Was Buckethead marginalized by his GN'R 'bandmates' to the point of leaving?

[sailaway]

'What if we build a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar-parts"

Who the hell needs a chicken coop to record songs?! How can you deal with someone who believes his own fucking gimmick and lives it 24/7 in his own life?!

That says it all about Buckethead! The guy is a lunatic! Good musician, but fucking sick in the head!

is it a gimmick though? if, as you said, is such a big part of his life? its a persona that he believes in and is very successful.

I say that he's more original then a certain member doing hulk hogan moves/running man etc...

Dude, it's ok to do it on stage... just like Marilyn Manson or others do their thing... but to continue with his gimmick in private moments, whether in the studio or his private life... that is not a normal behavior at all...

Would you sit around your wife with a kfc bucket on your head and a mask on you?

Can you imagine yourself inside a chicken coop in your own bedroom in front of your wife for example?

I mean stage clothes and stage personas are ok and good. Do have that on your normal daily life.... that's not normal...

what's not normal about it?

I have a custom built chicken coop inside my house that I kick back and relax in

maybe its different over there in brazil?

I'm not from Brazil, i'm from Portugal. Brazil is in South America, Portugal is in Europe. Brazil adopted the portuguese language who was created by portuguese people years and years ago, when we went there and helped them out.

Buckethead's behaviour is not normal... anyone can tell you that. The thing is, if that was a behavior that he had to create a character around himself for showbiz. That is great, it's creative and it distinguishes him from everybody else, while it also gives him a lot of charisma.

However if Carroll is Buckethead in his real life too... to me that shows a psychological disorder!

Musicians have their own quirks sometimes. Would you say Jimmy Page was a well adjusted man back in the day?

With his fascination with the occult?

I think some people just have a very wild imagination and sometimes they like to live in their own head so it comes off as weird to people who are not like that. those people are usually interesting and creative imo. It's a harmless way of inspiring yourself with what you like really.

So how do you define "normal?" It is subjective. Jimmy page certainly ventured further into the occult than merely sewing moons n' stars on his stage rags, he purchased Alistair Crowley's house. Alice Cooper considers it an insult to be referred to as "Vincent Furnier". Real talent always shines through any persona adopted, contrived, or concocted imo. Whether it is hardcore porn in a chicken coop, or the occult, an alter-ego, whatever inspires you. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think Thoreau's "different drummer"applies here.

Don't think anyone can launch a successful argument against Stinson or Bucket being completely without talent both are, in their own right or they wouldn't be on your radar at all,and nobody would be dissing + discussing them here.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Pheline

[Nosaj Thing]

Bucket has more talent in his scrotum than Tommy does in his whole body. Bucket even outplays Tommy on bass!

This.

Tommy is a legend? That is quite laughable...

And this too.

[Young_Gun]

He is a legend. Time magazine said so and Broski convinced me about it in another site.

His liver hates him but the rest of us should love him.

Time magazine and Broski... enough said.... good lord....

[Black Roses]

Who need Time magazine shit. You don't have your own opinion? Maybe he's a good bassist but he hasn't proved anthing yet. And he's a lengend? lololol

[Bruno P.]

Who need Time magazine shit. You don't have your own opinion? Maybe he's a good bassist but he hasn't proved anthing yet. And he's a lengend? lololol

So you never take into consideration people that know more on the subject because you consider yourself good enough to have an expert opinion on everything? Ok.

[classicrawker]

Tommy is a talented musician and gets much cred and respect from me from having been a founding member of the Replacements but I would hardly call him a legend IMHO........I am as big a Slash fan as you will find and I don't even consider him a legend at this point...........

Edited April 6, 2013 by classicrawker

[Randy Lahey]

New GNR was and will always be Axl and Buckethead.

[rockerman]

I went to a Guns and Roses show and a fucken Buckethead show erupted. No seriously...i went to GNR Moline 02 and the damdest thing happened- a Buckethead show broke out...Rubber chickens, Nunchakus being swung, toys being tossed out into the audience...10 minute guitar techno solo topped off by the Star Wars theme.

Axl could have written some epic material with Buckethead and maybe he did who knows..there is a hint of it on Chinese Democracy --but really what a joke on Buckethead and for that matter Finck as well to get up on stage and play nothing more or nothing less than a nostalgia show of 10-15 year old music at that time.

Either guitarist together or individually signed on to the most iconic band of its kind of its era and promply went absolutely no where. By the time Chinese was released the whole thing had such an anticlimactic feeling that i actually felt sorry for both of them. Hey! It was nice that Axl said he would share his Dr. Pepper with BH.

You take both of those guitarist contributions and the amount of time they spent (or did not spend) only to have 1 album out there?

Buckethead on Chinese Democracy? Really? Why? Money? Respect for the project and Axls vision? Career enhancement? Really??? Career enhancement???? How many live shows got played before the wheels come off of that one as well?

Media exposure? Videos? recognition? It would be interesting to know just how many times the whole band actually worked inside the same room and for how long.

The last time I looked on BH's website there was absolutely no mention of his work on Chinese Democracy.

[magisme]

The last time I looked on BH's website there was absolutely no mention of his work on Chinese Democracy.

Of course not. He's released 832 albums since CD dropped.

[Guest NGOG]

New GNR was and will always be Axl and Buckethead.

I honestly think there were three majors draws for people back in 2002. 1. Axl 2. Old Guns songs 3. The Buckethead show. And as the tour progressed 3 became a lot closer to 1.

[ThinkAboutYou]

Bucket is hugely talented I accepted Bucket for his amazing playing and the Bucket and Yellow raincoat came 2nd to the music

[Kill Devil Hill]

It's a shame Buckethead left, like you said Axl went to extraodrinary lengths to make sure Buckethead was happy in the band

(Bringing him to Disneyland & building a chicken coop in the studio).... It probably hit Axl hard when Buckethead decided to leave

is this a cupcake or did Axl really build a chicken coop in the studio?

Nope it's true, Tom Zutaut said it in 2001. 'What if we build a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar-parts , from Chinese Whispers

Wow, I wonder if it was actually built. What is up with Bucketheads obsession with chicken stuff?

It was built, and in addition, Axl brought in a wolf pup to give to Tom Zutaut's daughter, and the dog took a crap in the chicken coup, and Bucket insisted they leave the crap there because the smell inspired him.

[jman2000]

It's a shame Buckethead left, like you said Axl went to extraodrinary lengths to make sure Buckethead was happy in the band

(Bringing him to Disneyland & building a chicken coop in the studio).... It probably hit Axl hard when Buckethead decided to leave

is this a cupcake or did Axl really build a chicken coop in the studio?

Nope it's true, Tom Zutaut said it in 2001. 'What if we build a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar-parts , from Chinese Whispers

Wow, I wonder if it was actually built. What is up with Bucketheads obsession with chicken stuff?

It was built, and in addition, Axl brought in a wolf pup to give to Tom Zutaut's daughter, and the dog took a crap in the chicken coup, and Bucket insisted they leave the crap there because the smell inspired him.

How exactly do you know this?

[Guest Gunns]

It's a shame Buckethead left, like you said Axl went to extraodrinary lengths to make sure Buckethead was happy in the band

(Bringing him to Disneyland & building a chicken coop in the studio).... It probably hit Axl hard when Buckethead decided to leave

is this a cupcake or did Axl really build a chicken coop in the studio?

Nope it's true, Tom Zutaut said it in 2001. 'What if we build a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar-parts , from Chinese Whispers

Wow, I wonder if it was actually built. What is up with Bucketheads obsession with chicken stuff?

It was built, and in addition, Axl brought in a wolf pup to give to Tom Zutaut's daughter, and the dog took a crap in the chicken coup, and Bucket insisted they leave the crap there because the smell inspired him.

How exactly do you know this?

it was mentioned in an article a few years back

[Kill Devil Hill]

Yeah, here's the article: http://www.guitarworld.com/guns-n-roses-chinese-whispers

[jman2000]

What, Zutaut asked, could he do to make the recording experience better for him? Suddenly, says Zutaut, “he went into Buckethead mode. I was talking to Brian, who was confiding in me, and suddenly he was Buckethead, and he was telling me some story about how his mum was a hen and his dad was a rooster. I couldn’t tell whether it was fantasy or reality or who I was even talking to. But he believed it!

“Then it’s like Brian comes back and he’s kinda saying, ‘You know I’d really like to make a movie of my life story and how I was raised in a chicken coop. It’s the only place where I really feel comfortable.’ ”

Zutaut had a brainstorm. “I said, ‘What if we built you a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar parts?’ His jaw dropped. He said, ‘Would you really do that?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s my job to find out whatever it is that will help you get the best creativity out of yourself.’ Buckethead said, ‘If I could have my own chicken coop in the studio, my own world to live in, I could play a lot better.’ ”

Two days later, the coop was built. “It’s like an apartment within the studio that’s a chicken coop,” Zutaut explains. “He’s got his chair and a little sofa in there, and there’s, like, a rubber chicken with its head cut off hanging from the ceiling, and body parts. It’s totally Buckethead’s world. He brought in all his props and toys and put straw on the floor! You could almost smell the chickens.”

If the coop seemed an extreme accommodation to artistic stimulation, it didn’t compare to Buckethead’s next request: a TV setup so he can watch porn movies while recording. “And that seemed to really inspire him to record some great stuff,” Zutaut says.

The guitarist was deep into it one evening when Rose turned up. “Axl sees that Bucket is running this porn,” Zutaut recalls. “And it is pretty hardcore stuff. It’s not soft porn by any stretch of the imagination. And Axl is really disturbed by it.” Zutaut explained the situation to Rose, but the singer was not moved. “He said music is about energy and we are transferring a creative spirit and vibe within the music,” Zutaut says. “He said, ‘I really can’t have the vibe of dirty depraved porn being a part of my record. It is really not what this record is about, you know?’ ”

If that wasn’t weird enough, there was also an occasion where Buckethead appeared to be inspired by shit itself. One of Rose’s wolfdogs— a hybrid that is three-quarters timber wolf and one-quarter dog—had recently given birth, and the singer had offered one of the pups to Zutaut’s daughter, who had recently lost her own dog. A few days afterward, he brought in the puppy. “And it’s the cutest little thing,” says Zutaut, “but it goes into the chicken coop and takes a dump. And because no one is allowed in there, we wait for Bucket to come in so that we can get his permission to clean it up. So Bucket shows up later to work on his parts, and he is miked up so he can record and we hear through the speaker, ‘Oh, I love the smell of dog poop…’

Zutaut recalls that Baker or one of his engineers offered to have the mess cleaned up. “And Bucket says, ‘Don’t take it away. I love the smell of dog poop..’ Three days later, the studio stinks to high heaven of dog poop, and finally the studio could not bear it and had it cleaned up. When Bucket came in the next day, he was like ‘Where is my dog poop, man? I told them not to clean it up,’ and was generally bummed out that it had been cleaned up. And in the meantime, the wolf puppy poop had inspired him for a few days to do some great work.”

[Guest Gunns]

tom zutaut appeared on an Australian tv show called spicks and specks about 5 years ago,

and mentioned that Bucket was getting 50k a month during the recording sessions

[axlrosefan1]

wtf did i just read

[realpoti]

What, Zutaut asked, could he do to make the recording experience better for him? Suddenly, says Zutaut, “he went into Buckethead mode. I was talking to Brian, who was confiding in me, and suddenly he was Buckethead, and he was telling me some story about how his mum was a hen and his dad was a rooster. I couldn’t tell whether it was fantasy or reality or who I was even talking to. But he believed it!

“Then it’s like Brian comes back and he’s kinda saying, ‘You know I’d really like to make a movie of my life story and how I was raised in a chicken coop. It’s the only place where I really feel comfortable.’ ”

Zutaut had a brainstorm. “I said, ‘What if we built you a chicken coop in the studio for you to record your guitar parts?’ His jaw dropped. He said, ‘Would you really do that?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s my job to find out whatever it is that will help you get the best creativity out of yourself.’ Buckethead said, ‘If I could have my own chicken coop in the studio, my own world to live in, I could play a lot better.’ ”

Two days later, the coop was built. “It’s like an apartment within the studio that’s a chicken coop,” Zutaut explains. “He’s got his chair and a little sofa in there, and there’s, like, a rubber chicken with its head cut off hanging from the ceiling, and body parts. It’s totally Buckethead’s world. He brought in all his props and toys and put straw on the floor! You could almost smell the chickens.”

If the coop seemed an extreme accommodation to artistic stimulation, it didn’t compare to Buckethead’s next request: a TV setup so he can watch porn movies while recording. “And that seemed to really inspire him to record some great stuff,” Zutaut says.

The guitarist was deep into it one evening when Rose turned up. “Axl sees that Bucket is running this porn,” Zutaut recalls. “And it is pretty hardcore stuff. It’s not soft porn by any stretch of the imagination. And Axl is really disturbed by it.” Zutaut explained the situation to Rose, but the singer was not moved. “He said music is about energy and we are transferring a creative spirit and vibe within the music,” Zutaut says. “He said, ‘I really can’t have the vibe of dirty depraved porn being a part of my record. It is really not what this record is about, you know?’ ”

If that wasn’t weird enough, there was also an occasion where Buckethead appeared to be inspired by shit itself. One of Rose’s wolfdogs— a hybrid that is three-quarters timber wolf and one-quarter dog—had recently given birth, and the singer had offered one of the pups to Zutaut’s daughter, who had recently lost her own dog. A few days afterward, he brought in the puppy. “And it’s the cutest little thing,” says Zutaut, “but it goes into the chicken coop and takes a dump. And because no one is allowed in there, we wait for Bucket to come in so that we can get his permission to clean it up. So Bucket shows up later to work on his parts, and he is miked up so he can record and we hear through the speaker, ‘Oh, I love the smell of dog poop…’

Zutaut recalls that Baker or one of his engineers offered to have the mess cleaned up. “And Bucket says, ‘Don’t take it away. I love the smell of dog poop..’ Three days later, the studio stinks to high heaven of dog poop, and finally the studio could not bear it and had it cleaned up. When Bucket came in the next day, he was like ‘Where is my dog poop, man? I told them not to clean it up,’ and was generally bummed out that it had been cleaned up. And in the meantime, the wolf puppy poop had inspired him for a few days to do some great work.”

I remember this and I'm not surprised. Buckethead is problematic, even though he's a music genius.

[Graeme]

I was gonna say, in spite of his creative chops does he really give off the impression of being someone it's easy to develop camaraderie with? I don't think I could hack living day to day with someone who kept spouting off some nonsense about being raised by chickens regardless of how talented they were...

[Kill Devil Hill]

This is why I think the Chinese Democracy era was much more interesting than the classic era. Not only was the drama juicier, but Buckethead is a soap opera unto himself.

[Black Roses]

Who need Time magazine shit. You don't have your own opinion? Maybe he's a good bassist but he hasn't proved anthing yet. And he's a lengend? lololol

So you never take into consideration people that know more on the subject because you consider yourself good enough to have an expert opinion on everything? Ok.

Bullshit, i never consider myself good enough, everyday i learn something new, but it doesn't mean i don't have my own opinion and just listen to anyone like a sheep.

[wasted]

I think BH quit cos the label or jimmy declined his version of CD and brought in RTB to rerecord everything. Even Toomy didnt think this was necessary. But it seems to have worked in the grandness. Getting TIL instead of Silkworms.

True the nu Guns are like a band of evil geniuses. They broke up before the record came out tgey were so insane.

[Randy Lahey]

Do you guys think that maybe Zutaut took a page out of Alan Niven's playbook and made up the story about Buckethead being inspired by hardcore porn and shit as a way of stoking the legend of Chinese Democracy? Kind of like when Niven floated the story about Axl killing little dogs.

[wasted]

I think everything happens for a reason. Every thing they say in interviews is guided by pr setting up questions. That article was the bring it to life, hype it up. Its just wolf poo and cum flinging oes sell as well as jd and white lines.

Even the Duff and Izzy apoearances may have had some HOF related angle.