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a-okNow Playing: From www.detnews.com.
Topic: Hard Rock
Adam Graham of the Detroit News reports that Buckcherry is ready for battle.
"We're about to get on a plane to start the war," says Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd, on the phone from Los Angeles last month. It's just days before the launch of Crue Fest, at which Buckcherry is appearing on alongside M?y Crue and Papa Roach.
Todd says Crue Fest, which hits DTE Energy Music Theatre on Tuesday, is the only pure rock and roll fest hitting the circuit this summer.
"You've got the pop-rock festival with the Vans Warped Tour, and you've got the Mayhem festival, which is metal. But there's no rock and roll festivals, and there hasn't been for a long time, and hopefully this is something we'll be a part of again at some point down the road."
In fact, the last time such a potent rock lineup hit the amphitheaters was, well, last year, when Buckcherry hit the road with Papa Roach and Hinder, on the Bad Boys of Rock tour.
He says they're glad to be teaming with Papa Roach again, and look forward to running into the notoriously hard-partying Hinder boys on the road. "Oh, I'm sure we'll see them around," he says with a slight chuckle.
Buckcherry is currently enjoying a second life after imploding earlier this decade. The Los Angeles rock band -- Todd describes their sound as "AC/DC meets the Sex Pistols" -- emerged onto the hard-rock scene in the late '90s with its slick, sleazy strip-club rock, and the svelte, heavily tattooed Todd became an instantly recognizable figure on the hard-rock landscape. The band's self-titled 1999 debut included the hits "Lit Up" and "For the Movies," but the band's 2001 follow-up, "Time Bomb," stiffed. Following its release, three of the five band members up and quit Buckcherry, leaving only Todd and guitarist Keith Nelson.
The future of the group was in doubt, and Todd nearly joined the band that would go on to become Velvet Revolver. Looking back, he says he just needed a little perspective.
"I knew we needed to take a step back," he says. "It seemed like we had been trying too hard, and we weren't getting the results we know we were capable of. So it was time to look at it from afar, and I'm glad we did. In retrospect, it was very hard going through it, but the time away made me really respect and understand our chemistry and our songwriting ability, and how special Buckcherry was."
Todd and Nelson hired three new members, hit the studio and recorded "15," which thanks to singles "Sorry" and "Crazy B----" became the band's biggest album to date.
After playing 300-plus shows behind "15," Buckcherry recorded its fourth album, "Black Butterfly," in May, and will release the album in September.
"Black Butterfly's" first single is due out in a few weeks, and it's "going to be a good rock and roll party song, a party anthem," says Todd, 37. "Nobody's writing party anthems in the rock genre. There's a huge void there, and sometimes I feel only Buckcherry can fill it."
Written By The Rock News Blog
at 8:42 PM EDT
Updated: July 11, 2008 8:45 PM EDT
