Dollar discusses Monroe Brown break-up

ALBANY — There’s a pregnant pause as Jeremy Dollar considers the question. His new bandmates in This Solid Ground lean forward in their seats, as anxious to hear the answer to the question as the person who asked it.

So, now that it’s been the better part of a decade, what actually did happen with Monroe Brown?

Dollar, who walked away from Monroe Brown when that alternative rock band was on the verge of a major breakthrough and has since become a successful businessman, chooses his words carefully.

“As for the ‘implosion’ of the band, there were just so many things,” Dollar, who is ending his decadelong musical exile with progressive alt-rockers This Solid Ground, said during a recent gathering at the band’s Slappey Drive headquarters. “I mean no disrespect to the other members of the band (brothers Jason and Brian “Tater” Culberson and Ryan Wilson), because it was a civil breakup. We just walked away.

“But there was a combination of things. We were under all kinds of pressure, dealing with outside sources from people like management types. But when it came to the do-or-die moment, we’d all had families — marriages, kids — in a period of about nine months, and the reality was that we had bills to pay. We had to make a decision whether we were going to do music full-time or go to work. Maybe it was too much too fast, but we just decided to go our separate ways.”

Pressed, Dollar admits that the breakup of Monroe Brown was not simply a matter of family and finances.

“At first, we were all going to work and be a Thursday-to-Sunday band, but there were always issues,” the man who turned Good Life Vapor into a highly successful international business, said. “I’m sure ego was involved, but the truth is (Dollar hesitates again) from my perspective it just became too hard because the band did not take the music aspect of it seriously.”

Dollar said he’s heard all the rumors over the ensuing years surrounding the Monroe Brown breakup a short time after the band had completed recording sessions with Atlanta rockers Sevendust and its most popular song, “Sink Low,” became a staple on modern rock stations throughout the region.

“Yeah, I’ve heard all that stuff that was going around, even the one about management telling me I had to lose weight to be more presentable,” the newly-svelte drummer, who has lost close to 100 pounds, said. “The truth is, we just weren’t ready for all that was happening, and we didn’t handle all of it coming at us very well. It was traumatic, hard for me to swallow for a long time.”

But Dollar had obviously put the past behind him when he decided it was time to get back into music. And, he says, he’s found the perfect group to play with, a collection of veteran musicians who are as serious about their music as he’s always been.

“One of the things that blew my mind when I came to Albany was to find out that the Monroe Brown drummer lives here,” said This Solid Ground mastermind Daniel Watson, who’s worked in the studio with acclaimed musicians such as T.I., Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Mastadon. “I said, ‘It sucks that we’ve found the perfect drummer, but he’s getting ready to play in another band.’ (Dollar was considering joining Albany band The Giving End before finding out This Solid Ground wanted him to join.)

“When I found that Jeremy was interested in playing with us (Dollar was a fan), things started coming together.”

Plus, there was that thing about Dollar’s wife, Josette, relenting to his getting back into music.

“She got tired of me sitting around,” Dollar says with a grin. “I’d gone through my weight-loss journey and was very comfortable with myself. We had a conversation (about Dollar playing music), and she said, ‘Get the hell out of the house.’ I took that as a good sign.”

Staff Photo: Tara Dyer Stoyle