After Slash and Duff McKagan exited Guns N’ Roses in the mid-’90s, things went kinda sideways for a bit. The band kept rolling, but it was host to a cavalcade of guitar players, from Buckethead to Paul Tobias to Robin Finck to DJ Ashba to Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal.

As you can imagine, all that change did not give rise to new music. It’s not that Axl Rose wasn’t writing tunes; it’s just that honing them proved… difficult. But things shifted for the better – on the guitar side, at least – when Richard Fortus, who at the time was touring with Enrique Iglesias, was drafted into Guns in 2002. Fortus brought immediate stability to a situation that was anything but stable.

23 years later, GN’R is still wreaking havoc on a stadium stage near you, but things are very different. “It seems to me that we’re much more unified,” Fortus says today – but that shift only came after Slash and McKagan re-entered Guns’ orbit in 2016.

“When I first came into the band, it was split into factions,” Fortus says. “There was Buckethead, Brain [Bryan Mantia, drums] and Chris Pitman [keyboards/bass] as one little faction. And then there was myself, Tommy Stinson [bass], Robin [Finck] and Dizzy [Reed, keyboards]. That was another faction. And there was Axl, a faction unto himself. [Laughs] It was a different feeling to the band, but now everything feels solidified.”

It hasn’t always been this way for Guns N’ Roses, who first welcomed us to the proverbial jungle in 1987 with Appetite for Destruction and then soaked us with an enduring November rain in the early ’90s.

Back then, lineup volatility and infighting were pretty much standard, but not anymore. Maybe it’s age, maybe it's the fact that drugs and alcohol are no longer part of the equation – or perhaps it’s the simple fact that the world doesn’t usually offer second chances, but it has done so for Rose, Slash and Duff. Whatever the reason, Fortus, who – for those keeping score – is Guns N’ Roses’ longest-tenured six-stringer, is having the time of his life.

“Sometimes Slash and I will play the same thing in harmony or an octave part that we’ve never played before or not worked out at all,” Fortus says. “It’s freakish to me how similar our approach is. It sounds a little metaphysical, but it’s really strange how in-sync we are.”

He goes on to say that the main reason for Guns’ modern-day harmonious functionality comes down to the fact that the band is “very united.” “That’s the biggest difference,” he says. “It’s night and day.”

And Slash is at the core of it all.

“Tommy Stinson led the charge when I was first brought into the band,” Fortus says. “He came from a punk-rock ethos of not wanting to over-rehearse, because it was pointless. You know, you do your rehearsing onstage, because no matter what you do, it’s not going to translate onstage, which is true in a way.

“But Slash comes from a completely different perspective. He loves to rehearse, so that when we walk onstage we never have to think about playing. I love that. I understand both sides, but I really enjoy having the music become muscle memory.”

Rehearsing is one thing, and it’s undoubtedly made Guns a tighter unit, but Fortus came into the picture during an era when being a GN’R guitarist meant you weren’t long for this world. That, along with the fact that he’s now occupying a role once held by Izzy Stradlin and Gilby Clarke, means he’s needed to remain on his toes as Slash’s sidekick.

“It’s always fun,” he says. “But when Slash came in, I had to rethink everything because I needed to be able to support his tone, the way he plays and the way he creates. It’s been me thinking, ‘Okay, how can I do that?’ For example, I love P90 pickups, but they don’t work with Slash’s tone. So it’s been about me going back to the chalkboard.”

Guns N’ Roses has plenty of huge shows planned. Beyond that, there have been whispers of the band’s first new record since 2008’s Chinese Democracy, which is significant because GN’R hasn’t dropped a proper full-length featuring Slash and McKagan since 1993’s covers album, The Spaghetti Incident? But to date, we’ve only seen a few singles, like 2023’s The General and an EP from 2022 called Hard Skool. But that might change.

“I think we probably will [put out a new record],” Fortus says. “I can’t see us not doing that in the future, although it seems people don’t really care about albums anymore. It’s hard to say. I’m sure there are quite a few people that would. It's a great honor [to be in Guns], and I'm really glad to have been a part of it, and I think the band is on top form right now.”

You’ve been in Guns for 23 years now. Has the response the band is getting – compared to what it was when you started – been surprising?

When we started with Slash and Duff back in the band, the reaction was overwhelming, but that was expected. It wasn’t a shock to be playing stadiums and doing multiple nights, because it was a big event. What’s shocking is that every time we go out, it continues. We’re still playing stadiums. I expected it to die down once the initial reaction wore off, but it’s continued. It’s incredible.

GN’R was at a crossroads when you joined in 2002. How do you view your role now compared to then?

It’s been a pretty massive change. Robin Finck was my favorite guitarist I played with, besides Slash, and was the one I felt most unified with. With Slash, it’s a whole different level. I’ve never played with another guitar player I feel so in-sync with.

What’s an example of how things work between you two?

There’s a section in Rocket Queen where it’s completely open. I’ll play a solo and then Slash plays a solo, and it’s a completely different solo every time. The other night, I played a melody at the beginning, and when Slash played his solo, he quoted that melody.

I thought, that’s what I’ve always dreamed a band to be, you know? And he didn’t even realize he did it! It’s almost jazz – when someone plays a theme and someone else picks up on that theme. That’s as good as it gets. He’s such a natural musician. It’s such a joy to play with somebody like that.

You’re occupying a role once filled by Izzy Stradlin and Gilby Clarke. Do you play their parts straight, or do you have freedom to improvise?

I can’t really speak to the Gilby thing as much, but with Izzy, there are certain things I view as integral. There’s never been a time when Slash has said to me, “I think you should copy what Izzy did here.” He’s very much in the moment. He’s come back to me and said, “I listened to this live recording we did, and I didn’t realize you were doing that. That’s really cool.”

But he’s never said, “I think you should do this…” He is very trusting with how I approach things. But there are things that – out of respect to the genius of Izzy and what makes this band legendary – I play what I think is integral to the song.

There are moments with a lot of the stuff that I interpret in my own way, but I feel very akin to Izzy’s approach and where he was coming from with the songs. I think about that spirit when I approach a song.

The recording of Chinese Democracy took place over many years. What was that like?

My parts on those songs came about very quickly, because they were already written when I came into the band. The only thing I wrote on that record was the chorus to Better. Everything else was done. I was just putting on parts, which was challenging because everything had to be structured with three guitar players.

We were working out parts that had come before, as well as for the new songs, so everything was very structured because everything has to have its place when you have three guitar players. You have to keep out of each other’s way.

That was something Buckethead did a really good job at. He understood how to make that work. He would lay out on the verses, come in on the choruses and then come in with a solo or play things that would augment what Robin and I were doing.

It must have been interesting to watch Buckethead work within the Guns paradigm, since he’s not traditionally been associated with that style of music.

True, but ultimately, he’s very musical. He understood the big picture of what was going on and always came at it from that perspective. He’s incredibly prolific, right? He’s put out, like, 137 albums or something. [Laughs] But he’s very much the type of guy that does his own thing.

That’s the aspect about the Buckethead – and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – era of Guns that sticks out, and perhaps why it was a little musically volatile.

It’s difficult for somebody that’s used to doing that. Ron was used to doing his own music. Being in a band is a very different thing than sitting in your studio or your bedroom and creating your own music. When you’re out playing bars and clubs as a band, it’s a very different thing, a very different dynamic.

When you look at what Duff and Slash have brought to the table over the last nine years, does any of what we’re talking about from the Chinese Democracy era remain?

I really don’t think so. [Laughs] There’s an organic quality that Slash and Duff bring that is inherent to who they are as musicians. It speaks to where they’ve come from and what they’ve brought back into this.

When you look at where you started when you joined GN’R and compare it to today, can you track the changes in your rig?

My journey has been very long and arduous when it comes to gear and the things I have to cover. [Laughs] A lot of the stuff I’m playing now isn’t the stuff I played on Chinese Democracy; I’m covering a lot of what Buckethead did.

I went through periods where I was using multiple amps and channels, but now it’s simplified. When we play live, we run a mono mix, and it’s an analog desk. It’s very old-school.

Does that help bring the classic GN’R guitar sound to the forefront?

I think it brings a lot more dimension and danger into the sound. Slash and I run mono rigs because it’s a mono PA, so it’d be silly for us to have stereo rigs. But I’ve simplified things; I have two amplifiers that I run and that I hit all the time.

I’m just running two single-channel amps, a 100-watt head, a Magnatone combo and a Magnatone Twilighter mono combo. I’m hitting them together throughout the night. I’m constantly on my volume knob, as is Slash. My clean sound is just dropping down the volume.

Where did that approach come from?

It’s very old-school. I simplified it and approached it in a Malcolm Young type of way. For the older stuff, my job is to support what Slash is doing, and for there to be a natural juxtaposition between two guitars.

So I wanted to go with a cleaner type of tone, similar to Malcolm, and how he spits around Angus Young’s tone. It’s the same type of dynamic. It’s also like Joe Perry and Brad Whitford; you can tell the district guitar tones apart and hear how one supports the other.

Has Slash been a big influence on how you look at gear since he rejoined?

Slash is a legend, so he has a sonic fingerprint that is very much him, although his tone has changed a lot since he first got in the band. I think he plays with a lot less gain, and his tone has gotten bigger, which makes my job harder. [Laughs] But obviously, my signature Gretsch has been the biggest piece in the puzzle for me – and lower-gain amps.

There’s an argument to be made that your Gretsch Falcon G6636TRF signature guitar is as synonymous with GN’R as Slash’s Les Paul at this point.

That’s pretty cool. I hate to keep going back to it, but Malcolm Young had the perfect rock rhythm tone. I’ve got to cover more ground than Malcolm, but I loved how huge-sounding the Gretsch is.

I love how there’s a lot of low-end and a lot of top-end, but I need to be able to do more than just that, so we’ve spent a lot of time working with Gretsch on those pickups. They were fantastic to work with.

What’s the secret sauce to those pickups that separates them from standard Gretsch Filter’Trons?

The key to my signature model is the pickups and electronics. We came up with something that is unique and not like anything else in the Gretsch line.

Those pickups are a hybrid of vintage Filter’Trons and vintage PAFs in tone and construction. John Gaudesi, who’s no longer with Gretsch, brought his pickup winder to rehearsal, and he had our front-of-house engineer in the control room, listening on reference monitors while we were in rehearsals.

My tech had four prototypes, and we’d swap the pickups in and out quickly, so we had a rotation of four guitars, and John would wind pickups based on our comments. We’d make comments, the control room would make comments, and he’d go, “I know what I need to do. Let me try this magnet or this wind,” and we narrowed it down until we came up with the right formula.

Some of the more fun guitar moments in Guns’ current show are the classics, like Paradise City and November Rain. How do you approach those?

I make subtle changes to things based on what Slash is doing, or on the way things are going in rehearsal or live. Things change all the time, and it’s been a process to where things just develop.

I’m sure it’s the same way if you watch a Rolling Stones video from 1981; it’s fascinating for me to watch how their guitar parts have changed so much since then and how different they were in ’81 from the original recordings. Songs just develop over time when you play them live every night.

When you came into GN’R 23 years ago, given all the early volatility, did you have a vision of how things would play out?

No. [Laughs] I just took each year as it came. I never had a big vision as far as how I saw things going. Nor did I anticipate still being here with Axl after a quarter of a century. I never really thought about it. I think about the next six months. What I’m consistently focused on is what’s coming up next, whether it be with Guns, another artist or whatever.

How do you see GN’R’s future unfolding?

I see us continuing to put out new music, but like I said, I don’t think about things more than a year out. That’s my focus. It’s always on the next rung in the ladder. I’m not looking at where I’ve come from or where I’m going, long term. I’m just constantly trying to move up.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Slash has never been slow in offering props to his fellow players. Game recognizes game. But when the Guns N’ Roses icon shared a video of shred enigma Buckethead tearing it up in a live jam with Primus frontman/bassist Les Claypool, it really struck a chord – and Buckethead wanted to repay the compliment.

Buckethead, AKA Brian Patrick Carroll, took to Facebook to thank Slash, and to share some thoughts on what it was actually like to be lead guitarist in Guns N’ Roses and not be Slash.

That, when you think about it, is pretty mind-blowing, and yet Buckethead held that job down for nigh-on four years between 2000 and 2004. He admits it wasn’t easy. In fact, no matter how technically on-point he was, Buckethead feels he just couldn’t quite nail Slash’s style.

“Just wanted to say that Slash is one of the greats of all time, as everyone knows,” he wrote. “He was involved in writing music and his guitar playing transcends decades, and to reach such a wide amount of people playing really incredible guitar is such a rare thing. In the time that I was involved in attempting to play his parts never really could I have captured the essence of him.”

Should this surprise us? Perhaps nobody could. We can imitate other player’s styles but we can never truly replicate what makes them them. It would always be a performance with an asterisk next to it.

That W. Axl Rose hired Buckethead for the job was fascinating in and of itself. At a certain remove, these two players could not be much more different.

Slash is hewn from the classic-rock of the ‘70s, his bearing of the Gibson Les Paul an anachronistic counterpoint to ‘80s Sunset Strip’s fevered obsession with all things pointy and Floyd-equipped. He is leather trousers, plaid shirt and aviators.

Buckethead? He looks and sounds like he has been dropped here from the moon. He plays the guitar with the eponymous family-sized KFC bucket on his head, identity shielded by a mask, and has a preference for next-generation electrics and custom-built Gibson and Jackson guitars.

Even when he picks up a Les Paul it is bone-white and equipped with arcade-style buttons for engaging a kill-switch on command. Okay, so maybe they both have a taste of top hats, kind of. Stylistically, they orbit different suns.

Slash did not hold back in his praise for the “next-level” Buckethead and Claypool, and the clip he posts of Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains performing live is pretty darn gnarly. It could do with some exposure, too.

C2B3, as it they were known, comprised Buckethead on guitar, Claypool on bass/vocals, Parliament-Funkadelic alum Bernie Worrell on keyboards, with former Primus drummer Brain supplying the beats. They played on the outer limits. They were not for everyone.

“This is some of the FUNKIEST music you'll ever hear!” writes Slash. “Buckethead and Les Claypool of Primus creating pure magic together. The bass lines are absolutely insane and Buckethead’s guitar work is next level as always.

“If you love funk, progressive rock, or just incredible musicianship, this jam will blow your mind! Both legends pushing each other to new heights. Support Buckethead whenever you can!”

Earlier this year, Buckethead gave a rare interview to Bootsy Collins – but answered the questions through his guitar.

Few vocalists in history are as synonymous with guitar heroics as Ozzy Osbourne. Starting with Tony Iommi and connecting with Randy Rhoads, Brad Gillis, Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde and many other greats, Ozzy knew how to pick ’em.

But what about the coulda-beens, shoulda-beens and never-beens? You know – the “close, but no cigar” gang? So many top-notch guitarists have told tales of auditioning for Ozzy and, for one reason or another, weren’t the right fit.

In the spirit of “almost,” GW dials it back to 13 players who were ever-so-nearly the apple of Ozzy’s eye.

George Lynch (auditioned in 1979 and 1982)

The Washington-born future Dokken star auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne not once, but twice. He first tried out in ’79 but lost out to Randy Rhoads. He auditioned again after Rhoads’ death three years later, this time to replace Brad Gillis, who had replaced Rhoads. Lynch insists that he secured the gig but was quickly fired after Ozzy got a load of Jake E. Lee’s look.

“They had two problems with me,” Lynch told Ultimate Guitar last year. “Ozzy had a problem with my short hair. I had short hair at the time. Then his wife [Sharon] had a problem with my green guitar. She said it looked like a booger. [She] didn't care what it sounded like, didn't care what I was playing.”

It’s all a bit hard to believe, given Lynch’s instrumental prowess. That said, Lynch is known as a, shall we say, free spirit. He didn’t jive with Don Dokken, nor did he get on all that well with Oni Logan in Lynch Mob. It’s reasonable to speculate that he might eventually have fallen out with Ozzy.

Richie Ranno (auditioned in 1982)

Back in 2022, the East Coast-raised guitar-slinger Richie Ranno told GW how he met a young Randy Rhoads in 1976 while he was playing with Starz. “Randy was a friend of mine from back in the ’70s,” he told us. “He was a big fan of Starz, and I think he was around 19 when I first met him.”

Fast forward to ’79, and Ranno ran into Rhoads again just before Rhoads left Quiet Riot to join Ozzy’s band. After the fateful plane crash in March 1982, Ozzy called on Ranno for an audition.

“When [the first] two Ozzy solo records came out, I didn’t realize it was that same kid [Rhoads] on guitar,” Ranno says.

“I learned Crazy Train, I Don’t Know, Goodbye to Romance and Over the Mountain. I was trying to play as much like Randy as I could, which wasn’t easy, but it went great. Don Airey told me I was the first person to audition, and I felt like, ‘Fuck, I’m in a bad spot here,’ because you never want to be first.”

Ultimately, Ranno lost out to Bernie Tormé, who wasn’t long for the gig.

Robert Sarzo (nearly asked to join in 1982)

It would have been easy to pivot to guitarist Robert Sarzo, as his brother Rudy was playing bass in Ozzy’s band at the time of Randy Rhoads’ death. In his 2006 memoir, Off the Rails: Aboard the Crazy Train in the Blizzard of Ozz, Rudy wrote that Sharon and Ozzy wanted Robert, nicknamed “the VuDu Man,” to join the band.

Robert would have gotten the job, except for the fact that Sharon’s father, Don Arden – who managed Ozzy at the time – paid Bernie Tormé in advance to replace Rhoads on the Diary of a Madman tour. Ozzy and Sharon reluctantly agreed, and Sarzo missed his chance at stardom.

Vito Bratta (asked to audition in 1982)

One of the less-talked-about would-be Ozzy shredders is New Yorker Vito Bratta, who revealed in 2023 that he had a brush with the Osbournes while Brad Gillis was still in the band.

“Somebody sent a cassette of me doing the Sabbath stuff to Ozzy’s people,” Bratta told GW, revealing this information for the very first time. “And then – if I remember right, it was probably Sharon, but I can’t be sure – called me, saying, ‘Hey, we like your tape, and we want you to come down to the Ritz to play.’”

But Bratta never got the chance to audition properly, as he botched the opportunity over the phone while with Sharon.

“I told her, ’Sure, I can come down. What songs do you want me to play?’ She tells me, ‘Do you know anything from Ozzy’s two solo albums?’ I told her, ‘No, I don’t know anything.’ I did love Randy’s stuff, but I didn't have time to sit at home and learn it. I never got around to it.”

At this point, Bratta knew he’d blown it. “Her voice was getting higher and higher,” he recalled. “I told her, ‘You want me to come down there soon, but I don’t know the stuff yet.’ She said, ‘How long do you need?’ I told her, ‘Give me a week.’ She said, ‘Okay, maybe you’re right, it’s not a good idea.’ And she hangs up, and I bang the phone down.”

Ultimately, Bratta went on to stardom with White Lion, but it sure would have been cool to play with Ozzy. “God almighty,” he says. “I remember being frustrated, you know? I felt like, ‘Fuck… this was the shot.’”

Adrian Vandenberg (asked to join in 1983)

According to Vandenberg’s social media, Ozzy asked the Dutchman to join his band while Jake E. Lee was still with him, during the Speak of the Devil tour. On the day Ozzy died (July 22), Vandenberg said of their first meeting, “I was fortunate to spend time with him, starting with touring the USA with Ozzy and his band in 1983.”

Vandenberg added that “There was never a dull moment” on tour with Ozzy, with “daily practical jokes” and Ozzy giving Vandenberg’s self-titled band “daily soundchecks.”

Those soundchecks are probably where the alleged invitation to join took place, but due to commitments with his own band – not to mention Lee’s presence in Ozzy’s group – Vandenberg declined the offer, which may or may not have been formal.

Jimi Bell (auditioned in 1987)

After Jake E. Lee left Ozzy in 1987, several guitarists auditioned for the gig. One of them was Joan Jett’s guitarist, Jimi Bell. In 2022, Bell recounted the details of that audition on the (Don’t) Quit Your Day Job podcast, saying, “I played on this big soundstage with Ozzy, and it went phenomenal. Ozzy really loved it, and when I got done playing, they sat me down and said it was between me and Zakk Wylde.”

History shows that Wylde was chosen, but it wasn’t all bad for Bell. “After deciding to stay with Zakk, Sharon gave my promo pack to Geezer Butler,” he recalled. “At that point, I was flown to England to work with him.” After that, Bell wrote some music for Sabbath’s Master of Insanity, which appeared on 1992’s Dehumanizer, although he wasn’t credited for it.

Marty Friedman (auditioned in 1987)

Looking back, it seems obvious that a Marty Friedman/Ozzy Osbourne pairing would have been a recipe for disaster, as the guitarist is something of a maverick. We’ll never know, as Friedman “failed miserably” when he took his shot at replacing Jake E. Lee in ’87.

He attributes this to his image, recalling during a Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp Q&A session in 2023: “I was practically homeless at the time, [but] I thought I played everything absolutely just fine, and I thought it sounded great. Everybody was friendly enough.

“But our images were very different. Those guys in the band [were] totally decked out in 1980s Sunset Strip – what do you call it? – skull T-shirts with handcuffs and long necklaces.”

Jennifer Batten (submitted a tape in 1987)

Jennifer Batten can play with anyone; her work with Michael Jackson and Jeff Beck is testament to that. But Ozzy disagreed, as Batten told Ultimate Guitar in 2022.

“I remember before the Michael Jackson thing came up, I was trying to get an audition with Ozzy. They were auditioning everybody in L.A. at the time, and I know my audio got to the right people, and I didn’t even get a chance.”

Batten says the reason was simple: she was a woman. “Looking back, it’s a super-macho gig, and they probably wouldn’t even consider a female for that. Having said that, if it were the same thing today, I think it’d be a whole different story.” The gig ultimately went to Zakk Wylde.

Chris Impellitteri (asked to audition in 1987)

Yet another fleet-fingered guitarist who auditioned to be Jake E. Lee’s replacement in 1987 was Chris Impellitteri. Notoriously, Impellitteri is one of the fastest shredders of them all, but it’s hard to envision his style fitting with Ozzy’s music — which, while shred-heavy, also require a bluesy player with feel.

Impellitteri’s story is similar to Vito Bratta’s in that it began with a phone call. “I came home one night from rehearsal,” he told GW in 2024. “My roommate goes, ‘You’ve got to listen to this message,’ which said, ‘This is Sharon Osbourne. Me and Ozzy have been checking you out, and we really love your guitar playing. We want you to come down and audition.’”

Unlike Bratta, Impellitteri didn’t blow his shot over the phone. Still, he never got past the talking stage. “I talked to Sharon – and, I think, Ozzy – probably three to five times,” he says. “There was some back and forth. The problem was that I’d already signed a deal with Relativity Records.” In this case, business deals rather than image or gender proved to be the impassable obstacle.

Nuno Bettencourt (asked to join in 1995)

On the surface, Extreme guitarist Nuno had everything Ozzy could want in a guitarist. He had singular talent, he could (and can) rip it up with the best of them, and he was a great songwriter.

But like many guitar-playing musos, Nuno is also a maverick whose heart beats strictly to its own drum. This led him to reject an offer to join Ozzy’s band, which was served up on a silver platter in 1995, just before Extreme broke up.

“Nobody says ‘no’ to Ozzy,” Nuno told GW in 2025. “It’s the gig of a lifetime.” So then, why did he? Simple. As iconic as the position is, Nuno never wanted to be known as just Ozzy’s guitarist.

“For better or worse, I’ve always had my sights set on – and I’ll never reach it, probably – becoming Randy or Edward or Brian May or Jimmy Page, and the list goes on. You have this mission to carve your own path, whatever that is.”

Richie Kotzen (auditioned and was asked to join after Steve Vai didn’t work out in 1995)

If the sometime Poison and Mr. Big guitarist Richie Kotzen is to be believed, in 1995 – after Zakk Wylde had departed and an attempt to record with Steve Vai didn’t work out – he was asked aboard the good ship Ozzy.

“I got a phone call from my manager,” Kotzen told Metal Sludge in 2014. “The way it was presented to me was that they had called and wanted to meet with me. Sharon wanted to meet me, and they needed a guitar player. At the time, they had done a lot of work with Steve Vai and, for whatever reason, it didn’t pan out. Zakk wasn’t involved at that point.”

According to Kotzen, he secured the gig but made the mistake of telling a friend, who leaked it to the press. This didn’t sit well with the Osbournes, leading to Joe Holmes taking his place.

“I remember seeing [the report], and I was so fucking pissed,” Kotzen said. “I said, ‘Why the fuck would you go and fucking make this public? I told you this as a friend, and now you’re blabbing it [in public]!’ The whole deal, everything, went dead.”

Buckethead (auditioned around 2005)

Brian “Buckethead” Carroll has never commented on this story, but Ozzy has. According to the singer, he auditioned Buckethead for his solo band just before the 2005 Ozzfest, as he wasn’t quite sure Zakk Wylde would be available. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t really go well.

“I tried out that Buckethead guy,” Ozzy told Revolver in 2005. “I met with him and asked him to work with me, but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket. So I came back a bit later and he’s wearing this green fucking Martian’s hat thing. I haven’t even got out of the room and I’m already playing fucking mind games with the guy.”

Needless to say, Buckethead didn’t get the gig.

Frank Sidoris (auditioned around 2017)

As Osbourne was gearing up for what was to be his “farewell” solo tour, before Zakk Wylde hopped aboard for round three with the Prince of Darkness, he was – once again – auditioning guitar players. One of these was Frank Sidoris.

Ozzy ultimately went with good 'ol Zakk Wylde due to familiarity, but Sidoris – who is now a touring guitarist with Wolfgang Van Halen’s band, Mammoth – left a positive impression. Ozzy later commented in a letter to Sidoris, “I can see why you’ve had success at a young age.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Bill Laswell isn’t so much a bass player as a creator of low-end worlds, having crafted soundscapes for Brian Eno, John Lydon, Ginger Baker, Eddie Hazel and Buckethead. “You just get an idea, try to execute it, and see if it works for them,” Laswell says.

His approach to records such as Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, PiL’s Album and Last Exit’s Iron Path is simply explained: “I made decisions to try different things. Most people who get that far into the game just keep going, which can be profitable.

“But I’m glad I went in another direction – people that I considered to be great musicians started to call.”

In recent years, the 70-year-old has been slowed by health issues. While he’s currently not working he has hope for the future.

What initially drew you to the bass?

“Being in bands was the cool thing to do. Most bands had a guitar player and a drummer; I realized what was missing, and what was the easiest thing to fit into playing with people, was a bass. It was to do with availability – if you can get that instrument, they’ll need one.”

Your approach lends itself to soundscapes rather than simply supporting the rhythm. What drew you to that?

“In the mid-’70s there were a couple of Eno records I liked. He happened to live down the street from me in Manhattan. I kept bugging him to get gigs and play on stuff. He’s open to trying new things, and if something feels okay he’ll consider moving in that direction.”

What gear did you use on Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts?

“On Bush of Ghosts I had a Fender fretless Precision Bass, which I was really happy with. The night before recording I played at CBGB’s, and when we finished we loaded the stuff into an open truck. Somebody grabbed the bass I had sticking up out of the truck. It was gone.

“I had the session next day around noon. I went to the studio on 12th Street and said, ‘I have no bass.’ Then I made a call to a guy in Queens and he showed up with a bass – which was terrible! I don’t even know what make it was, but it had a big sticker on the front that said ‘Devo.’”

How did it work out?

“We made the best of it. Later on, I found the bass that was stolen in a store. I bought it back for much more than it was worth. But I did get it back!”

What was your approach to Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land?

“With On Land, I wasn’t really bass playing; it was more making sounds with different things in the studio, then putting on effects.”

How did you end up working with Herbie Hancock on 1983’s Future Shock?

“Herbie’s manager, Tony Meilandt, was pretty animated and energetic. He’d just discovered drugs. He came around to a punk club where I was playing and asked if I wanted to do something – and of course, I was interested in Herbie. I wasn’t thinking too much; I just went with what I was surrounded with, which was the beginning of hip-hop.”

You hooked up with Afrika Bambaataa not long after.

“With Bambaataa and people like that, you don’t think about instruments too much. If you can find an idea that works with what they’re trying to do, you go with that. You don’t say, ‘I need this bass or this amp’ – it’s not that way with DJs, Bambaataa or even Herbie.”

In 1986 you played on PiL’s Album. What was John Lydon like?

“John came around because I’d worked with Bambaataa on World Destruction. I liked PiL a lot, but Lydon was not easy, as you can imagine. From time to time he’s actually pretty shy; kind of sensitive. So, step-by-step, we put it together.

“I realized early on that I’d do the record, but I don’t really value the musicians he was working with at first. So I started to build tracks with the people I was meeting at the time. I decided to take a chance and go for it, and it worked out. It wasn’t fun for John, I don’t think – but we did something okay!”

Can you remember putting the track Rise together?

“I did it in my house with guitarist Nicky Skopelitis. Then we went to the Power Station studio where Jason Corsaro was engineering. I cut it with [drummer] Tony Williams. That first take is the one that’s on the record.

“But I made a mistake on it – there’s like a half-step wrong note, and I said, ‘No, keep that. I don’t want to change the first-take concept.’ So every time somebody overdubbed it I said, ‘Right there, it’s a little different!’”

You started working with Ginger Baker in 1986. That must have been a trip.

“The Ginger thing came up during the PiL record. John was always half-joking, ‘I want to get Ginger Baker as the drummer.’ I said, ‘That’s actually a great idea!’ But nobody knew how to get to him.

“We put the word out, and he was in the north of Italy, living on a farm on a mountain with no electricity and very little communication. I went to Italy and explained the situation. He liked the idea. I think he wanted to get out there and play.

“So he came to New York, and I was the producer – the boss of the record or whatever. We didn’t really argue. I’m the guy who was paying him so we got along, you could say! And from that I said, ‘Let’s keep doing things.’

“I recorded as much as we could with Ginger, just to get him back to playing again. I think he enjoyed it. But he could be a little difficult with people. If you’re taking heroin, speedballs and cocaine for 30 years, it’ll make you a little cranky! When he was up it was a lot of fun; but when you crash on that stuff, it can be tough on people.”

Also in 1986, you formed the genreless Last Exit with Sonny Sharrock, Peter Brotzmann and Ronald Shannon Jackson.

“That came about because there was an offer to do a tour. I’d been working with Ronald, so I went to him first. Then I asked Sonny, who I’d always wanted to do something with. I’d just met Peter, and he was fun, and heavy drinking at the time!

“We went to Europe, and even more than musically, we just liked each other. It was fun, even though the money could have been better. But the music was pretty destructive. We didn’t understand right away that it was going to shock people – but I guess it made a statement.”

Between 1989 and 1995, as part of your Axiom project, you collaborated with several members of Parliament-Funkadelic on Funkcronomicon.

“I listened to all of those guys from the beginning. It was good to record them and make sure they got heard by people. It was good to meet everybody, and in some cases, it went on for a long time. I recorded with Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins, who were very versatile.”

Funkcronomicon was Eddie Hazel’s last proper recording.

“Eddie had a lot of technique as a guitarist – but he was also doing a lot of drugs and a lot of drinking. I actually got an advance to do a record with just Eddie, and I paid him upfront.

“I was going to Japan for some reason and I said, ‘I’ll be back in a week. We’ll get an idea and go.’ He was looking forward to it, but now he had a little money, which was a first in a long time.

“So while I was in Japan, he died. I’d thought if we cleaned everything up a little bit, he could have done a lot, you know? But I just couldn’t do everything at once.”

In the mid-’90s you hooked up with Buckethead.

“I met him through a band in San Francisco called Limbo Maniacs. I was working on their record, and they kept talking about this unique, bizarre guitar player, who practices nonstop, plays in his room, and was a very eccentric character – to say the least.

“I thought, ‘I want to meet him and work with him.’ I met him, and he told me the musicians he wanted to work with were Michael Jackson and Bootsy Collins. I said, ‘I don’t have access to Michael Jackson, but we can do something with Bootsy.’

“So I brought Bootsy and him together and everybody had a good time, so we kept doing recordings. And Buckethead got a deal with Sony and did his record. Then in New York, we played live together, which was the last time.”

What’s your outlook on continuing to play and record?

“If I can move forward, it won’t be any different – I’ll just keep recording and trying to encourage other people who have projects. And I’ll try and make sure that I can always have some kind of studio situation.”

• Follow Bill Laswell on Instagram.

To say that Ozzy Osbourne has had a stellar rotating roster of electric guitar players is far from an understatement. Indeed, the Prince of Darkness had an incredible eye and ear for trailblazing guitarists who elevated his show – a process he once described as “shopping for a new suit” in a classic interview with Guitar World.

One of the guitarists who, in a parallel universe, would perhaps have accompanied Ozzy was the ever-elusive Buckethead, who, most notably, was Guns N' Roses’ lead player between 2000 and 2004. “I tried out that Buckethead guy,” Osbourne told Revolver back in 2005.

However, the invitation came with one specific condition: “I met with him and asked him to work with me, but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket.

“So I came back a bit later and he's wearing this green fucking Martian's-hat thing. I said, ‘Look, just be yourself!’ He told me his name was Brian, so I said that's what I'd call him. He says, ‘No one calls me Brian except my mother.’

“I said, ‘Pretend I'm your mum then!’ I haven't even got out of the room and I'm already playing fucking mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he's gone and there's a note saying, ‘I've been beamed up?’” he quips. “Don't get me wrong, he's a great player. He plays like a motherfucker!”

Ozzy aficionados recently got a taste of what could have been, as Buckethead effortlessly covered War Pigs and Diary of a Madman at some of his recent shows, brandishing his notorious white Les Paul to deliver a virtuosic rendition of the two key Sabbath and Ozzy tracks.

In what may be one of the strangest interviews ever, the enigmatic artist recently gave an ‘interview’ to Bootsy Collins, responding entirely through his electric guitar.

It always makes for fascinating viewing when musicians interview one another, but what happens when you put two of the most outlandish figures in the game in a room together? Better still, what happens if one of them has to speak through their electric guitar?

Well, that’s what Reverb has organised for its newest YouTube video, which brings funk and bass legend Bootsy Collins together with his “psycho” friend Buckethead – of Guns N’ Roses fame – for a fever dream conversation that’s “part interview, part jam, and 100% pure creative chemistry”.

It’s a conversation that has to be seen to be believed. A Buckethead interview is rare in itself, but to see him reflect on his long-standing partnership with Collins – and respond through riffs – is a sight to behold.

For instance, when asked about how they met, Collins remembers, “It’s funny, I don’t know how he got my address, but he sent me a videotape of him sitting in a room in a bed just jamming his head off. I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ Then it came to me. He’s a goner, a total psycho. I’ve got to meet him.”

The voiceless Buckethead, meanwhile, responds to the question of, ‘What were your first impressions of Collins?’ by playing an almost oompah-like rhythm fingerstyle melody.

“It was kinda sideways,” Collins, playing the role of translator, jumps in to explain.

After Buckethead’s less-than-conventional introduction, Collins manned the desk on his debut studio album, Bucketheadland, in 1992, marking the beginning of a fruitful and perpetually colorful relationship.

“Oh man, it was mindblowing because we just did it on the spot,” Collins says of the experience. “I had no idea what we were going to do, you know? I was hoping he’d do some of the stuff he was doing on the video.

“We cut it in about a week. We recorded a whole lot of songs. Once we got the total Buckethead ride, we were finished.”

Their work together turned the head of producer Bill Laswell, who placed the pair in a supergroup, Praxis, with drummer Brain (Guns N’ Roses, Primus, Serj Tankian) and keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic, Talking Heads).

‘Speaking’ of what his time in the band was like, Buckethead plays a haunting suspended chord and drums his fingers against his signature Les Paul’s killswitch, with signal crackles only adding to the weirdness of his musicality as he then begins to arpeggiate the chord shape.

“He was kinda stunned at first,” Collins translates. “But once we all got together, and Bill said, ‘Y’all ready?’ Bucket would start a jam, and we’d all just fall in. The first thing we had against us was that we didn’t know what we were gonna do. We’d never played with each other player. Bill got it out of us, and we followed Bucket.”

Buckethead continued to impress his bass-playing friend since, and over 30 years on, they still don’t have a plan of attack when they come to make music together.

“The good thing about it is when we hook up, we never know what the heck we’re doing,” Collins concludes. “We had a conversation about maybe that’s a good thing not to know, as opposed to having everything pre-arranged. We don’t really work like that. It always feels so good.”

Speaking of his collaborations with Buckethead, Serj Tankian said, “He’d call me at four in the morning and leave a 15-minute guitar solo on my voicemail,” while John 5 has said the guitarist's love of a Killswitch inspired him to bestow his Ghost Telecaster with one.

Meanwhile, Collins, who started his musical journey on electric guitar, has revealed the one reason why he switched.

As the singer of System Of A Down, Serj Tankian has headlined the world’s biggest stages, stormed the charts with hit records and scooped up awards in the process. Much has been written about his band being one of the biggest and best of their kind: front-runners in the nu-metal explosion, highly respected for bringing heavy riffs into the mainstream without sacrificing the values that made them such a unique proposition.

But not a great deal is known about Serj Tankian the guitarist. He’s had a couple of signature models over the years and will occasionally pick up an electric for live renditions of SOAD songs like Question! and Aerials.

On his solo releases, however, he’s been more prolific with the six-string in his hands – including his Foundations EP, which came out last month via Gibson Records. Those songs feature some of the detuned and palm-muted metal aggression we’ve grown to expect, with riffs that feel reminiscent of Alice in Chains and Slayer, as well as more acoustic-driven and experimental moments.

“Yeah, that’s mainly me you’re hearing on the Foundations EP,” Tankian tells Guitar World. “Dan Monti – my guitarist in the Flying Cunts of Chaos – did some additional tracks. But a lot of it, from the guitars to the bass and drum programming, is me working alone.

“It’s pretty much homemade. These songs were written a long time ago. We cleaned it up for the release, adding bits here and there, but keeping a lot of the original recordings because we wanted to maintain an archival quality to it.”

He’s spoken in the past of his vocal influences, name-checking Faith No More/Mr. Bungle talisman Mike Patton. What’s less well-known is which guitarists inspired him to play. “There are many!” says Tankian. “I used to play a lot of acoustic guitar at home before starting System with Daron Malakian. His playing actually influenced me a lot and I’m very grateful for that, so he’s the first person that comes to mind.

“Zappa is one of my biggest influences in general. I love his playing a lot; then there’s all the shred stuff like Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. I can’t play like them if my life depended on it – I just love the guitar as a form of expression on its own.”

These days, Tankian approachs music more like a film composer than a metal frontman. Guitars, pianos and keyboards are simply the tools of the trade – from a more pragmatic and less romantic standpoint, they exist purely to help him get the sounds out of his head and into the air.

“Piano was my first instrument,” he says. “The guitar came second and I started that journey some 30-odd years. I would say I use guitars more for songwriting than performance. I don’t think I’m a master of anything, but I have my own way of expressing things through various instruments, whether it’s piano, guitar, vocals or composing for film and TV.

“The same goes for painting. I’m not necessarily the best painter in the world, but I have my own unique way of telling stories through what I do. That’s what an artist is, right?”

You had a signature electric through Jolana guitars, and a Taylor T5 electro-acoustic at one point, too. Now you’ve partnered up with Gibson.

“I have a new signature electric coming out through Gibson, along with the Foundations EP. It’s a Les Paul Standard – I just love Les Pauls. I had a 1985 Custom for many years and an SG that I loved. There was a whole array of Gibsons; I was armed with a lot of guitars but I found myself using the same two instruments more than anything else.

“There was a Custom made for me by the Gibson Custom Shop years ago. I’ve used it a lot on recordings and on stage. It’s got that perfect balance between the Gibson low-end and the PRS or Fender-style top-end. It sits in the middle of those sounds, which is why I’ve always loved its tone.”

So what can we expect from your model in terms of the finish and spec?

“The finish is actually going to be the artwork from my EP, so it will be wrapped in this beautiful painting. I chose the painting for the EP cover and it felt right to bring that aesthetic to the guitar. The original piece was sold last year; we’ve been working with Moonlight Arts Collective on the reproductions.

“We haven’t customized the guitar too much – it’s pretty much a Les Paul Standard, with my artwork. We haven’t really tweaked the other elements; but now you’ve said that, there is time. Maybe I need to have a think about changing some things and fucking with the pickups a bit!”

What kind of gear would we find in your studio or at home?

“I’ve gotten rid of most of it. Sorry to let you down, but this isn’t going to be a guitar smorgasbord jerkoff festival! Becoming a film composer, I felt like I needed more space, so I reduced it down to the basics.

“I used to have a beautiful Rickenbacker bass, an old 12-string, a Big Apple Strat and more. I’ve still got a bunch of acoustics, like a Hummingbird and a bunch of Taylors, because I was working with them for a while and using their guitars to record.

“I only held onto a few electrics, including my favorite Les Paul. Over time, I’ve become a minimalist – I like working in a setting that’s more like an art gallery than some LA recording studio. I like seeing light and space.

“So I said to myself, ‘What are the key elements I need to compose?’ And I just kept those things, including a few electrics guitars, some acoustics, one Fender Jazz Bass and my piano. But I have another studio in New Zealand. Half my shit is there!”

Is the Big Apple Strat the same black finish model with DiMarzios that Daron used to record SOAD’s debut album?

“It’s not that exact guitar – that instrument was stolen. It’s funny: Daron’s the guitarist, I’m the vocalist, and yet he was using my guitar for the first couple of years, which was great. But then somebody stole it after breaking our car window while we were eating at Denny’s after rehearsal.

“I went and got another, the same model with the double humbuckers. But as far as that thick sound you need for heavy metal, it’s all about the Les Paul. There’s no guitar with the kind of bottom-end of a Gibson.”

What’s your guitar rig at home?

“I have a bunch of pedals in a drawer. I hate to say it, but I’ve mainly been using the Kemper Profiler. I went from having an LA studio with all kinds of amps like a Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier stack and a Vox AC30, all running through a Little Labs box so I could run all of them simultaneously and record all three in one performance.

“I had a Sunn amp, too – so I’d connect the cabinet to a Marshall head, plus other things, and just layer shit over and over again. It was really fun. I had drum sets, bass rigs and everything else. Now my studio is more like a composer’s room. The drum sets and bass rigs are gone.

“All I need is my Kemper, though I did keep all my old Boss and Line 6 pedals. I love the Moogerfooger analog delay. That pedal is fuckin’ incredible and I’ve written so many things using it. A lot of my work these days is also done using plugins.”

Obviously Daron is in charge of all things guitar in SOAD, but did you end up playing on any of the albums?

“The ones I wrote I probably played more instruments on. There was Question! from the album Mesmerize, and Vicinity Of Obscenity from Hypnotize. I think it was especially the acoustic stuff where I would play, because my playing style is different to Daron’s.

“I’m more of a picker, almost like a folk guitarist – but faster! I have these picking quotas that I do and I arpeggiate them and whatnot. That’s more my thing. The songs with more of that kind of vibe are the ones I might play on, but Daron generally handles the guitars because he’s much better than I am!”

You’ve also worked with Tony Iommi a couple of times – the first song being Patterns from his debut solo album and more recently the track Deconstruction, with you joining him and Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian...

“Tony is such a gentleman. I remember singing on his first solo record. We were touring with Black Sabbath early on, doing the big Ozzfest when they had the reunion with Ozzy. We all became friends. Obviously, all of us in System had an immeasurable amount of respect for all of them, including Tony. We started to see each other more often and then he asked me to sing on his record.

“We started to see each other more often and then he asked me to sing on his record. For me, that was fuckin’ mindblowing, because he’s such a legend to us. It was a beautiful collaboration. Then System did a cover of Snowblind for a compilation; and many years later Cesar wrote a song, wanting me to sing on it. Then he told me Tony would also be playing guitar on it. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in!’”

Another legend you’ve collaborated with, and even ended up signing to your label, is Brian Carroll, aka Buckethead.

“Yes! Before I even talk about his playing, just as a human being, he’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet – just the sweetest guy. I’m so grateful for him and in so many ways, but I won’t get into all of it now. He’s been incredibly helpful to me.

“His playing is so unique, as most people know. His style is almost impossible to describe. Growing up as a fan of Malmsteen and Satriani, when I met Buckethead I said, ‘Dude, you are one crazy shredder!’ Sometimes I’d wake up to a voice message from him sent at 4am and it would be 20 minutes long.

“He’d say, ‘Hey bro, I wanted to play you something – I hope you dig it and I hope I’m not bothering you,’ and then just riff for 20 minutes. Waking up to messages like that was insane.”

Is it likely you’ll work with him again in the future?

“We’ve been friends for a long time and recently talked about doing a second Buckethead and Friends album. For the original record, Enter the Chicken, I basically looped in a bunch of singers and we all sang on these songs that were completely different to each other. It came out on my Serjical Strike imprint many years ago. He’s so unique when he picks up the guitar. I particularly love the album Colma.

“I saw Bumblefoot in Armenia at a concert I did for the Starmus Festival, along with Brian May, who I got to meet and sing with. I’ve been so honored to meet and perform with these guitar legends from all around the world. I’ve always been a huge Queen fan, so that was pretty mind-blowing.”

If someone didn’t know anything about the music of Armenia, what would you say to help them understand?

“Traditional Armenian music is very beautiful and rich. There are a lot of subtones. I can’t tell you what scales are used – I’m not well-versed enough to explain. But there’s definitely a special feeling to it.

“When we were doing our first Ozzfest tour around 1999, Tool were headlining. I remember meeting Maynard James Keenan and telling him that a lot of his vocal melodies reminded me of Armenian music. I gave him a CD of traditional Armenian orchestral music. He didn’t know who I was; since then we’ve become friends, but he must have been like ‘Okay, cool, thanks!’

“It’s hard to explain Armenian music. There’s definitely a sense of melancholy, as there is in most of our history. We’ve been under the Ottoman Empire for the last 600 years. So it’s a mixture of beauty and sadness, played through traditional instruments.”

Like the duduk, for example?

“Exactly, like the duduk, which is made from the bark of the apricot tree. There’s also the kamancheh, which is a bowed string instrument, and the qanun, which is a type of zither. I work with a couple of different Armenian orchestras and helped start a virtual instrument company out there called Triple A Audio, making remote recordings for composers all around the world.

“We’ve created one virtual instrument for Kontakt already and will be releasing more this year. I’d love to use a traditional Armenian orchestra for a film, composing the score and then recording them live. That would be amazing because it hasn’t been done.”

Which guitarists do you think you most sound like when you play?

“I honestly don’t know. I have my own way of playing that’s maybe a bit ethnic, a bit rock and a bit of something else. It’s hard to know where it comes from. I love all kinds of guitarists – anyone that has their own voice through whatever instrument they use. I’m always looking for something I haven’t heard before, whether it’s a guitar player or opera singer. I love being blown away and influenced by new things.

“I guess it’s more of a writing style I have that’s different. It might be the way I use bends or rhythmic ideas on acoustic. Zappa famously said, ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,’ right? You mentioned Alice In Chains – I have to say, when I pick up an acoustic guitar, there is probably a Jerry Cantrell influence.

“The first cover I ever played was their song Rooster – and I never really do covers. I love their dark vibe and the amount of depth in their darkness. I know about 10 songs written by other people, and that’s one of them. I’ve always created my own music rather than learn other people’s songs. In that sense, I’m a horrible musician!”

The reaction to the SOAD tracks Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz released in 2020, after a 15-year creative break, was quite phenomenal. How close might we be to a new album?

“I think it’s pretty much the same answer I’ve been giving for many years. I don’t know. We don’t know. It’s a matter of finding the right way forward. We all need to agree how to do it in an egalitarian format.

“A lot of this is highlighted in my book, Down With the System, where a lot of truths are respectfully told. If we can agree on the blueprint of how to move forward, it is possible. Until then, we wait.”

There have been discussions of the band continuing with a different singer. But it seems as if most fans would reject that.

“I don’t think you could have System without any of us. I’ve always said I don’t want to be in that band with other people, because there’s this uniqueness to what we do. Okay, if someone can’t make a show and we get a sub in, then maybe... but that’s a unique circumstance.

“I wouldn’t want to be in a band with anyone else other than Daron, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan. There’s a specialness about what happens when we play together – it can only come from the four of us. System would never be the same with anyone else.

“That being said, I didn’t want to constrain the others and their ability to make a livelihood doing what they love. So I opened the door to the possibility of them being able to work without me, and that’s always been on the table.

“They might want to tour a lot and I might not, or they might want to make a record that I don’t want to make. I don’t want to stand in their way. But I do hope that one day we can all see eye-to-eye and just do something for the fuck of it. Whether it gets released or not is secondary.”

Maybe comparisons can be drawn to Tool, given that Maynard is said to be the one taking longer during the writing process. And also, just like Tool, System set the bar so high.

“Yeah, it’s almost like you can’t get over that. But one of my new songs, Justice Will Shine On, and another song Daron had written about the Armenian Genocide, were actually from 2015. We were considering releasing them back then, but there was a level of constraint or self-restriction.

“Like, ‘Is this what we should be releasing now? Is this the first thing people should hear?’ But I’m not into that kind of thinking. I’m still the same musician I was in the early ’90s. I want to explore and create something new. If we think it’s good enough, then fuck everyone else!”

• Foundations EP is out now.

Few guitarists in history have proven to be as authentically enigmatic as Buckethead. The bucket-wearing, genre-spanning guitar virtuoso has collaborated with everyone from Iggy Pop to Les Claypool, not to mention his short stint in Guns N' Roses. His 2005 release, the acclaimed Enter the Chicken, was in fact the product of a fruitful collaboration between him and System of a Down's Serj Tankian. 

In his new 10-hour audiobook, System of a Down's Serj Tankian reveals the story behind this album, and how he ended up performing at a high school battle of the bands with Buckethead.

“I'd met him through Bill Laswell, an avant-garde bassist and producer back when Buckethead was playing guitar for Guns and Roses," Tankian recalls. 

“We sent each other music or books we'd like. We'd hang out sometimes, we talked about music. One day, Bucket called me and told me he needed money.”

Tankian promptly told him he was more than happy to give him some money. However, Buckethead had other plans. “He said, ‘Let me make a record for you.’”

Around that same time, Tankian had built an 800-square foot studio right next to his house. Curious about Buckethead's vision for his new album, Tankian brought in different artists to work with him, including Saul Williams, Bad Acid Trip, Deli Creep's Maximum Bob.

“I wrote a couple of songs with Bucket, played and sang on them, and co-produced the whole album,” he says. Tankian also released the album through his label, Serjical Strike. 

"Working with Buckethead was, to put it simply, quite an experience. It's not like when he takes the KFC bucket off his head and puts away his mask, he's just a regular guy. A regular guy he is most definitely not.

“Sometimes he would call me at four in the morning and leave a 15-minute guitar solo on my voicemail. He was eccentric and acutely sensitive, but such a singular creative spirit.”

Tankian's Buckethead experience also included a taxidermy-inspired music video, which perfectly sums up the left-field ethos of Enter The Chicken. “In We Are One [a single from the album] Bucket plays a taxidermist who picks up a bunch of roadkill and then Frankensteins their parts together into some sort of monstrous super animal.”

His artistic camaraderie with Buckethead didn't stop there, however. “He called and asked me to play a show with him at his old high school,” says Tankian. “If I remember correctly, and I may not, the event was a battle of the bands.”

Together with Primus drummer Bryan “Brain” Mantia, Tankian made a surprise appearance at the event. To the students' delight, Buckethead, Tankian, Mantia, and Buckethead bassist Anthony “Butthouse” Chaba even gave their own rendition of Enter the Dragon's theme song.

“We set up in the school gym and just jammed out with me making up the vocals as I went along,” remembers Tankian.

“Pure stream of consciousness. The kids at this school went nuts! After doing things in such a regimented way for years with System, this looser approach to everything was incredibly refreshing.”

Buckethead’s purpose-built Jackson KFC KV2 Custom V electric guitar, which the virtuoso has owned since the turn of the century, has been put up for sale by the former Guns N’ Roses maestro.

News of the V’s sale was reported by dedicated Buckethead YouTube channel NatterNet, which noted a handful of six-figure sums had already been put forward for acquisition of the iconic instrument.

The sale of the KV2 also comes almost a year after Buckethead had revealed that “10 of the most important guitars” of his life were stolen, and though NatterNet had confirmed that one of the guitars was a 2008 Gibson Les Paul model, it was unknown whether the KV2 had also been stolen at the time.

Well, it turns out the V has remained in Buckethead’s possession since then, but now the eccentric fretboard master has decided to part ways with his beloved V.

The guitar itself, alongside his white Gibson Les Paul signature guitar, is one of Buckethead’s most recognizable axes, having been used extensively from 2000 to 2004 during solo shows, reunion gigs with Maximum Bob, and for the majority of the time Buckethead was in Guns N’ Roses.

As well as having a prestigious live history, the KV2 also saw comprehensive studio action, with longtime Buckethead producer Travis Dickerson once stating that this guitar – along with his Jackson Coopwood V – made it onto Cobra Strike and Chicken Noodles albums.

Specs-wise, the V features a white finish complemented by those trademark KFC stripes on the upper bout, with a pair of DiMarzio X2N PU humbuckers, a Floyd Rose tremolo and a killswitch also making the cut.

Broadly speaking, it was based on Dave Mustaine Y2K signature V – though with a reversed headstock, as opposed to the softer three-a-side variant on Mustaine’s model – and only one was ever made.

Those interested in the Jackson V can contact Buckethead over on his official website.

Buckethead, born Brian Carroll in 1969, is an enigmatic character and guitar virtuoso. Exploring a wide spectrum of genres, Buckethead’s music ranges from metal to avant-garde, experimental to bluesy, ambient and a whole lot more. 

He is highly proficient and often makes use of unorthodox sounds and techniques, from multi-fingered tapping, to hybrid picking, to slapping and popping, to shredding.

Example 1 is a two-handed tapping idea that alternates the first and second fingers of each hand. You could start by tapping your picking and fretting hands to create an even pulse, then take things one step further by alternating between the first two fingers of each hand. 

This can be applied to the fretboard as hammer-ons, or in the case of lick 1, as pull-offs. Much of Buckethead’s tapping is based around symmetrical shapes moved around the fretboard, so in this example we are using a half-whole diminished sound. 

Example 3 expands on the idea by applying the technique to three-notes-per-string scales. Buckethead calls this ‘nubbing’ and uses it with one, two, three and four fingers of each hand.

Example 2 is a traditional shred lick. The combination of legato and alternate picking was perhaps garnered from his one-time teacher Paul Gilbert, who originated this sound. It’s rhythmically off kilter as it’s a three-beat pattern played across bars of 4/4. Displacing licks through the bar is a fantastic way of making you sound less predictable.

Example 4 is a technique Buckethead uses to create rhythmic grooves. It combines notes and percussive sounds that create a constant stream of 16th notes. First, the side of the thumb is used to strike the sixth string against the frets at the top of the neck. 

Next is a hammer-on, a technique we guitarists we know very well. The third element is the ‘pop’, a strong, outward pluck of the strings. In between these elements are more subtle muted percussive sounds that add dynamics and groove to the flow of notes.

Our final example is a hybrid picked finger twister that alternates between the fourth and sixth strings with the pick and second finger. The riff uses contrary motion in that the notes of each string travel in opposite directions. This is a fun finger puzzle to work out and there are different options available. Use a metronome as you build up the speed of each example. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 7, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble 4, Reverb 3

Buckethead uses a variety of tones, but tends to have a less driving sound than many of his peers. Use your bridge pickup but roll the tone down to about halfway, to create a softer tone. 

Buckethead uses Mesa Triple Rectifier or other big guitar amp, usually into Marshall cabs, so go for power amp volume rather than preamp fizz. Add a touch of reverb to taste.

Example 1 

For this diminished tapping lick use your first and second picking fingers to tap the 15th, then 16th frets on the sixth string. 

Using the same two fingers, move up a string at a time in b5ths until you reach the second string, then descend. Use fretting hand first and second fingers to mirror the pattern from the 9th fret.

Example 2

For this F# Aeolian lick (F#-G#-A-B-C#-D-E) start with a downstroke, then play the following three notes with legato. 

Move to the second string and use alternate picking, starting and finishing on a downstroke before picking the four notes on the first string ‘up, down, up, down’. 

Now repeat the lick twice more using the same techniques and finish with a tone bend using third finger.

Example 3 

This lick is based in E Dorian  (E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D) and uses two simultaneous scale positions. The fretting hand is at the 12th fret and the tapping hand is at the 19th fret. 

Use all four fingers of your tapping hand to tap and pull-off each note of the scale. Alternate between your two hands to create a smooth cascade of notes.

Example 4

This riff is based around B minor pentatonic (B-D-E-F#-A) and uses open strings, too. Rather than using a pick, slap the sixth string and hammer-on to the 7th fret. Next slap the sixth string again for a percussive mute, then use first and second fingers to pluck the 10th-fret notes.

Now drop your picking fingers onto the strings to mute them, then pluck the open fourth string with the first finger. Continue this for the rest of the riff then strum the final chord with your thumb.

Example 5

This finger-twister is played with hybrid picking. Play the sixth string with palm- muted downstrokes throughout and pluck the palm-muted fourth string with your second finger. Alternate between the two strings and aim for totally even 16th-note triplets.

The riff itself uses contrary motion; whereas the notes on the sixth string move up and down chromatically, the notes on the fourth string move down, then up.

Guns N’ Roses has been riding high for several years now on the return of glory days members Slash and Duff, but as far as the guitar/bass corner of the band is concerned, it’s actually Richard Fortus who is the longest-serving member of the band, having played electric guitar continuously alongside Axl Rose for roughly 18 years.

With that in mind, Fortus recently appeared on the Radical With Nick Terzo podcast and spoke about having to adjust to the various players that passed through the Gn’R ranks during his tenure with the band, including guitarists Robin Finck, Buckethead and Ron Thal  (aka Bumblefoot) and bassist Tommy Stinson.

Said Fortus, "I love Robin. I loved his playing. I loved working with him. And obviously, Tommy’s like my brother. We were all very tight. And then there was Bucket[head], who was just sort of out on his own. But it was very musical, and it was exciting to be a part of.

“He's a phenomenal talent. Man, he's pretty out there. And he definitely can be difficult to work with. I enjoyed working with him, because he's very musical.”

Fortus went on to admit that "It was a difficult dynamic to make three guitars work. He [Buckethead] did an excellent job, because he understood the dynamics of it, how the puzzle pieces have to fit together, and Bucket really understood that. Everything sort of has to have its place.

"Then when he left and Ron Thal came in, it was a different dynamic, because I think Ron had been used to sort of doing his own thing, with his own band and sort of didn't really get how that worked, or how to make it work. So it was difficult at that time."

When Slash and Duff came back into the fold in 2015, Fortus said it was an easy adjustment. "I wasn't uncomfortable in any way. It was a little bit… You're cautious at first, you don't want to step on anybody's toes; everyone's sort of feeling each other out. 

“You know, Duff and I had worked together before and were friends. And it fell together really quickly and very naturally. I think we have so much musical background in common, as far as where we came from and the bands that we sort of grew up listening to and the progression of our musical interests, with the whole background in older music and then punk rock and our love for the Stones. It sort of gelled. But as far as with Slash and I, it really came together very naturally and in a really easy way.

He continued, "This is sort of a dream scenario for me in that I'm playing with guys that all take it as seriously as I do and are as committed and dedicated. And that's really rare and awesome to be a part of."

If anything, Fortus said that it took longer for Slash and Duff to feel things out with current Guns drummer Frank Ferrer.

"I think that was the toughest fit, when those guys came back," he said. "For Duff, well, for both of them, sort of adapting to Frank and trying to get him to adapt to them, you know? It wasn't as natural. But it has ended up working out well."

You have to tip your hat (or bucket) to people who are known by one name. It's even better when they actually have the skills to validate that fame, and the subject of this edition of my Habits of... series certainly does—in spades.

Buckethead is a mysterious genius who blends classic guitar sounds with some of the most otherworldly guitar sounds you've ever heard. While his outrageous catalog of more than 300 studio albums contains every guitar technique under the sun, an examination of his live playing has revealed some tendencies, some of which I'll show you in this lesson.

Mixing natural minor and whole tone sounds with utter disregard for the traditional expectations of the listener, Buckethead is a master of intrigue, transporting you through a vortex of multi-finger sweep tapping arpeggios and sensually massaged bends, all the while standing stoically above you, as if this is just another day in the land of Buckethead.

His three-note-per-string approach is something that's glaringly important in his phrasing—and something I examine in my Guitar Super System course, so be sure to sign up if you want to learn more.

Most importantly, try not to wear a bucket on your head, because I tried it, and it's really hard to play guitar that way.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.

Buckethead—the brilliant but reclusive shred guitarist—revealed in an interview that he has been diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition, and that even simple tasks such as walking have become incredibly difficult for him.

Speaking on the Coming Alive podcast, the guitarist said “Well, really recently, I have a heart problem where my heart beats out of rhythm. It’s been doing it for a long time, but recently it just really kicked up and became really intense. It's been doing it for a long time, but recently it just really kicked up and became really intense. I really didn't know what was going on."

"I just tried to deal with it and let it do what it did, and eventually it would stop,” he continued. "But it got really intense, so I went to the doctor and they said, 'You're on the verge of having a stroke.'"

“They suggested I had a thing called an ablation, they go in and freeze your heart. It’s supposed to do something with the nerves, because they said my heart was fine, but it could be a genetic thing, they didn’t really know. I had that procedure, and it didn’t really stop it, and I’m still dealing with it," he added.

"I take medication, which is tough, because I never took anything my whole life, although if I eat food or drink something that’s probably worse anyway (laughs). So it’s been really difficult, because it’s scary because it comes on. Even walking across a room is difficult, luckily the medication I’m thankful for, because it’s kept it from going berserk, but it’s pretty intense.”

Speaking of the effect his condition has had on his music, Buckethead said "I mean, the day after I had that procedure, I recorded a record with my friend. I just lied in bed and recorded it, because I felt like, I'm here still."

"I could be gone tomorrow. Anybody could be gone, but that's a heavy experience. I want to play right now, and I want to play that experience."

You can listen to the full interview below.

Buckethead has posted a poignant guitar tribute to Michael Jackson. You can hear "The Homing Beacon," which features a touching blend of acoustic and electric playing, by clicking here.

Calling themselves Science Faxtion, super shredder Buckethead and Parliament-Funkadelic bassist Bootsy Collins have collaborated on a new CD, Living on Another Frequency, due out November 11 via Mascot Records.

The group also consists of drummer Brain (Primus, Tom Waits, Godflesh), and producer/singer/songwriter/guitarist Greg Hampton (Alice Cooper/Ron Wood, Rick Derringer, The Tubes, Jack Casady featuring Ivan Neville & Gov’t Mule, Jorma Kaukenon, Little Feat).

The CD features an allstar cast, including contributions from rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy, Bernie Worrell and others. Although Hampton produced, sang lead, composed and played guitar on Living on Another Frequency, he also plays bass, drums, keyboards and percussion, and has performed every genre of music in his wide-ranging career from funk, hard rock, metal and pop to country.

“Originally, it was Bootsy,” explains Hampton. “We were going to be referencing more of his oldschool and historical funk elements that we all grew up with. Then he had the epiphany of us doing a group project, having me sing and play guitar, and bringing in Buckethead and Brain. And DJ Botieus does a lot of programming. He’s definitely a secret weapon.”

Track Listing:

• 1) Sci-Fax Theme
• 2) Lookin’ For Eden
• 3) At Any Cost
• 4) Chaos In Motion
• 5) Famous
• 6) L.O.A.F.
• 7) Gone Tomorrow
• 8) Life-IS IN-Deliver
• 9) Take You Down
• 10) What It Is
• 11) Fatally Flawed Flesh
• 12) I See Rockets
• 13) ZIONPLANET10

World renowned for their amazing shredding abilities, three legendary guitar artists make their virtual debut in Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock. The Guitar Virtuoso Track Pack continues the ultimate rock experience with three fresh master tracks set to storm living rooms across the globe on July 24.

Experience influential guitarist Joe Satriani’s soulful hit, “Surfing with the Alien,” get blown away with guitar slinger Steve Vai’s reflective, “For the Love of God,” and feel the avant-garde compositions of underground rock’s eccentric guitarist, Buckethead, as he shreds “Soothsayer,” at hyper-speed.

The Guitar Virtuoso Track Pack will allow rockers to further expand and customize their Guitar Hero play lists and get a taste of this quintessential rock trio beginning July 24 when it’s available for download on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock offers the ultimate rock experience with new wireless guitars, freshly added content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer modes allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true rock status as they riff through a star-studded soundtrack including master tracks by legendary artists such as Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam, as well as original songs by guitar icons Slash and Tom Morello. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is now available and is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information visit community.guitarhero.com.