WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Buckcherry's Josh Todd
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now this interview is obviously with video, but I don't
00:05interview everybody on Zoom. That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk
00:10to rock artists from all over the genre. So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get
00:15your podcasts. And now to today's video interview. Hey Josh, good to see you, man. How are you?
00:23I'm good. I'm out here on the Volume 10 tour on a day off in Kentucky somewhere.
00:29Oh, there you go. Yeah, I've seen the show actually twice in the last year. I saw you
00:34with Kid Rock last summer, then I saw you again with Kid Rock here in Detroit as well. The show
00:39has been a killer, man. Thank you. Yeah, we've been having a good time and bands hitting on all
00:45cylinders. We've got a great new record. Volume 10 just dropped, our 10th record, and it's awesome.
00:51Yeah, we'll get to that here in a second. You're going to be here in Detroit coming up on July 7th
00:55playing a show with Jackal for Uncle Sam Jam. But the day before, you're going to be at Rock City
00:59Music. This is really cool for any fan. You buy a ticket. That gets you to meet and greet, a vinyl
01:04copy of the new album. Of course, you guys will sign it, an event poster, a pro photo with the band.
01:09You got all sorts of stuff happening out there that day. Yeah, that's what we're doing. We're out
01:15here promoting this, and that should be a really great show. We've done a lot of shows with Jackal in the
01:20past, and they always bring it. And Detroit is the shit. Yeah, you know, it's funny because last
01:27night, Three Doors Down played here, and this was obviously the kickoff of summer and stuff. But
01:31here in Detroit, you're locked down for five or six months, and this is the time to let loose. So
01:35you got a nice outdoor show coming with you guys. And of course, all summer long.
01:40Yeah, you know, there's no other... I mean, you know, we've done so much work in all of Michigan,
01:45you know, and so many great memories. And Detroit is really special to us, you know, especially it
01:51goes all the way back to our first record in 99, you know. So, you know, when we come back there,
01:57it's always a good time. I was thinking about this last night with the guys from Three Doors Down,
02:02because a lot of those guys are sober. You've been sober your entire career, pretty much, right?
02:07My entire professional career, yes. 28 years sober right now.
02:12Yeah, that's amazing, because I'm sure that there has to be some options where you might
02:17slip, but you're steadfast on it, aren't you?
02:21Yeah, you know, I started living pretty fast at a very young age. I got really loaded from
02:27about 13 to 23. And then I just, you wouldn't even recognize me at the end of my drinking,
02:35you know. My first daughter was born, and I didn't want her to see me loaded, you know. That
02:41was a big issue for me. And then I got arrested. So, I got a nudge from the judge to go to a lot
02:50of AA meetings, and that's how I got cleaned up. And then I just started going for it.
02:57Yeah, I was going to ask you maybe what that, you know, everyone has that, like that trigger
03:00moment or whatever. But do you think that your sobriety helped you establish such a career
03:05as you have now? Absolutely. It's number one on my list. Without that, I got nothing,
03:13you know. So, yeah, it's the only reason I could show up for all this stuff. You know,
03:17I was in a band for about five years prior to Buck Cherry, you know, and we were hell on wheels. We
03:23were totally fucked up. And, you know, it almost happened, too. And if it would have,
03:30we probably would have all been dead by now, you know. So, I'm kind of grateful looking back that
03:36it didn't happen because it gave me the opportunity to get cleaned up. You know, I just never thought
03:40I'd make it to 30, let alone I'm 52 now and still in the game, you know. It's pretty cool.
03:4653, I think, right?
03:48No, 52.
03:49Oh, 52. Okay, I thought you were born in 70. I got you. All right, cool.
03:52No, no, 71.
03:54All right.
03:54That's a bad internet mistake.
04:00All right. I got you. So, yeah, did you play a lot of shows with Kid Rock last year or just
04:05some here and there?
04:08No, we only did two shows, I think, or maybe just one show, but we're going to be doing another show
04:13with him here pretty soon.
04:15Yeah, you go way back with him. I remember you telling me the story. Actually, he told me about
04:18it, too, that you guys would spend some time down at his place in Alabama hunting or something.
04:23Yeah.
04:24Yeah, we didn't hunt, but we spent the night there at his place, me and Keith, way back
04:30in the day, and it was cool. You know, it's a cool little spot, and I wish I would have
04:35done some fishing because I fish a lot, you know. He's got a little pond there, but I didn't
04:39even ask him, you know, if there was bass in there or what, but maybe I'll get an opportunity
04:44again someday.
04:46Well, he's got the pond behind his house now. Have you been down to the southern White House
04:49yet?
04:49I don't know which one I went to. He just had a...
04:54The one in Nashville now. It's a new one that you just built.
04:56Oh, no, no. I'm in Nashville.
04:58I don't know.
04:59Yeah, he's got that pond. I don't know if it's stocked with anything or not, but let's
05:03talk about Volume 10. I mean, there's some rippers on this, a couple of really killer,
05:08softer songs as well. Talk about the overall thought process going into recording this
05:12record.
05:14Yeah, you know, we got this really good chemistry going with me and Stevie and Marty Fredrickson,
05:21you know, our producer, and we co-wrote a lot of songs with him. Marty goes all the way
05:25back to the 15 record. You know, we co-wrote Sorry with him and just a whole bunch of songs
05:31throughout our career, you know. And so we do these guerrilla songwriting sessions, you
05:38know. It happened on Hellbound and now on Volume 10. And we wrote the majority of the record
05:48with him, me and Stevie and Marty. And so a lot of those songs that you're talking about
05:52were part of those sessions. And it's just a lot of fun, you know, labor of love. When
05:59we get in a room with him, he's like the sixth band member, you know. He's a really good
06:04guy and really gets what's special about this band and brings out the best in us, you know.
06:09And it shows.
06:11Now, do you guys pretty much primarily write and record the same way throughout your whole
06:15career? Or has it changed? Or do you go with ideas that you gather maybe on the road or
06:19somewhere or going to the clean slate or what?
06:22Nothing's really changed. I write all the lyrics and melodies. And, you know, Marty came up
06:28with some of the melodies on this particular record that I liked that were just better
06:33than mine. And I just wrote words over his. And, you know, we just do whatever is best
06:37for the song, you know, and put it all together, you know. Stevie and I write a lot of songs
06:43together as well, you know. And there was a couple of spillover from the Hellbound sessions
06:48that we revamped, like Turn It On and this and that, you know. Those were from the Hellbound
06:55sessions. And so, yeah, we just basically kind of have this formula and we put it all together
07:01and we write very quickly. And we write a lot of songs for a 10 song record for sure.
07:09We wrote about 24.
07:10I was going to ask you if there was some left over. So maybe for another one, eh?
07:14Yeah, you know, we always like to start fresh, but sometimes we'll revisit songs in the past for
07:19sure. How many of these new songs are you playing on in your sets now?
07:24A lot. Like last night we played, I want to say like four or five. Yeah.
07:32That's cool. So talk about, talk about the song Pain. That one kind of stuck out to me a little
07:37bit. How autobiographical is that song?
07:39Yeah, very, very much. It's like, it's kind of about my, my committee inside my head that
07:47I don't really share or talk about too much, you know. And I was in kind of a dark place
07:54at that point in time when I got the music and I just wanted to kind of reveal myself
07:58in that song, you know. And it came out really cool, you know. I mean, just kind of threw it
08:06out there at the end, you know. I remember I just sang, recorded the song Feels Like Love
08:12and you know, I'd asked Marty for a piano song and he gave me the music to Pain and it wasn't
08:20fully resolved yet. It was only like verse chorus and there was no drums or anything, you
08:26know. And originally it was going to be kind of like a hidden track. And so anyways, I said
08:31to him, hey, I got something for this song. Stevie was in the control room as well, you
08:36know, and I just sang it. And we all kind of just had a moment where we all looked at each
08:42other and just, you know, Marty's like, okay, I don't want to do, I don't want to work anymore
08:47on this. I want you to, you know, I want to spend some time with this and then you come
08:52back and, and we'll finish it. And I go, okay. And so I came in the studio the next day
08:58and had no idea what he had done to it. And he had put drums on it. He put a midsection
09:04and all this stuff. And it became this like huge song. And he's like, I was like, wow,
09:10Marty, this is like so much bigger than I, you know, originally thought it would be, you
09:15know. And he's like, yeah, I think this is like Buck Fury's November Rain, you know. And
09:20then I, I finished the lyrics and melodies. I wrote like a bridge and, and just recorded
09:28it. And, and pain was born and we're like, this has got to be on the record. It's so
09:32good, you know.
09:33Yeah. And, and when I, when I asked you about that, you kind of smirked. So are a lot of
09:37people asking you about that song?
09:40No.
09:41Okay. I thought it's.
09:42Oh yeah. A lot of people who have heard the record for sure. Like journalists. Yeah.
09:46Yeah. They've asked a lot about pain and I just smirked because we did it last night
09:51and it was like such a moment in the set last night.
09:55Yeah. And you, you brought up a feels like love that, that, that orchestral part in there
09:59reminds me of something, but I can't really put my finger on it. Is, is that, is that
10:03borrowed from somewhere or is that completely your guys?
10:06Feels like love? No, it's not borrowed from anything, but the whole idea behind the song
10:10was I wanted Buck Cherry's, uh, uh, hysteria. You know, I've been, I've been obsessed with
10:18that song, hysteria, Def Leppard. I just think it's amazing song and I wanted our version of
10:23it. And that's what we came up with.
10:25After all these years, that record's like, you know, 30, well, I'm actually almost 40 years
10:29old now, but you, have you been longing for a hysteria type song for years?
10:34I just like the vibe. I've always had moments for that song and, you know, a good song is
10:40timeless. You know, um, it's just one of those songs to this day that really holds up and
10:45I really enjoy it.
10:47Uh, last night I was telling you, I went and saw three doors down and Chris, or I mean,
10:51Brad actually on stage was talking about one of their records, uh, being really dark. Cause
10:55they were in a dark place and you talked about, uh, pain being a little bit darker. Is there
10:59a part of you that maybe wants to keep that bottled up? Or is there a part of you that really
11:03wants to just put it out there and get a, maybe like a little cathartic?
11:07You know, I just want a well-rounded record. I want dynamics. I want to express every part
11:14of my soul and, you know, I don't have one speed, you know, I don't, I don't want to
11:19just put out rocker after rocker, you know, I mean, I like rockers. I like mid tempo songs.
11:25I like ballads, you know, I like, I like to express all those emotions because I feel all
11:30those emotions. So as a songwriter, um, that's what I want to do. All my favorite rock records
11:36in the past had those dynamics. So, uh, that's what I, that's what I like to do. And that's
11:40what you'll find on all Buckcherry records. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it is, it is like kind
11:46of like a roller coaster starts out rocking. Of course I listened to it. Like I'm a vinyl
11:50guy. So I listened to it from start to finish and I'm sure it's you guys put those songs
11:53in order. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's how we, uh, uh, you know, construct our records. You
12:02know, we want to have, you know, we, we work really hard on the sequencing and how it all
12:08plays out because we want people to have that experience, you know, because that's, that's
12:14the way we used to, you know, we'd get records. I get records from record stores and I go home
12:19and I just sit there and I look at the lyrics and listen to the whole record and have an
12:23experience, you know, and not too many people do that anymore with records. So it's cool that
12:28you did that. Yeah, no, I listened to it several times, uh, preparing for this cause I wanted
12:32to, you know, kind of sink my teeth into it. And, uh, why the cover of Brian Adams? Is
12:37that just one of the songs that you really liked? Yeah. You know, that was our manager
12:41really, uh, was hammering that in, you know, he saw that live one day, you know, we'd throw
12:46it out there live to have fun. It's one of those songs, you know, every musician has
12:51a song they wish they would have written, you know, and that was one of them for me.
12:55And, and everybody in this band loves, loves Brian Adams, you know, so we throw it out
13:01there and, um, we, we always got a great response, you know, and it sounds, you know, we, we speed
13:06it up just a little bit and put our little flavor on it. And it sounds like a Buck Cherry song,
13:12you know, so, uh, our manager wanted us to record it. So we did, and it was the last song
13:18we recorded and everybody just was like, this is so great. You know, we were going to just
13:23put it on as like a, a hidden track, but there's not really hidden tracks anymore. So, um, we
13:29threw it on at the end and everybody loves it. Yeah. Hidden track. I haven't heard that phrase
13:33in a long time. Yeah. It used to be fun. Yeah. Hey, you just talked about some of your favorite
13:39rock records and you know how they, you know, like what, what in your, in your estimation
13:43is like for somebody listening, that's just discovering rock. Like I have a neighbor who's
13:47like in his mid forties. I just had to tell him who Neil Peart was the other day. I'm like,
13:50are you kidding me? So for somebody who's listening right now, if you were to pick like, I don't
13:54know, just a few albums that you think are perfect or rockers in your world, what would
13:58you think? Oh, I would say, uh, the Colts electric, you know, um, Led Zeppelin's houses
14:05of the Holy, uh, God, there's so many, you know, um, some really great Aerosmith records.
14:13Uh, pump was a really great record for sure. Um, you know, ACDC is back in black. It was
14:19my all time favorite, you know? So yeah, those are some, yeah, you have to get an ACDC record
14:24in there because they're just straight ahead. Uh, but it's funny cause those guys, there's
14:28not, there's no bailouts in those records. No, but, uh, you know, like Led Zeppelin always
14:35had a lot of dynamics in their records and Aerosmith and you know, those records and the
14:42Colt did too. Not on electric, electric's pretty rocking. Yeah. The Colt, man, one of
14:47my favorite bands from the eighties. That was so, so good. Hey, out there on tour, you
14:51ever get to, uh, you ever get to race any carts? Yeah. You know, I, I raced carts for a long
14:57time and then I finally got out of the carting. It was just taking too much time away from my
15:04family and stuff, but I, I'll race whenever, you know, there's an opportunity for sure.
15:08I mean, I have all that. I did it so long. I got my race craft is always there. You know,
15:13um, I really enjoy that when I can get to it, but right now, uh, tennis is my passion. I've
15:19been playing a lot of tennis. No kidding. Have you ever, have you tried, uh, you know,
15:23kid rocks and all the pickleball stuff. Have you tried that? Uh, pickleball is cool, but you
15:30know, you know, tennis is, uh, much better for me. I mean, pickleball is like, I like,
15:36I like to say it's, I don't know. I don't know. It's like a smaller version of tennis,
15:41you know, but, uh, I like tennis better. Yeah. Some of those guys, uh, you know,
15:45rock and his friends, some of those guys are really good at it and they, they hit hard.
15:51Yeah. It's, it's good for your, uh, reflexes for sure. And you know, good workout. It's always
15:56good. Yeah. So, uh, well, listen, uh, good luck on everything on the tour. And of course,
16:01the record volume 10, like I said, uh, the meet and greets coming up July 6th, that's at seven
16:05o'clock at rock city music. That's in a Livonia. Great place. They've got, uh, of course it's a
16:10music store and a vinyl store too. So you'll be able to see, uh, the best of both worlds. You got
16:15your vinyl copy. Cool. Yeah. Limited edition poster, the band can sign the pro photo, uh, with the band
16:20and, uh, anything else that you want to plug anything else you have going on the, uh, on the horizon?
16:23Uh, no, just, you know, we're, we're out here on the road, you know, make sure everybody gets
16:29out to these shows because, uh, they're really good, you know, because of volume 10 and hell
16:33bound, you know, we have so much, so many great songs, you know, so the, the set is like
16:38just, uh, amazing, you know? So that's all just encourage everybody to get the record volume 10
16:44and to come out and celebrate, uh, 24 years in the game. Yeah. And I was going to say that, uh, it's,
16:50it's cool how you guys have kind of, uh, almost reinvented crazy bitch at the end.
16:56What do you mean? Reinvented crazy bitch. Well, you kind of stretched it out.
17:00Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We do like a, we do like a seven, eight minute version of crazy bitch. We
17:05do a lot of vamps in there. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. But, and then you do a little
17:10choreograph thing and all that stuff. I thought it was pretty neat. It's like, I suppose you guys
17:14have to keep yourself entertained too, from playing the songs every single night too.
17:17Yeah. It's fun. We throw in some bands from James Brown, Donna Summer. Uh, we do a little
17:22Tina Turner and then it's a lot of fun. Yeah. It is a great show from start to finish. Well,
17:28uh, Josh, thanks so much for your time, man. Uh, safe travels and we'll see you here in Detroit
17:31in a few weeks. Thank you, man. Looking forward to it.