Full Devil Jacket

Full Devil Jacket was an American nu metal band that started as the Voodoo Hippies when Josh Brown, Mike Reaves, Kevin Bebout, and Keith Foster all met at Josh Brown’s brother’s tattoo shop in Jackson, Tennessee. Jonathan Montoya was the last addition to the band as the second guitarist.

While still playing gigs in Jackson, TN, Full Devil Jacket (still going by the Voodoo Hippies then) caught the eye of up-and-coming rock producer Malcolm Springer. Springer had worked with bands like Matchbox 20 and Collective Soul. Springer saw greatness in the band and the two began working together.

Before being signed to Island/Def Jam Records, they changed the name to Full Devil Jacket. There are two stories on how the band got its name. One is that the band was named after a song written by lead singer Josh Brown, called “Full Devil Jacket.” Another story is that the band simply pulled the name from a magazine article.

While signed to Def Jam Records, the band had a successful career, releasing one EP titled "A Waxbox To Put Your Frankenstein Head In..." (October 1999). Their self-titled LP Full Devil Jacket (March 2000) quickly went gold. While together, the band toured with Creed, Nickelback, Type O Negative, played at Woodstock 99, and was featured on the Tattoo the Earth tour with Mudvayne, Slipknot, Sepultura, Slayer, and Coal Chamber with Metallica headlining one show.

While on tour with Creed, Josh Brown suffered a drug overdose. Brown had to be resuscitated by his girlfriend. He then decided to quit the band. The album remains unreleased and unfinished to this day. Some of the songs that the band was working on were “Shelter,” “All Apologies,” “Superdysfunctional Hero,” and “Bottle.”

After the departure of Brown, Michael Reaves also decided to leave the band. Full Devil Jacket then reformed with a new lead singer (Ben Hatch; then later on Jamie Martin) and a new second guitarist, Dave White, and recorded an unreleased EP under their new name of WaxBox before the band dissolved altogether. This incarnation of the band decided to work on some of the same songs that they did with Brown. The EP included “Shelter,” “All Apologies,” “Superdysfunctional Hero,” and “Sober.”