Buckethead Stories: Are they Fact or Fiction?
Good evening everybody, whilst there’s many false stories out there about Buckethead, there’s some stories that seem to hold weight. So today we’re gonna take a look at those stories and ask, are they fact or fiction? Woo!!
1 (Last Action Hero)
As some of you might know, Buckethead appears on the soundtrack for the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie ’Last Action Hero’. But, what’s more interesting, is the placement of the song in that movie.
In the opening scene, Arnold makes his way to a rooftop, where one of the villains of the movie is waiting. And whilst Buckethead’s song is playing in the background, we meet ‘The Ripper’, who just so happens to be wearing a Buckethead style yellow raincoat.
By this point, Buckethead had been wearing the yellow raincoat for at least 3 years. So, was the songs placement and the characters look inspired by Buckethead? or just a glorious coincidence. Fact or fiction?
2 (Jigsaw)
And whilst we’re on the subject of movies, in 2005 Buckethead’s song ‘Three Fingers’ was used for the horror movie, Saw II. Since that time, Buckethead has occasionally brought a dummy onstage, wearing the mask of Jigsaw, the main villain from the Saw movies.
Then in 2017, the movie ‘Jigsaw’ was released, and the name ‘Buckethead’ is used several times throughout the movie. So, are the Buckethead references in Jigsaw a nod to Buckethead, or just a coincidence? Fact or fiction?
3. (Aunt Suzie bought Buckethead his first guitar in 1981)
Buckethead has stated that he began playing guitar at aged 12 in 1981. And if you’ve been a fan for a long enough, you will have seen or heard that “Aunt Suzie bought Buckethead his first guitar”.
Buckethead has dedicated at least 3 songs to his late aunt, (‘Soothsayer, Aunt Suzie, Sail on Soothsayer) but did Aunt Suzie really buy Buckethead his first guitar?
“in the old days it was a white Hondo. It was his very first guitar. Lou Styles (owner of Styles music) got him set up on his first guitar and let him pay it off. So that’s where it all started”
It's definitely possible that Aunt Suzie was the one who bought the guitar for Buckethead from Styles music, and with the word ‘Soothsayer’ meaning a person who can see into the future, Aunt Suzie buying Buckethead his first guitar because she forsaw him becoming the GOAT, certainly makes sense. So, whether this started as a rumor, or there is something official out there, I lean towards this story being ‘fact’. But, what about you guys?
Aunt Suzie bought Buckethead his first guitar? Fact or fiction?
4 (Who’s Albert?)
If you’ve ever listened to Buckethead’s 2003 album ‘Bucketheadland 2’ then you’ve probably thought to yourself ‘Who’s Albert?’. The album has numerous songs and passages sang by someone credited as ‘Albert’, but the question is, is Albert, Buckethead?
On many of Buckethead’s albums from 2003 right up to his earlier Pike albums, Albert is almost always listed as a producer alongside Dan Monti, which definitely points towards Albert being Buckethead.
The only problem is, Albert just doesn’t sound like Buckethead. Buckethead has a very distinct speech pattern, even when he’s speaking through Herbie, and when he has spoken or sang on an album, he’s credited as Herbie, not Albert.
What do you guys think, is Albert, Buckethead? Fact or fiction?
5 (Shawn Lane)
As many of you know, Buckethead was heavily influenced by guitar genius, the late great, Shawn Lane. So, of course, numerous Buckethead and Shawn Lane stories exist, but are they fact or fiction?
(Story 1) The awesome song ’Super Human’ from Buckethead’s 2004 album ‘Population Override’ is a tribute to Shawn?
Although Shawn Lane did pass away a few months prior to the album’s release, the song, album and its booklet make no reference to him.
On producer Travis Dickerson’s website he states that it was Bucketheads main squeeze Big D who came up with the concept and song titles, and it wouldn’t make much sense to do a tribute song to someone and not tell anybody it’s a tribute. So, for me, this one is fiction. But what do you guys think?
(Story 2)
From a 2002 article by Liquid note records ’Buckethead is a huge Shawn Lane fan. Rumors are that he runs Lane's fan club’.
There’s practically no evidence to back this one up, so for me it’s definitely fiction. But if it were true, it would make a great story.
(Story 3)
The sunburst strat guitar that Buckethead played at a 1997 show was given to him by Shawn Lane?
In a fairly recent comment on our channel, one user stated
“Shawn was present at that show and the reason he played it was because Shawn got it for 70 bucks in a guitar store. He made Buckethead play it to prove that you should be able to shred on anything (as friendly banter). You can still see the price tag string hanging off the headstock. I read it about 17 years ago from a bunch of scanned magazine articles on a website or forum”.
Although this one doesn’t sound a million miles from being true, the arguments against it are, that Buckethead has left price tags on other guitars before, and that he also used the Strat several days later at another show. Personally, I would love this one to be true and hope that it is. But, what do you guys think, Shawn Lane bought Buckethead a crappy Strat, fact or fiction?