Tomorrowland
If you travel to Disneyland in California, be sure to stumble into a corner of the park called "Tomorrowland". There you will find Buzz Lightyear, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids..... But the coolest thing of all in Tomorrowland is the iconic Space Mountain roller coaster ride. It is concealed completely inside, with stars, and planets, and sounds, and on and on. For someone like me who loves space stuff, this ride is the bomb!!!
And if you happen to go there, you should know that there is a frequent visitor to the Disneyland Park who has been known to take a specific interest in the Space Mountain ride. He is an unassuming fellow by the name of Brian Patrick Carroll. Brian is a musician, a song writer, a producer, and a performer. And he grew up and still lives within shouting distance of Disneyland. Brian has been known to create his own music, load it into his I-phone, que it up to play, then take the Space Mountain ride while listening to his own musical version of the ride..... In my world of music, that's pretty cool stuff!
But when Brian is not at Disneyland, he is surely writing music, or recording music, or performing live shows, or most likely, Brian is practicing his guitar. And although Brian is a solo act, he has recorded, produced, and published over 430 albums of music. It would take you 2 full weeks of non-stop listening to hear all of his songs. He has performed on many other artists albums, and has even done a 4 year stint as lead guitarist for the band "Guns and Roses".
And if you ever have the chance to visit Disneyland, maybe you'll be lucky enough to meet Brian. Although, if you did, you'd never know it was him....
That's because Brian has a stage name. And so protective is he of his stage persona that only a few people in the world have ever met Brian when he is out of character. It's really quite brilliant..... After doing a show, he can fade into the night, with his personal life intact, living the life he loves in anonymity.
Oh! And just who is it that Brian Patrick Carroll becomes when on stage?
He is the famous guitarist: BUCKETHEAD!!
And if you plan to browser search Brian Patrick Carroll, you'll get all sorts of interesting stuff. But what you won't get is any information about him. You won't even get a picture of him, other than an old high school yearbook picture. So secretive has his identity been that even those who have performed with him over the years have never actually met him out of character.
But, after listening to all the best guitarists in the world and after reading all the ratings lists, it's very clear that Buckethead doesn't get the respect of the journalists who put these ratings together. In Rolling Stone's recently published "Greatest 250 guitarist of all time", Buckethead wasn't even on the list. (But in all fairness, they listed Neil Young in the top 30 which pretty much discredits the entire list, since Neil Young might be the worst guitarist EVER!!)
However, the real reason that Buckethead doesn't appear on these lists because he isn't a household name. His stage persona has weird twists and turns. Most music journalists are just too cool to ever be tied into that strange Buckethead fellow wearing a KFC bucket on his head.....
But they are missing the truth that is hidden underneath the Buckethead bucket. And that is that Buckethead (Brian Patrick Carroll) is the greatest guitarist the world has ever seen, and quite possibly, there may never be another guitarist like him..... He can play any form of music that there is, and there is no guitar solo in existence, as great as it may be, that he can't play flawlessly.
You see, Buckethead has the incredible ability to "nub" his guitar with 4 fingers of his right hand and 4 fingers of his left hand, ALL AT THE SAME TIME! This gives him the stunning ability to put out over 20 notes per second, all struck flawlessly, and following perfect harmonic scales, and all up and down the fretboard. And at 6'6" tall, he has huge hands that can stretch over 1/2 the fretboard. He is a guitar freak - he is the rarest of talents.....
So, as a tribute to Buckethead, I created the song "Tomorrowland". At the start of the song I infused the sound of a Rollercoaster cruising on by. (I'm guessing that Bucket is probably sitting in the front row). And then, I borrowed a small guitar riff from a Buckethead song call "The Dream Bridge". I did this to honor his talent, which I am in awe of...... I tried to secure permission to use this riff, but really - try to get ahold of Buckethead sometime! So, if this song ever makes more than a dollar, I promise to give it all to Buckethead.....