Dear Rex Scott, how are you doing?  Doing very well, thank you. Very busy lately tracking the new album and performing in Ohio recently.

Please tell us something about your hometown/city?  I was raised in a small town in the rural middle of the northern region of the U.S. The winters can be severe there. When I joined X-Sinner I moved to Los Angeles and lived there the last 28 years. The weather is much nicer lol! I just recently moved back to the Midwest area close to where I was born and raised, which is South Dakota. I prefer the simpler rural lifestyle compared to the hectic traffic and lifestyle in Los Angeles these days although I do miss the awesome weather during the winter months.

It was somewhere in 1989 or 1990 that i bought the album; Get It. The first album from the band. Please take us back to the end of the 80’s and hard rock/ Heavy Metal. How the band got started? Greg Bishop the lead guitarist, started the band in Los Angeles. The goal was to have a professional band musically that could compete with any band coming out of the Hollywood and L.A. scene but present a different message other than sex, drugs and the rest. The band performed at all the popular rock clubs in Hollywood and on the Sunset Strip like The Whiskey A Go-Go, The Troubadour, and the rest. The band recorded a demo that got into the hands of Dino and John Elephante (who sang for Kansas) who were starting up a label called Pakaderm. X-Sinner was the first band signed to this new label. ‘Get It’ was their first release.

How the album was received by press and fans then? It was an immediate success. The band started charting singles on metal charts and live concert requests began pouring in. I was performing in another band called Zion in the Midwest at that time and had just released our debut album ‘Thunder From The Mountain’ that was also gaining popularity and charting singles so I was aware of them and they were aware of me. After their first tour they fired their singer Dave Robbins and called me asking if I would be interested in singing on their next album.

How the band got in touch with Pakaderm Records, the record company from ex. KANSAS bandmates John and Dino Elefante. And there was a deal with A&M Records? They got ahold of the band’s demo tape somehow. Somebody gave it to them. They were just starting their new label Pakaderm and like I said, X-Sinner was their first signing. The album was good enough to generate interest at A&M Records and they also released it in the mainstream market.

In the reviews the journalists where saving that it had this AC/DC touch. What where/are your thoughts about this Matter? I can understand the generic comparison but I had always thought the first album sounded more like Cinderella. I thought Dave the first singer sounded more like Tom Keifer than Brian Johnson, but once people started comparing the band to AC/DC in some of the press, it kind of stuck. Kix, Rhino Bucket, Airbourne all come out of that same genre that was made famous by AC/DC but bands like Free (who inspired AC/DC) that came much earlier also had that same musical vibe. The band always took the comparison as a compliment. They never set out to sound like AC/DC but one’s musical influences are bound to come out in what you write.

I think there was a lot of US touring after the release of ‘Get It’…? There was, and Dave’s antics while on tour got him fired. That’s when the band called me. We toured a fair amount for the Peace Treaty album as well.

Then in 1991 another album was released; Peace Treaty. How this album came into being. I mean after ‘Get It’ the People wanted to have more and the standard of ‘Get It’ was high…? And expectations of the fans where high….? Coming from Zion, the band knew what I sounded like when they called me. They knew I brought a tad different vocal style than Dave but I was already somewhat established with the successes of the Zion hits. Zion had the most top ten hits at that time, more than any other rock/metal band up to that point in the Christian rock realm. They knew I could sing but also wanted someone who didn’t have a huge ego and that they didn’t have to babysit on tour – I fit the bill. They said I didn’t have to join the band if I didn’t want to, but just sing on the next album which became Peace Treaty. After multiple trips to Los Angeles to record, then to tour, I decided it was best to move to L.A. and join the band.

Please tell us the story behind ‘Peace Treaty’ i mean lyrically? I was given free reign to write the lyrics for the album. They had most of the music written and gave me the cassette tape of it to write the lyrics and melody lines. The lyrics consist of mostly what I was going through personally at the time, like I usually do. It’s been like that since the beginning, including my recent side project The GX Project (GX) that I’ve done 3 albums with.

Then People had to wait 10 years til the band made another record. What happened with the band after Peace Treaty? The band had a falling out with the label. We were contracted for three albums and after the second album, Peace Treaty, the band didn’t want to record for Pakaderm anymore. We wanted off the label. We didn’t care for the production and the amount of money they were charging their bands to make albums was absurd. Legalities tied us up for a number of years before they finally let us go but at the same time the music scene had shifted dramatically with metal on the downslope and grunge becoming the new popular sound. We took that time to record an album under another name called the Angry Einsteins. The album was titled ‘Cracked’. Since we were not recording as X-Sinner we were like mad scientists in the studio going in whatever direction musically we wanted to hence the name, The Angry Einsteins. It was a modern rock style album that resulted, in the vein of STP or Sugar (Bob Mould). We were very pleased with the end result and a division of Sony Records, became very interested in it. That’s when life got in the way of band things and Greg’s day job took him to Australia for 4 years. The band didn’t do anything during that time but then a resurgence of interest started taking place in X-Sinner as the grunge fad started to fade. We decided to do another X-Sinner album for the fans who were asking for one. We had no label which meant no real recording budget so we produced and tracked World Covered In Blood ourselves. The songs are fantastic but the production is lacking. It still sold very well and is still selling now, years later and helped satisfy the fan’s demands at that time. That led to shows in Switzerland and Germany and in the U.S. as the demand kept growing.

So in 2001 ‘Loud and Proud’ was released. What where your thoughts about it. Renew a music career? After this album another 4 Records saw the light of day; 2003-X-Sinner presents the Angry Einsteins. 2006 Fire it Up. 2007 Loud and Proud 2.0, 2009 World covered in Blood. For the band this where very Fruitful times. Even shows with Warrant and Paul Di’Anno etc. Please tell us about the band between 2001 – 2010? The band has always had opportunities to perform with mainstream acts that included The Tubes, Jefferson Starship and the ones you mentioned previously, as well as others. Loud n Proud was just part of the initial move to give fans something that they were asking for which eventually led to World Covered In Blood. We retracked Peace Treaty which became Fire It Up during that time before WCIB, as another move to give the fans something that they were asking for.

Then for about 5 years it went quiet with X-Sinner. In 2015 a powerful comeback with a album that was called; ‘Goin Out with a Bang’.  People could think, this is the last album, when you read the title of the album…? We had decided to maybe do one more real album with a budget before possibly hanging it up but Greg Bishop decided it was his time to retire from music shortly after we started on Bang in 2015. His life had become very complicated at the time and he had so much going on that he decided it was his time to retire from music altogether. Going Out With A Bang was shelved. Time has a way of bringing about changes and going in circles. Now that the band has been getting concert requests yet again and life-changing circumstances have taken place with Greg, we have decided to finish GOWAB. It could be the last album and was named appropriately so. Only time will tell. We just performed at Immortal Fest 23 in Ohio and the interest in the band has once again, taken off. Things go in cycles and we have decided this is the time to complete GOWAB (Goin Out With A Bang). The message is more pertinent today than it was in 2015 and we are currently writing a few more songs to finish it for a 2024 release.

But…..I was just watching Facebook and saw that Sacred Warrior a really old Heavy Metal band was playing live with Queensryche at the BMI centre in the USA. Then i found out about a Booking Agency; that wrote that you guys where in the studio, recording a new album? Please tell us about it? We recently performed there as well and like I previously stated, it is part of a renewed interest in the band. What I was referring to in your previous question about Going Out With A Bang, Is the new album that you’ve heard about.

What do you guys want to achieve with the new album? Inspiration, motivation, conviction and enjoyment for the listener. It’s always been the same for all our albums. It has to rock hard.

Any live concerts in the near future? Since we just did Immortal Fest in Ohio, more concert offers have come in. We will have to see where those lead.

What are some of your favorite bands around 1989 when you look back and Anno 2023? I personally liked Dokken, Cinderella and Kix a lot back in the day. AC/DC is one of my all-time favorites. I enjoy much of the newer metal too. Angerot is one. I like Rhino Bucket, Dynamite and several others that have a retro hard rock sound. My musical tastes are all over the map. I love Blackberry Smoke.

Anything you want to share with us. Something that’s on your heart? As a last word to the readers? Stay free and be willing to fight for your freedom. The last couple years have proven that the world and its governments do not have the people’s real interests at heart. Greed and power rule the day. We must unite and be a light to the world in these dark times.

THANKS