Buckcherry: living loud and loving it

Keith Nelson (second from left) and his Buckcherry bandmates (Credit: 10th Street Entertainment)

Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson always wanted to be a musician—just a musician. Now he’s a real-deal rock star who spends nearly all of his time on the road. “But hey, I love my job,” the Pittsburgh-born, L.A.-based guitarist says. “I’ll take the good with the bad—and if being a rock star is as bad as it gets, that’s not so bad at all.”

If Nelson seems unusually levelheaded for a guy who plays to massive arenas nightly and sees home only a couple times a year, credit his band’s brush with bottoming out for giving him a grateful perspective. “We had a very humbling couple years there,” he admits of the period earlier this decade that saw release of Buckcherry’s poorly reviewed second album and a (temporary) breakup. “I think it made us a lot more appreciative of what we’ve got going on. And even though the work is hard and the travel sucks, I love it. I’m not complaining, ever.”

Hits like “Crazy Bitch” and “Sorry,” from their 2006 comeback LP, “15,” put the band back on track. And what they’ve got going on now, among other things, is a major tour supporting rock legends KISS, an enhanced re-release of last year’s Top 10 album “Black Butterfly” and a new live record dubbed “Live and Loud 2009.”

So, before Buckcherry gassed up the bus and set about tearing up stadiums, Nelson filled in Metromix on the finer points of staying out of rehab, soundtracking strip clubs and surviving life in rock's fast lane.

You guys have been on tour with some of rock’s most infamous party bands—Motley Crue, AC/DC, Hinder. How are you still alive?
I’m propped up on the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, I guess. I have no idea at this point.

Are your organs made of titanium?
[Laughs] We get those blood transfusions that you hear so much about. But no, we’re doing what we love to do; playing all those shows, it’s not like that stuff’s work. Traveling gets old sometimes, but I’ve got the best job in the world. We’re having a good time.

You’ve been on some amazing bills before, but this is KISS—is this “the big one” for you?
It is. You know, touring with KISS in ’99 was a big one, and this is even bigger. Now that we’re a little bit more established, I think that we’ll have more connection with their audience because they’ll be more familiar with us. Touring with KISS is huge no matter how you slice it.

Were you a KISS kid back in the day?
Oh yeah. When I was a kid, I have vivid memories of getting KISS’ “Destroyer” and staring at the jacket of the record—I’m dating myself, but fuck it—pulling the vinyl record out, putting it on the turntable, dropping the needle on there and listening to the beginning of “Detroit Rock City” with the little scene that goes on before it with the kid and the radio and the guitar. Oh yeah! I was a drummer back then and I wanted to be Peter Criss when I grew up.

Anything special planned for the shows?
Not really. We’re gonna have some stuff on the stage, and we’re gonna reach back and grab some older stuff that we haven’t been playing. And outside of that, delivering a kick-ass rock ‘n’ roll show every night. How do you compete with fireworks and blood spitting and hanging from wires? We’ll just keep our heads down and unleash the beast!

I read a quote from you about how you guys have managed to stay out of rehab for the last few years, so you must be doing pretty well…
[Laughs] Did I say that? All I can say with regard to that is, playing the show is the most important thing to all of us. So, we do what we have to do, and if that means staying out of rehab, so be it.

How often do you walk into a strip club and hear a Buckcherry song?
Every time I walk into a strip club. [Laughs]

How often is that?
As often as I can!

Do they play it because they recognize you or it just happens to come on?
I don’t really know. We try to slip in low-key usually, without a lot of fanfare, but sooner or later, we’ll get somebody’s attention. I’d say it’s probably 50-50. I think that we’ve been very fortunate in that we’ve written a couple of songs that just inspire girls to swing around brass poles—and to be strippers, as well.

It’s motivating material you’re writing.
That’s right. We’re putting a lot of kids through college.

Does that mean free dances for the band?
At this point, it’s pretty much free whatever. [Laughs]

Any specific road comforts coming out with you this time?
There’s a lot of reading that goes on—probably more reading than you would anticipate on a tour bus with Buckcherry.

Sure, but is there a brass pole on the bus?
[Laughs] We have portable one that we carry around with us in case of emergency. It’s like a fire extinguisher.

You must have seen some insane things in your time with the band.
The truth is that I’ve seen the top of the mountain and I’ve seen the depths of the valley, how about that? Crazy, crazy stuff. To protect the guilty, I’m just going to say that we’ve seen some very insane stuff beyond what your imagination could picture.

Do you wanna to rock as long as the legends you’re touring with?
I wanna rock as long as other people wanna hear it and it’s vital and it has passion behind it. And when it stops becoming something that we’re passionate about and nobody wants to hear it, I’ll go do something else.