What Marketers Can Learn From Buckethead, Rock’s Most Mysterious Guitarist

How to be — and stay — interesting

8 min readDec 19, 2020

“No one calls me Brian except my mother.”

Imagine there’s a person who’s so in character that — when auditioning for a role in Ozzy Osbourne’s band — he has the gall to say this to Ozzy.

That person is Buckethead.

Born Brian Patrick Carroll in 1969, Buckethead will probably be remembered as one of the most prolific guitarists in rock history. When I say prolific, I mean it: In 2015, Buckethead released 118 albums alone.

I first became interested in Buckethead when I read that he auditioned for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. His name sounded familiar but I didn’t know who he was. Then I Googled his name and I was immediately intrigued.

Who wouldn’t be intrigued by him?

I immediately started reading every article I could find on him. I couldn’t have enough, he was just too interesting.

In the essay, I Had Dinner with Buckethead, a reporter from VICE was invited to have dinner with the guitarist. The guitarist doesn’t even leave the character at the table. Or as the writer beautifully put: “He eats with the f*****g mask on.”

“He told me his name was Brian, so I said that’s what I’d call him. He says, ‘No one calls me Brian except my mother.’ So I said, ‘Pretend I’m your mum, then!’” — Ozzy Osbourne on Buckethead, 2005

Brian Carroll — excuse me, I mean Buckethead — quite literally devoted his whole life to the character. That’s dedication right there.

So what can marketers learn about building businesses from Buckethead?

Here are a few pointers.

Buckethead Sells Product by Selling His Brand

When you’re marketing a product, you need to understand your objective. Are you trying to make a one-time sale, or are you trying to maintain a relationship with the customer?

This is the difference between selling a brand versus a product.

And when you’re a musician, you must sell your brand in order to sell your product.

For someone like Buckethead, who’s a guitarist and doesn’t have vocals (he barely talks, remember?), selling your product — or in this case music — could be harder than ever.

Lyrics are somewhat of an easy way for a listener to connect with their audience. When I had a bad breakup, I listened to Scar Tissue. When I graduated from high school, I listened to Graduation. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward.

So how does Buckethead — a solo guitarist — do it?

With hyper-focus on maintaining and selling his brand.

The last reported photograph of Brian Carroll without his Buckethead outfit was shot as recently as the early 1990s, so not that recently.

Who is in the real life Buckethead?
Answer (1 of 5): Buckethead is one of the most mysterious musicians of all time. All he ever does is keeps making his…www.quora.com

For someone who actually likes Buckethead’s music (yours truly), that shows integrity right there. As in, Buckethead is so true to his brand that he’s stayed in character all his career.

In addition, Buckethead’s music appears wherever his fan base does. Remember that last level on Guitar Hero II? Or the music for Saw II?

Yes, Buckethead and his fans were there.

If a key aspect of integrity is showing up — and if integrity builds trust ,which thus maintains brand equity — then Buckethead should be awarded from Forbes and Deloitte Fast more than he ever has from Rolling Stone.

Buckethead Gives What His Fans Want

An album sold on a flash drive. Paintings for $100 a pop.

Since Buckethead is a brand, after all, he needs a way to connect with his fans beyond his music.

Most musicians barely release new content each year while Buckethead does quite the opposite. But even for being such a prolific guitarist, apparently distributing his music is not enough.

Buckethead Lets His Fans Speak For Him

Bucketheadland (not the album, all pun intended) is full of people who love him so much that they do things without his permission, such as blogging about him on a dedicated Reddit.

In fact, this is part of building a fanocracy, or a fun way of saying “I’m building a brand that people love.”

David Meerman Scott and Reiko Scott, coauthors of Fanocracy, point out that businesses need to “let go of their creations” and let their fans toy with the brand.

But wait, why would someone do this? Why would you let someone else tell the story that your brand told?

That’s because great artists know that it is not in your control how people interpret your work. This doesn’t just apply to art, this also applies to business.

Regardless of what Geico tries to tell me, I still view them as a car insurance company. They, the artist, might try to convince me that they’re a comedy firm. They are not, and that is my interpretation.

Your interpretation might also be different. But that’s the beauty of art. And Buckethead lets his fans interpret whatever they wish.

It’s important to remember that, in the case of an artist, your fans are your customers.

And while it can feel icky for artists to admit that, at the very least business owners should take inspiration when marketing their own brands and products.

After all, building and marketing a business is an art. And artists take inspiration from different media. My favorite indie band, Harriers of Discord, takes inspiration from “Lord of the Rings” and old Western movies.

So, why can’t you?

What Marketers Can Learn From Buckethead, Rock’s Most Mysterious Guitarist

How to be — and stay — interesting

Buckethead Sells Product by Selling His Brand

Buckethead Gives What His Fans Want

Buckethead Lets His Fans Speak For Him

Written by Andr