Music

Bucking Trends Buckcherry marks its 20th anniversary of rocking hard

20 | MARCH 2020 www.LovinLife.com Buckcherry...continues on page 22 BY ALAN SCULLEY Buckcherry has just marked two decades of record making, and the group is pushing forward with its latest album, “Warpaint,” a revamped band lineup and the kind of rowdy guitar rock sound that has always defi ned the group—even though guitar rock is almost entirely absent in today’s mainstream pop.

According to Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd, the group just keeps doing what it always has, creating honest music they love and trying to get in front of existing fans and newcomers who might like the band’s music.

“I’m just grateful to be in the game for 20 years. It’s really hard to do,” Todd observes. “And to have eight records and 20 years in the game—I mean, the fi rst record we had was in 1999, and we’ve never been mainstream since we started. When we dropped our fi rst record, it was rap-rock and what I call nerd rock, the shoegazing bands that were around, wearing Buddy Holly glasses and looking down at their shoes. So that’s what was out when we came out. So, we’ve kind of been on our own little island for 20 years. So that I’m really proud of because it’s pretty hard to maintain. And then with the changing of the musical climate, it’s like six months goes by and everything’s changed. Everything shifts musically as far as how many people are buying records, what streaming means, downloads and all this stuff . It’s hard to keep up with. But at the end of the day people still want to go see a great live show and they want to hear a good song, so we’re just focused on that.” Yes, Buckcherry has persevered, pulling through at a couple of points where it appeared the group could have been done. The fi rst crossroads came not long after the original edition of Buckcherry made a quick impact on the rock scene.

Formed in 1995 in Anaheim, California, the group hit big with its 1999 self-titled debut album, which went gold and generated a trio of hits: “Lit Up,” “Check Your Head” and “For the Movies.” But the 2001 follow-up, “Time Bomb,” stiff ed, and with internal issues worsening, Buckcherry broke up in 2002. Todd went on to attempt a solo career before he and guitarist Keith Nelson reunited in 2005 and brought in three new musicians—guitarist Steve “Stevie D” Dacanay, bassist Jimmy Ashhurst (later replaced by Kelly Lemieux) and drummer Xavier Muriel—to form the second edition of Buckcherry.

This lineup made an emphatic debut with the 2006 album “15.” It featured the hit single “Crazy Bitch,” which sold more than 1.2 million digital copies and landed a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance. Another single, “Sorry,” then became Buckcherry’s fi rst top-10 hit on “Billboard” magazine’s all-genre Hot 100 chart.