Momento Caras \\ DOWN's PEPPER KEENAN Is A First-Time Father

Congratulations are in order for Pepper Keenan (DOWN, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY) whose significant other gave birth to a baby girl, Flannery Rose, over Christmas.

DOWN is scheduled to return to the studio soon to begin writing what will eventually become the band's fourth album, tentatively due in late 2010. The group's long-awaited rockumentary, "Down – Diary of a Mad Band", is expected this spring.

Bassist Rex Brown sat out DOWN's recent North American tour because he had his gallbladder and polyps on his pancreas removed in September in a surgical procedure.

Rex is suffering from acute pancreatitis, a sudden inflammation of the pancreas which can have severe complications and high mortality despite treatment.

DOWN tapped Danny Theriot of Metairie, Louisiana to fill in on bass for the group's North American trek, which kicked off on August 3, 2009 at Beaumont Club in Kansas City, Kansas.