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Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
DJ ASHBA Says BUCKETHEAD 'Didn't Really Fit' GUNS N' ROSES: He 'Took The Coolness Out Of The Band' - January 24, 2022
DJ Ashba, who joined GUNS N' ROSES in March 2009 following the departure of Robin Finck, spoke about his time with the Axl Rose-fronted outfit in a new interview with Mark Dean of Antihero Magazine. The guitarist said: "I didn't know what to expect. I was hoping that one day Slash would come back, and the reason I took the gig is that, honestly, I was — no disrespect to Buckethead [former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Brian Carroll, who was in the band between 2000 and 2004] or anybody — but seeing a guy run around with a chicken bucket on his head, it's, like, to me, that took the coolness out of the band that I grew up loving, and that's one of the main reasons I wanted to get in there and try to do whatever I could do to get justice, bring back that reckless rock and roll vibe of what Slash was all about and GUNS N' ROSES was all about. To me, it was in a sense losing that thing that I loved about the band. And I love Buckethead as a guitarist. No disrespect at all — it's just, in my opinion, he didn't really fit the band."
Asked if he was disappointed when he found out that Slash was returning to GUNS N' ROSES and his time with the band was over, Ashba said: "Absolutely not. Actually, Axl wanted me to stay on board, and it's one of those things where I was playing most of the Slash parts, and if he was coming back, that was great news for me as a fan and even better news for me as a musician, because it was never my band. I was just basically filling in till the big guy came back. But it allowed me to really experience a band on a level like no other, and I learned a lot of stuff about performing live on that magnitude. To me, it was great news, because I was going to go off and do what I'm doing now and that was to create and carve my own path.
"I've always been a big, big believer in not following in people's footsteps, and I get more pride and joy [out of doing my own thing]," he continued. "Even if this thing never gets to that level, at least I'm cutting my own path and doing something really unique and, to me, as an artist, that's awesome."
Read the entire interview at Antihero Magazine.
A year ago, GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Richard Fortus talked about what it was like to work with Buckethead for a couple of years in the early 2000s. The eccentric musician, who wears a fried-chicken bucket on his noggin and talks only through a hand puppet, quit GUNS N' ROSES in 2004 after becoming fed up with GUNS' inability to complete an album or tour, his manager told MTV at the time.
"Bucket is very musical, but I think a lot of guys like that — phenomenal, prodigious talent — they're not necessarily… I think Bucket's music is great," Fortus said. "What he does on his own, he's out there, but he did understand how to make three guitars work, and that's a very difficult thing. And he would lay out and just stand there and be weird and Bucket-y, and then he would come in on the choruses, and it would be huge. He got that; he understood that. [He's] a phenomenal talent. But the thing is, socially, guys like Bucket spend so much time in their bedroom practicing that they don't really — it's just different for them socially.
"Being in a band, you've gotta relate to people," Fortus continued. "And I think Bucket struggled with that. I always got along with him, but I think he really had a tough time with that."
Ashba issued a statement in July 2015 saying that he was leaving GUNS N' ROSES "to dedicate myself to my band SIXX:A.M., my adoring wife and family, and to the many new adventures that the future holds for me." He later claimed that he was approached about being part of GN'R's "Not In This Lifetime" tour, but that he declined, citing his desire to pursue SIXX:A.M. full time.
Only Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan from GN'R's "Appetite For Destruction"-era lineup are taking part in the band's current reunion. They are being joined by keyboardist Dizzy Reed, guitarist Richard Fortus and drummer Frank Ferrer. Also appearing with them is second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
Ashba recently launched a dance/rock hybrid called GDM (Guitar Dance Music) with his ASHBA project. His latest release is a single called "Bella Ciao", a modern-day EDM-driven makeover of the Italian folk classic. The song marked Ashba's first release of 2021 and followed a series of tracks that were released in late 2020 through Edgeout Records/UMG/UMe, including "Hypnotic", "Let's Dance" and "A Christmas Storm".
Source: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/dj-as … -the-band/
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
If what you view as cool is the sort of biker outlaw type vibe the AFD/UYI band delivered then I think it's reasonable to say that the 200x era band was a different beast.
I dunno if I'd put that entirely on bucket - I mean sure he does his robot horror chicken stuff and that's kooky-fun, but Robin was the only one dressed for NiN, Tommy looked like he was in an English band, Axl seemed to be fronting NWA or something, and Paul looked like a dude forced to give a presentation to the class. I loved it as it's own thing...but I mean he's not the first guy who wanted to see AFD2 and then saw that new line up and raised an eyebrow.
That said, I dunno if DJ was quite suited either - I always thought he had more of a crew vibe about him. I think he would have been better filling in for Mick Mars in some alternative universe. I mean in fairness...no one is slash except slash....and it didn't help that the band never moved on from CD1.
I met DJ a couple of times and he's a good dude in person so I wonder if these remarks are kinda out of context, I don't think he intended to be trashing bucket, no one in their right mind who plays guitar would!
- metallex78
- Rep: 194
Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
There are a lot of nuGNR fans here, myself included to an extent, so I’ll be careful with my words here…
Let’s face it, nuGNR looked like a freak show, not the bunch of badass rockers that the classic lineup portrayed.
Buckethead is from another planet guitar-skills wise, and trying to replace Slash with an avant-guard character like Bucket, is one direction I actually give credit to Axl for going in.
It’s when he brought in hot topic Slash in DJ Ashba, that things became kinda cringe, and I actually like DJ. He was cool when Monkey and I met him in 2013 on their Aussie tour.
So I guess as a classic lineup fan, I can understand him saying Bucket wasn’t as cool looking.
Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
I know the 02 lineup was way divisive amongst the fans, but the last thing GN'R needed was a GN'R knock off lineup. DJ was the reason I started rooting for a reunion, and he might have just been the catalyst to inspire Axl to go back to Slash. New Coke doesn't compare to classic Coke.
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
Ashba… I'm not quite sure how to articulate it but there's something off about him. He's a poseur, aping Slash's performance but without the soul. It's kind of like comparing Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker to Jared Leto's performance. The former is effortless, the latter a try-hard desperately trying to look edgy in Hot Topic gear.
Re: DJ Ashba: Buckethead Took the Coolness Out of the Band
Doing something different was exactly what nu gnr needed. They could never recreate the magic of the old band so why try? Axl had the right idea, but unfortunately the rest of the world sort of killed it.
If he had been able to truck on with that lineup until the fanbase got used to it I think they could have reaped great rewards. It's much easier to forget the old band when you turn up as something completely different, yet good. With Ashba and Co it pretty soon turned into a nostalgia band and the question then becomes "why not just bring back Slash?".
