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REHAB
IS NOT READY TO QUIT
by Dianne Steverson & Jonathan Williams
Photos by Jonathan Williams
Live photos courtesy of Rehab
From the March 2006 issue of Prick Magazine.
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 Rehab is (l-r) Chris Hood, Mike Hartnett, Danny "Boone" Alexander, Foz, and Hano Leathers. |
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On its latest release Graffiti the World, Rehab brings a fresh twist to the Southern rap rock it introduced to music fans with 2000's Southern Discomfort. The current hit single "Last Tattoo" is being played on radio stations in the Dirty South and as far away as Hawaii and California.
While this success is due in large part to the demand of the band's fans who had to wait five years between albums, the sentiments expressed in this song are also easy to relate to.
"You always hear so much about people getting their significant other or whatever tattooed on them and then having to remove it," says singer Danny "Boone" Alexander, who has a tattoo of his wife's name. "That's just such a bad mistake and everybody's had bad experiences with another person and the pain of it and the [line] 'cover her name with a smoking gun' is kind of like basically you want to kill them in some weird way."
Between the band's major label debut and Graffiti the World, Rehab went through a breakup of its own while recording a second album that was never released. Redneck rappers Boone and Brooks Buford went their separate ways and the band had to regroup.
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 Danny "Boone" Alexander. |
 Boone and Foz. |
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"Danny and Brooks had a falling out," says guitarist Mike Hartnett, who played with the band in its previous incarnation. "So me and Danny started working on a new record in my little home studio and pretty much just burned a whole new record ourselves without the budget of a major label or anything. It was a little harder, but we got a little more say-so in what we wanted to do musically. It's a bigger sound, it's a little more produced with a little more rock edge, but it still has the hip-hop."
Rounding out the new lineup are guitarist Foz, bassist Hano Leathers and drummer Chris Hood, a jazz performer who has been playing since the age of five.
"Me and Mike put together a bunch of songs and we needed a band so we could start going out on the road," says Boone. "We'd try to hold auditions and he's very good, so I know it was hard for him to pick anybody. I don't play shit, so I don't know what good is. I called this dude and I was like, 'Man, I need a band. I don't know what to do.' By the end of that day, I had all these guys in a building and we was playing."
Boone says the second album with Buford, who went on to work on a solo album and host MTV's Trailer Fabulous, "was some of the best shit we'd done up to that point," yet the band was pressured to go in a different direction with its sound.
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 Boone |
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"I thought it was hot as piss and I don't think nobody knew exactly what to do with it," he says. "That shit was so dope to me, man. It might have went Wood, but I thought that shit was so hot and they wanted us to have another sound, put us with some other producers that were good producers, but I wasn't interested in sounding like that at all.
"Basically what it came down to was creative differences," he continues. "Somebody wanting to play the game and somebody not wanting to play the game and I was the one who didn't want to play that particular game and I got the fuck out."
Before the breakup, Rehab saw its share of success with "It Don't Matter" getting heavy rotation on radio and MTV and tours with the likes of Linkin Park and the Warped Tour. Hitting the road this month, the band is ready to see what kind of response it will get outside the South.
Now based in Atlanta, Boone shows a little of his Southern suburban pride on the new album with the song "This Town." He also proudly displays his hometown with his "Warner Robins" tattoos on his forearms.
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 Foz |
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"That's where I grew up and I've lived there most of my life," he says. "When I was growing up, we was always into hip-hop and I had a little crew that we ran with and we always sat around and rhymed and all this stuff. I came to Atlanta and we got our record deal and all this stuff and I always wanted to represent Warner Robins, but I didn't know how because nobody really cared.
"Then we went out to L.A. and different places like that and I'd see people with 'Brooklyn' or 'Bronx' or whatever," he continues. "I was like, 'You know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna put Warner Robins on my arms.' I thought it'd be kind of funny at one point and then at another point I took it dead-ass serious.
"So then I started doing meth to represent for real," he adds jokingly. "Rot a few teeth out."
Speaking of meth (and last tattoos for that matter), it sounds like the guy who did the tattoo of Boone's daughter's baby footprints on his right arm was a little strung out.
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 Rehab live |
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"I told him the birthdate, which is 4/25/97,” says Boone. "He started doing it and walked off and I happened to turn around and look in the mirror and it was 4/22 on there. I just about lost my fucking mind and just raised all kinda hell. He had the idea to try to fix it, but it was a janky-ass tattoo place in Warner Robins. You have to pay up front and the motherfucker wouldn’t give me my money back."
Despite the name of Rehab's latest hit, these guys are far from getting their last tattoos. In fact Foz, who already has a few, plans on getting some more ink before the band hits the road.
"I'm going to get another one [on my left shoulder] that's going to be Arabic writing all around with a crescent moon and star," he says. "I'm still working on the design for that one."
"He's going to get a rebel flag with Arabic writing," adds Boone with a laugh.
"That say's 'Muslim by birth, Southern by the grace of God,'" adds Foz.
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Rehab will be on tour in March and April. For more information, go to www.rehabmusic.com.
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