A true guitar hero. My introduction to the world of Bucketheadland began in middle school. Guitar Hero II came out and my friends and I were obsessed with beating the hardest song in the game, “Jordan” by Buckethead. I can’t count how many hours were spent trying to reach the "blue note of freedom" and get that achievement. Little did we know about the man behind the feat.
Born Brian Patrick Carrol, Buckethead has released an amazing 264 studio albums along with four special releases an an EP. For a time he joined Guns N’ Roses (2000-2004) as their guitarist and has collaborated with numerous other artists over his career. Although being number eight on the Top 10 list of fastest guitar players of all time, he is most known for his stage presence where he wears a KFC bucket on his head and a mask resembling Michael Myers from the Halloween movies. Taken from Guitar Player Magazine, how the whole idea came to be:
"I was eating it, and I put the mask on and then the bucket on my head. I went to the mirror. I just said, 'Buckethead. That's Buckethead right there.' It was just one of those things. After that, I wanted to be that thing all the time."
Buckethead has been on a hiatus from touring since 2012 but just recently started up again. Through the grapevine it was rumored this was due to his parents health, I however do not have an official source of this. Just the interwebs.
Currently on tour across the country, these two shows are within the tri-state area before he moves further away:
05/06 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place 05/07 – New York, NY @ B.B. King’s
Buckethead is an inspiration and living legend. Constantly innovating and staying true to his art. Excited can hardly describe how I feel going to finally see him in person. As a lasting note, below is one my favorite collaborations as well as my favorite Buckethead track. You can find out more about the man in the mask at: