 1985. Although the album would be filled with some good rockin’ tunes, the lack of funds and time would lead to an album that sounded like a rough demo at best. The title track, “Breakin’ Free”, “Tease”, and “Heading For the Sun” showed what might have been…. however production was non-existent. The album never came close to capturing what the band sounded like live. With lackluster response to the album and arguments over what direction the band should head, in retrospect, it was evident Dezire would be short lived. In what the four youngsters thought would be the first of many albums, turns out, it would be their only album. The band had formed in the fall of ’83 and begin working on original songs. A novel concept at the time. With a few gigs behind them and an eye for success all four members decided to do what a lot of other bands who had reached success had done. They would record and release their own album in hopes of getting picked up by a major label. After the release of the album personal problems and inner demons of certain members of the band would surface. The band only played two more gigs in support of the album before Dezire was over. Members went their separate ways. Kaney and Vernon would go on to form a couple of other bands before Vernon would exit the music business by the fall of 1987. Rick would play with a couple of other bands before him and Kaney would reunite in late 1988. The two would play in a few more bands with other members who would come and go. K.J. and Rick would play one final show with two other bandmates in late winter of 90 at Sal’s in Nashville. It would be Rick’s final appearance behind a drum kit for a real show as the two decided it was time to move on.
Kaney Jaxx would record a couple of demos in the early and mid-90’s and play sparingly in a few bands that never got off the ground. In 2002 he would make a return to the music business and eventually put together Hell Hound along with Roger “Crash” Carter, Ike Stonewall, and Stroebel Slade.
Hell Hound (not to be confused with the Japanese band and west coast band of the 80s) would go on to have regional success across Tennessee and in Georgia. They would also release two albums, one of which would find some success in Germany scoring a radio hit with the song The Rebel Knight. They would play their final gig at the legendary Exit In in Nashville Tennessee in 2006. Another version of the band would resurface in Las Vegas. That version of the band was a distant cry from what was established back East. Kaney quickly disbanded it as he felt the new version was totally disrespectful to what the original four members of Hell Hound had created. Jaxx would continue working in the music business in production and behind the scenes. In the meantime he was writing and working on new music.
This brings us to the present in which Kaney, Crash, and longtime veteran bassist of several bands through the years Tim Crabtree would get together to make the most of the momentum created by the success of Kaney’s award winning song. So get ready for RATTLER REB debut record, a more polished version of Hell Hound, but with the same attitude. After all they are the leather wearin’, panty tearin’, guitar blazin’, hell raizen’ Hillbillys From Hell.
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