Leading up to Buckcherry's concert on February 9th at Expo 5, lead singer Josh Todd chatted with Louisville.com's Jason Ashcraft. Check out what he had to say about sex, tattoos, and — of course —
's upcoming trip to the Bluegrass state.
Ok this is Jason Ashcraft with Louisville.com and I am here with Josh Todd from
Buckcherry. How are you doing Josh?
Todd: Whats up man I’m great!
Cool, how are things out in L.A.?
It’s a nice day today but it has been raining like crazy here, which is kinda unusual for LA but we definitely needed the water.
Well it’s a frozen tundra here in Louisville so no good news there. But I'll tell you what. Lets go ahead and get this interview started on a good foot here. Josh, you got a choice here; you've got Sarah Palin, Paula Dean Buffet, and Lady Gaga. You gotta f**k one, marry one, and kill one, GO!
Oh wow, umm, let’s see, I’d definitely like to f**k Sarah Palin, so let’s do that. And then uh…marry one and kill one?
Yeah, you gotta kill one and marry one and you got Paula Dean Buffet and Lady Gaga left.
Whose Paula Dean Buffet?
(laughing) She’s a big fat ugly cook actually. I thought you might know her.
(laughing) Alright let’s kill her and I'll marry Lady Gaga.
(laughing) Ok. Alright cool, well you know you’re coming to Louisville on February 9th, is there anything that stands out in your mind about Louisville, when you think about Louisville, Kentucky?
Anything that stands out in my mind? Umm, nah, you know we haven’t been there for a while I don’t think. You know, it’s all the same for us, you know? When we get on stage it doesn’t really matter where we are at. We just like to give the audience their money’s worth, you know? That’s what Buckcherry is all about its kinda what we base our reputation on is our live shows. So we're just gonna come and bring it, you know? This is a great rock n' roll tour. We haven’t headlined for a while so we’re really excited. We've got 5 records to pick our song selection from. I spent a lot of time when we got back from Europe, actually it was a year last year, really constructing a cool headlining set and I think everyones really gonna be happy.
Cool, anything that stands out in your mind about the state of Kentucky?
The state of Kentucky?
Yeah.
Anything that stands out in my mind? No.
Yeah, we export a lot of things. Some of probably which you have consumed. Any brown liquor that you like from Kentucky?
(laughing) Uh not that I can think of. Like certain kinds of moonshine or something? I dunno know. What are you talking about?
Bourbon, I was trying to get you to pick out your favorite bourbon. But maybe you’re not a bourbon drinker.
I’m not a bourbon drinker.
No? Well were going to have to make you a bourbon drinker when you’re in Kentucky on February 9th.
Ok, well there will be a lot of Jaegermeister there because it is the Jaegermeister music tour and...
That is true.
…and so I think that will be flowing like water.
(laughing) Cool. Well, you've kinda of already touched a little bit on my next question, but I’ll go ahead and ask it anyway just in case you have some extra things you want to add. Tell me a little bit about what the fans should expect when they come to see you guys on February 9th at Expo 5. Especially if they’ve never seen you before.
High energy. Low IQ. Really.
High energy, low IQ? Good answer. (laughing) Alright, cool.
Next question I’ve got is I was wondering if the song “Crazy Bitch”, which was one of your - I think is your only song you’ve had nominated for a Grammy - was that written about any one person in particular? And if so, who?
It was actually our second song nominated for a Grammy. “Lit Up” got nominated on our first record.
Cool.
No, "Crazy Bitch" isn’t about anybody in particular. But I can tell you how the whole idea was sparked. I was driving around LA, it was way back when the Paris Hilton sex tape had just came out. And I was just listening to the radio just kinda laughing in my truck thinking, 'how funny it was that somebody could really launch their entertainment career off of a homemade porno.' And then I started reminiscing about all the crazy broads I had been with from about 18 to 25. I couldn’t really attract a sane girl, so I just started singing this chorus in my truck and I remember I called Pete because I didn’t wanna forget it. So I sang it on his machine. I sang the chorus to him and I told him how I wanted the music to go and and he came up with the music and it just we wrote that song really fast, and then it just sat around for a few years before it got onto a record.
So you wrote that a long time before 15 actually came out is what you’re saying?
Well the majority of it. It wasn’t complete and ready to be on a record. I mean we still had to finish the ending but the majority of the song was written for a while, yeah.
Ok. Definitely, probably a song - I mean you’ve got quite a few songs obviously out there that made you just really well known - but I think that’s ("Crazy Bitch") probably one that kinda pushed you over the edge in terms of getting you into the main stream market.
It definitely helped, but then “Sorry” came a long and out did “Crazy Bitch.” Which a lot of people don’t think about. But yeah, it really helped us get back into the lime-light which is something we needed.
Cool, so what has been your greatest memory or accomplishment so far with Buckcherry?
You know I think it’s coming back against-all-odds on 15 and selling over a million copies in a climate where you know people weren’t selling rock records like that. And really believing in what we were because everybody had kinda counted us out the industry turned their backs on us nobody would sign us in the states. A lot of things went down during that time and we just had to believe in ourselves. And it all kinda happened organically it was really, the people who loved us then were there, and they made it all happen on the internet and on the radio. I’m just grateful for a second shot but you know having that come back and making it happen the way we did was something, and the best form of revenge.
That’s very cool, very cool. Alright. Next thing I got here is I’d like to know - you guys have toured with a lot of musicians and bands over the years - tell me, say, your top 2 that have been some of your favorite musicians and bands to tour with?
Wow! Well the number one would be AC/DC. You know, we got to do 6 shows with them and that was a rock-n-roll fantasy come true, you know. They’re so amazing. Those guys are just the kings of rock n roll. It was really just an amazing experience. Those guys were really humble and sweet to us. It couldn’t have been more than….. it was more than I could've asked for. I sat on the couch next to Angus and talked to him about his career while his wife made us tea, you know? It was like, it was the coolest thing ever. And let’s see, Aerosmith was a big one we got to do a couple shows with them. One of them was the millennium new year’s show in Osaka, Japan ill never forget that. Meeting James Brown at Woodstock 99' was a big highlight for us. We played with Iggy Pop at the Detriot state theater. We loved that, ya know? There are just so many the list just goes on and on.
Gotcha. Well cool. Good response on what you did provide though, so thanks.
Alright. Next one I got here is; your bassist Jimmy Ashherst, was recently featured in a book called “Sex Tips From Rock Stars” what kind of tips can you offer?
About what? Sex?
(laughing) Yeah.
I don’t know, huh….well, like, what is the question?
Well I was feeding off the fact that your bassist Jimmy Ashherst was featured in a book that was recently published called “Sex Tips From Rock Stars” and I was just trying to see if you had any tips or anything that you could offer.
Always wear a condom.
(laughing) Always wear a condom? Good.
Always.
(laughing) Always. Alright, cool.
(laughing) Doesn’t matter how hot the chick is; wear a condom, that’s how you 'keep the power.'
(laughing) Excellent, excellent. Alright cool.
Alright, the next question I got here is; what is going to be your next tattoo and where is it going to go?
My next tattoo? I’m getting tattooed actually in a week. I’m gonna get my legs…..I got some tattoos on my legs, but I’m gonna start sleeving-up my legs. I’m doing ,like, I'm doing background stuff like wind bars and stuff like that, you know? Cherry blossoms and stuff like Japanese art. It's going on my legs!
Yep, good stuff. You got a tattoo artist you’d like to throw some props out to?
Kevin Quinn, Los Angeles, California. He’s amazing and he’s been tattooing for over 20 years. He’s done the majority of all my work and the majority of a lot of everybody else in Buckcherry. The list goes on and on and he is incredible. He’s very private so you know, you gotta search for him, but he’s out there on the internet. You can find him, I think its KevinQuinn.org and if you wanna get a great tattoo that’s the guy to go see.
Excellent, cool. Alright last thing, well one of the last things I got here. I’ve got 2 more actually. What, if anything, is there left that you want to accomplish as a musician?
I wanna be a worldwide arena-rock band, you know? I wanna be able to play arenas worldwide, headline them, and put the asses in the seats. That’s really the goal, and that’s what were trying to accomplish, you know? It’s very difficult, as you know, in this climate. People aren’t selling records like they used to. You have to really, really work hard out there on the road to make it happen, so that’s what we’re doing.
Has your iTunes sales and your digital sales been comparable to your actual tangible CD sales?
You know, it’s starting to even out more now. But it used to be only like the digital sales used to be only like 10 percent of our sales, but now it’s becoming harder and harder to actually go out and buy a physical CD. There’s only like a few places now like Bestbuy, Wal-Mart, and Target, you know? And some of those, from what I understand, Wal Mart is downsizing their music section and Target as well ,so you know, it’s a big drag.
Yeah. Yeah, the world is a changing for sure.
So you got any last words, anything you wanna just put out there that I can publicize?
Yeah! Come to the Jaegermeister Music Tour, you know? It’s gonna rock and were gonna have a lot of fun. There’s a lot of other great bands on the bill other than us and its gonna be a 'great bang for your buck!'
Excellent. Josh, I really appreciate the time you’ve spent here. We're looking forward to seeing you, and I know that I can confidently say - with knowing a lot of Louisville's music scene - that I think it’s gonna be a great show and we'll be looking forward to seeing you guys here on February 9th. Thanks a lot and good luck to you.
Alright buddy. Bye bye.
Buckcherry / Hell Yeah / All That Remains / The Damned Things
Wednesday, February 9th
Expo 5
2900 7th St.
7 pm
$22.50 - $30 Advance / $33 DOS
All Ages
** Jason Ashcraft is a freelance music writer who focuses on Kentucky's original music scene. Visit his blog at
LouisvilleScuttlebutt.com or you scan this QR code on your iPhone or smart phone to go directly to the site:
