In 2001, seven years after work first began on the album that would become Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy, the band's original A&R man Tom Zutaut was drafted in to help with the stalling project. First on his agenda was to get guitarist Buckethead back in the studio.
Buckethead, born Brian Carroll in 1969, had already released five solo albums of dysfunctional funk metal and scorching shred guitar by the time he joined Guns N’ Roses in 2000. With his blank white mask (redolent of Michael Myers from the movie Halloween) and signature KFC bucket hat, Buckethead was pretty much the polar opposite/negative image of top-hatted, easy-going Slash – and an inspired replacement for that very reason.
But Buckethead had left by 2001, frustrated by what he saw as the band’s inactivity, and Axl wanted him back.
Zutaut arranges a meeting with Brian/Bucket and listens as the guitarist explains why he left: he doesn’t get on with legendary producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, Alice Cooper, The Cars), he’s frustrated at coming into the studio every day when Axl’s not even there, playing the same parts over and over.
He was telling me how his mum was a hen and his dad was a rooster. I said, "What if we built you a chicken coop in the studio?"
Tom Zutaut
Is there anything he can do to get him back in the studio, asks Zutaut. Suddenly Brian Carroll transforms in front of his eyes. “He went into Buckethead mode,” says Tom. “I was talking to Brian and suddenly he was Buckethead and he was telling me about how his parents were chickens and he was a chicken, how his mum was a hen and his dad was a rooster [and then he says] 'I was raised in a chicken coop – it’s the only place where I really feel comfortable’.”
Bingo. “What if," says Zutaut, "we built you a chicken coop in the studio?"
Two days later, it was built and Buckethead was back. “It’s like an apartment within the studio that’s a chicken coop,” says Zutaut. “He’s got his chair to record and a little mini sofa in there, and there’s, like, a rubber chicken with its head cut off hanging from the ceiling and body parts. It’s like Halloween in the chicken coop: part chicken coop, part horror movie. You could almost smell the chickens.
“No one was allowed to go in there apart from the assistant engineers to adjust mics – you could not destroy the spirit and karmic vibe of the coop. But – it’s chicken wire. You could stand outside and talk, looking through, but nobody was allowed in there with his hacked-up dolls and rubber chickens…”
Axl's manager Beta Lebeis stresses that the coop was just a bit of fun and didn't add to the cost or delay of the album. “In every band, people have their own ways of being creative – their own things that are personal to them,” she says, “and Buckethead loved chicken coops. The coop didn’t cost money or anything – think about it, it’s just wire. People say ‘Oh my gosh, that’s part of the money we spent on the album.’ It has nothing to do with that. It’s something you do in three or four hours. Just for fun.”
As the weeks went by, the joke started to wear thin. “There was a bit of creative tension with Roy Thomas Baker,” says Zutaut. “It might have been cultural differences.”
It could well have been, what with Roy being a flamboyant British rock god producer and Buckethead being, well, a chicken.
“Bucket says he needs a TV so he can sit in his chicken coop and watch porn,” says Tom. “And that seemed to really inspire him to record some great stuff. He comes armed with whatever DVDs he needs and he is doing really great stuff…”
Buckethead is knee-deep in hardcore chicken shack porn heaven when one evening Axl turns up for the session. Zutaut: “Axl sees that Bucket is running this porn – and it is pretty hardcore stuff, it’s not soft porn by any stretch of the imagination – and Axl is really disturbed by it.”
Axl asks Zutaut how long this has been going on and why. “He said music is about energy and we are transferring a creative spirit and vibe within the music,” says Zutaut. “He said, ‘I really can’t have the vibe of dirty, depraved porn being a part of my record – it's really not what this record is about, y'know?’
I really can’t have the vibe of dirty, depraved porn being a part of my record – it's really not what this record is about, y'know?’
Axl to Buckethead
“Axl is a firm believer that the energy or soul of everyone involved in the process comes through in the final artistic piece – so he works really hard to make sure what comes in and goes out is pure and right for his vision. Which is why Axl was always very disturbed about the former Gunners’ heroin use and what effect it had on their creativity.”
Axl takes Bucket outside for a talk about how it’s really not right to watch this kind of stuff. “Axl left and Bucket was pretty despondent,” says Zutaut. “He was pretty torn up about it. Not because he was angry or because he thought he should be able to watch what he wants, more because of the emotional implications that Axl brought up: that it wasn’t right to be inspired by shit like that.”
But Buckethead appeared to be inspired by shit itself. Axl, says Zutaut, had a couple of wolf dogs – three-quarters Timber wolf and one-quarter dog – and during the recording the dogs had puppies and Axl brought one in. “And it goes into the chicken coop and takes a dump.
"And because no one is allowed in there, we wait for Bucket to come in so that we can get his permission to clean it up. Bucket shows up later and we hear through the speaker: ‘Oh, I love the smell of dog poop…’
“So we’re like, ‘Okaaaaaay…’ Roy Thomas Baker or one of the engineers says, ‘We'll get that cleaned up’ and Bucket says: ‘Don’t take it away. I love the smell of dog poop – leave it right here, don’t let anybody touch it.’ Three days later, the studio stinks of dog poop, and finally the studio could not bear it and had it cleaned up.
"When Bucket came in the next day, he was like: ‘Where is my dog poop, man? I told them not to clean it up!’ He was bummed out that it had been cleaned up. But in the meantime, the wolf puppy poop had inspired him for a few days to do some great work…”
