In a new interview with Belgian Jasper, BUCKCHERRY frontman Josh Todd spoke about AC/DC‘s influence on his band’s music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There’s always AC/DC flavors on every BUCKCHERRY record. It goes all the way back to our first one, with ‘Lit Up’ and stuff. And I’m a huge a AC/DC fan. I will always put it to [BUCKCHERRY producer] Marti [Frederiksen] and [BUCKCHERRY guitarist] Stevie [Dacanay, a.k.a. Stevie D.], once we’ve written a bunch of songs, I’ll always come in and say, ‘Where’s my AC/DC track?’ And then finally they’ll throw me a composition, like ‘Come On’, which is a really great song that we just dropped and we’re playing live. And it sounds a lot like AC/DC. But once you put my voice and our melodies and the words behind it, it’s a BUCKCHERRY song. But that happens with all bands. You sometimes bring up artists or a song that you kind of wanna reference to get the creative juices flowing, to get everybody in the right direction. And then you just write — you write your own song.”
Asked to name his favorite AC/DC song, Josh said: “Probably ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’. ‘Back In Black’ was a huge record for me. I had gotten into rock music late in my teens because all my rock records from my early teens were independent punk rock records. I grew up surfing and skateboarding in Southern California, and that’s just what I was into. So when I did hear AC/DC for the first time, I didn’t know about [late AC/DC singer] Bon Scott. I had just heard ‘Back In Black’. That was it. ‘Back In Black’ was on all the rock radio stations. Everybody played it at parties. I mean, it was amazing. And so that’s when I became an instant fan. And then I started getting into the whole scope of their career and really dug deep. And Bon Scott is a huge influence as well.”
Back in July 2024, Todd was asked by Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips what he learned from touring with AC/DC for about a week back in May 2001. He responded: “How to be humble and really cool. And those guys, they were very humble and sweet, and answered all our questions. [They] let us have full sound on their P.A., which doesn’t happen. Mostly headliners only give you so much sound so that when they come out, they sound bigger. AC/DC was, like, ‘You can have full P.A. Do whatever you want.’ They were very gracious and cool, and that’s what we wanted to be. So that’s what I learned.”
He continued: “I got to sit on a couch and drink tea with [AC/DC guitarist] Angus [Young] and talk about his career. And [AC/DC singer] Brian Johnson was walking around the room telling jokes. And I was, like, ‘Wow, this is fucking so amazing.’ Because sometimes you meet musicians and… I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. Not everybody is in a great headspace every day. So sometimes people can be a little bit not what you thought they were gonna be, and you’ve gotta give ’em a second, and maybe next time it’ll be different. And I always do that with everybody. But when we met those guys, they were the same all the time. And that’s what I loved about them.”
BUCKCHERRY will release its eleventh album, “Roar Like Thunder”, on June 13.
As with 2023’s “Vol. 10” and 2021’s “Hellbound”, “Roar Like Thunder” was recorded in Nashville at Sienna Studios and helmed by producer and songwriter-for-hire Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow, among many others. All 10 tracks were written by Todd, Dacanay and Frederiksen.
“Roar Like Thunder” will be released in North America by Round Hill Records, in Japan by Sony Japan and in the remainder of the world by Earache Records.
“Vol. 10” came out in June 2023. The 11-song LP featured 10 new BUCKCHERRY originals and, as a bonus track, a cover of the Bryan Adams classic “Summer Of 69”.
In November 2023, BUCKCHERRY released a new holiday song called “Tell ‘Em It’s Christmas”.
BUCKCHERRY previously released another holiday song, “Christmas Is Here”, back in 2010.
In the summer of 2020, BUCKCHERRY recruited JETBOY‘s Billy Rowe as its new guitarist. He joined the group as the replacement for Kevin Roentgen, who left BUCKCHERRY in July of that year.
In 2019, BUCKCHERRY enlisted Francis Ruiz as its new drummer. He joined the group as the replacement for Sean Winchester, who exited BUCKCHERRY after laying down the drum tracks on “Warpaint”.
The 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of the double-platinum BUCKCHERRY album “15” on physical and digital formats arrived on January 17 via Endurance Music Group. Originally released in 2005, the album featured the four-times-platinum single “Crazy Bitch” and the two-times-platinum single “Sorry”. The deluxe edition was issued in North America on a two-vinyl-LP format featuring the album’s 11 original songs as well as four bonus tracks recorded in 2005 and three newly recorded acoustic tracks by Todd and Dacanay.
