REX – Rex Smith Asks,

REX – Rex Smith Asks, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

Special report by Martin Popoff

REX SMITH is known more to the world as a teen pop and teen movie star, and also a fine stage actor. But to us metal types, not only is he the brother of STARZ singer Michael Lee Smith, but he’s also a killer singer and front man himself, fronting REX in 1976, and Where Do We Go From Here? from 1977, two under-rated hard rockers in the AEROSMITH and TED NUGENT vein, both on Columbia.

BW&BK is here to put out the word that Rex would like to see his high-volume, high-energy act rise again…

“I’m like the guy with the iron mask!” says Rex, on a cellphone call from a convertible cruising California. “Mike is out there playing with Starz, and nobody… But it’s curious to me, because it would be unbelievable to put the boys together and play. Because I still… just this past year, actually in this year, I did Pirates Of Penzance, a production of that, which I did 27 years ago, and I played The Pirate King instead of Frederic because that was a long time ago, but I still have the wherewithal... I was swinging on a 50 foot rope over the audience, and swinging on boats and ships and being thrown around and sword fighting. I’m still very much athletically there. I can still get out there and do a pretty damn good approximation of Rex Smith with the Rex band. But it just frustrates me. Like Mike says, ‘Yeah, we’re going out and playing with ANGEL somewhere.’ Angel?! And the Rex band just doesn’t exist? You can’t iTune it; you can’t do anything.”

And those two albums of yours have never been available on CD…

“I know! That would be the greatest gift, if you could help me just float that idea to somebody who goes, ‘Yeah.’ I mean, we would just look at each other and just lose our minds! Just laugh out loud and fall down.”