Buckethead

Brian Patrick Carroll (born May 13, 1969), known professionally as Buckethead, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

He has received critical acclaim for his innovative virtuose electric guitar playing.

His music spans several genres, including progressive metal, funk, blues, bluegrass, ambient, and avant-garde music.

He performs primarily as a solo artist, although he has collaborated with a wide variety of artists such as Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Iggy Pop, Les Claypool, Serj Tankian, Bill Moseley, Mike Patton, Viggo Mortensen, That 1 Guy, Bassnectar, and Skating Polly.

Brian Patrick Carroll was born on May 13, 1969, to Tom and Nancy Carroll; he is the youngest of five siblings along with Lynn, Lisa, Lori, and John.

His father was the athletic director at Damien High School in La Verne, California, from 1973 until his retirement in 2013.

Carroll grew up in a Southern California suburb near Disneyland.

In his youth, he was an introvert, and spent most of his time in his room with books, games, martial-arts movie memorabilia, and toys.

He also spent a lot of time at Disneyland.

Carroll began playing guitar at the age of 12.

He learned to play from an elderly man down his road.

He is quoted saying that he became serious a year later after moving from Huntington Beach, California, to Claremont.

His playing improved with lessons from various teachers at a local music store.

His early teachers included Max McGuire, Johnny Fortune, Mark Hammond, Pebber Brown, Joey Tafolla, and Paul Gilbert.

Buckethead performs wearing a KFC bucket on his head, often emblazoned with an orange bumper sticker reading FUNERAL in block letters, and an expressionless plain white mask inspired by the 1988 slasher film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

At one point, he changed to a plain white bucket without a KFC logo, but subsequently reverted to his emblematic KFC bucket without the funeral sticker.

He also incorporates nunchaku and robot dancing into his stage performances.

The Buckethead persona came to be when Carroll saw the 1988 slasher film Halloween 4 and was inspired by the film.

He went out right after seeing it and bought a Michael Myers-like white mask.

The bucket idea came later that night while eating chicken:

"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."

In 1988, after leaving the band Class-X, Carroll entered a song called "Brazos" into a Guitar Player magazine contest.

It was a runner-up, with editors writing:

"An astonishingly skilled guitarist and bassist, he demonstrates post-Paul Gilbert speed and accuracy filtered through very kinky harmonic sensibilities. His psychotronic, demonic edge is very, very far removed from the clichés of classical metal and rock. A real talent to watch, also known as 'Buckethead.'"

In the same year, the magazine's editor, Jas Obrecht, came to know of Buckethead when Carroll and his parents left a demo recording at the magazine's reception desk for Obrecht.

Impressed with this demo, he rushed into the restaurant where Buckethead and his parents were having lunch and encouraged him to make the most of his talent.

They soon became friends.

In 1989, a song called "Soowee" by Buckethead got honorable mention in another song contest.

In 1991, Buckethead moved into Obrecht's basement.

Buckethead was credited by Guitar World as "ushering in [a] new era of virtuosity" while ranking the release of his 1992 debut album Bucketheadland the 45th greatest moment in electric guitar history.

The magazine has also listed him among the "25 all-time weirdest guitarists" and the "50 fastest guitarists of all time".

He was also a member of Guns N' Roses from 2000 to 2004.

He has recorded 640 studio albums, four special releases, and one EP.

He has performed on more than fifty albums by other artists.

Buckethead has written and performed music for major motion pictures, including Saw II, Ghosts of Mars, Beverly Hills Ninja, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Last Action Hero, Falling, and contributed lead guitar to the track "Firebird" featured on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie soundtrack.

In 2003, Buckethead played a tribute to all his early teachers as the Deli Creeps played a show at Styles Music's 25th anniversary.

He then began making demo recordings of both his playing as well as his writing styles, which would later be released in 2007–2008.

In October 2017, Carroll gave a rare out-of-character interview discussing all ranges of his life, the Buckethead character, his parents' deaths, his health problems, and how he copes with overcoming fear.

During the podcast, he revealed he has been diagnosed with the potentially life-threatening condition of heart arrhythmia.

He stated he had a cardiac ablation performed and uses medicine to control the problem.