In a recent interview the ever elusive virtuoso guitarist Buckethead put to bed a debate that has raged amongst his fans for years. That question was why exactly does Buckethead wear a KFC bucket on his head? And why does he wear that mask over his face? When did he decide on the bucket mask combo? What motivated him? He told the Coming Alive Podcast:
"It sort of happened… It wasn't something I really thought about. I was eating – it was actually a different chicken company, I don't really know what it was – I was eating it and I thought… I had that mask, kind of like Michael Myers, it had a similar quality, but it wasn't exactly the same size."
"I just put it on my head and I looked in the mirror. And I was like 'That's Buckethead.'"
He went on to explain that he was painfully shy, too shy to play live or indulge his other passions for dancing, martial arts and Disneyland but with the bucket mask combo he could at last express himself.
By all accounts Buckethead is a mysterious figure. His interactions with journalists, fellow artists and members of the general public over the years have become the stuff of urban legend. He's fascinated with chickens at one point maintaining the claim that he was raised in a chicken coop. He's released a lot of music. 32 standard albums, including 3 gems with Viggo Mortensen, and 274 further releases in his pikes series, with the average pike clocking in around 29 minutes.
Buckethead earned his place in the public consciousness when he replaced Slash in Guns N' Roses, debuting with the band during their MTV VMAs performance in 2002. Bucket departed the band in 2004 after recording a number of guitar parts that would later appear on Chinese Democracy in 2008. In 2006 Buckethead teamed up with Harmonix to record an exclusive track for Guitar Hero II. That track, Jordan, named for his hero Michael Jordan, became one of the toughest tracks to perform in that game. It also brought Buckethead to a whole new audience and became emblematic of his unique playing style. Jordan was a Guitar Hero II exclusive and isn't available on streaming services, but Spell of the Gypsies from his album Electric Tears is available and that is this weeks featured track.
