source: Rollingstone

Thanks to Lollypop Kid @gnrbar

The reclusive guitarist with the fried chicken bucket on his head was born Brian Carroll, supposedly in 1969. Although he claims to have been raised in a chicken coop, he's rumored to have grown up in Huntington Beach, California, a surf town near LA._where he reportedly still lives with his parents.

Obsessed with Michael Jackson, monster films and Disneyland-he's visited more than 500 times-Buckethead often spends his days in his bedroom, according to one friend, "staring at a statue of Godzilla and riffing on that image for eight or more hours at a time.

Buckethead made several experimental-guitar albums in the early nineties and joined G-N-R in 2000. Recording sessions have been bizarre. Buckethead cut all his guitar parts in a specifically constructed chicken coop, which is surrounded by horror movie paraphanalia and mutilated scarecrows. " I think it just puts him in his own environment where he can be comfortable or creative, or whatever he wants to be." says Bill Laswell, a producer who has worked with Buckethead throughout the years. "He's not limited in a way that nine of ten rock guitarists are."

Throughout the recording, and even when he goes out in public, Buckethead keeps the disguise on. " Its not a contrived thing," GN'R drummer Mantia says. "He always been the guy who sits in the back of the class. He is just kind of a goner."