BUCKCHERRY Guitarist On AC/DC: 'Musically, The Band Is An Unstoppable Freight Train'

Road Crew Magazine recently conducted an interview with BUCKCHERRY guitarist Keith Nelson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Road Crew Magazine: You were the co-producer on "Black Butterfly". So how did that differ from playing the musician's role?

Keith: Well, it started with the album "15" kind of out of sheer necessity. Because back when we were looking at making the record "15", not only was there no record deal but there was no money to pay people the ridiculous salaries to come down and produce a record. So, I made a proposition to the band. I said, "Let me do three songs over the weekend and let me produce it and if we like it, I'll make the record. If we don't like it, then we will move on and I won't bring it up again." I also offered to refund the band the cost of the studio time. Those songs were actually "Carousel" and "So Far" off "15". So, it was a boost of confidence for me and it just kind of seemed natural. I feel like we made a lot of records and we have worked with some really cool producers but, I just kind of felt like the band just needed to be the band and we just needed to capture what was going on with it with some subtle pushes in some places. For the most part, everyone can play and there is not a whole lot of direction needed. So, I guess it is kind of my job in that role to insure that we are coming across.

Road Crew Magazine: BUCKCHERRY is doing a campaign right now called the "Rescue Me" campaign to bring awareness to child abuse. Can you tell me how you got involved in that?

Keith: It came about as a result of Josh [Todd; vocals]. He read a book called "A Child Called It" and it inspired the lyrics to two songs on this record ("Rescue Me", "A Child Called It"). Once we got aware of the tragedy of that and the ongoing abuse that occurs, we looked for something that we could be involved in. We didn't think it would be this high profile. We thought we would do it a little more on the down low, but this organization and us are a really good fit. There is an event planned and we have tried to raise a little bit of awareness. We really aren't a very political band. We really like to think of ourselves as a good time rock and roll band but, there have been a few causes that we have aligned ourselves with and this is a pretty worthy one.

Road Crew Magazine: I heard AC/DC is a huge influence on you guys.

Keith: They really are. Their music is just timeless. That is one of the things that is really inspiring. Their music is timeless and they keep doing it, the longevity of their career.

Road Crew Magazine: When you got to meet them, how was that?

Keith: It was incredible. We did a number of shows with them a few years back, they were very gracious and spent some time with the entire band. Their entire band spent time with us after the last show we did with them and it was pretty cool.

Road Crew Magazine: What did you take away from that musically?

Keith: Musically and personally... Musically, the band is an unstoppable freight train. Personally, we live on the road and we meet a lot of bands and it seems like the more successful bands are and the more accomplished they are, the nicer they are. Bands that are struggling and up and coming tend to be harder to deal with and not very personable. When you play shows with bands like KISS, AEROSMITH, and AC/DC and they are just guys hanging out, it is really cool to meet people like that and have them be so cool.

Road Crew Magazine: Are you taking any bands under your wing now?

Keith: I don't really know if we are taking any bands under our wing because I don't really know that we are so established that we have a wing yet. There are definitely bands out there that we like that are maybe one or two steps on the ladder from where we just came from. It's fun to be able to pick bands to take on tour and pick bands to get involved with.

Read the entire interview from Road Crew Magazine.