Buckcherry have lived the sentiment sung by AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott back in the 1970’s, “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll.” It seemed they were going to get to forgo Scott’s wisdom at first, however, as Buckcherry were on the fast track to rock stardom with the release of their debut album in 1999. The song “All Lit Up Again” was an instant hit and Buckcherry went from being fans of AC/DC to being their opening act.

By 2002 the band hit the self-destruct button and came crashing back down to earth. Buckcherry appeared doomed to be just another rock n roll cliché of living fast before burning out and fading away into obscurity. Vocalist Josh Todd and guitarist Keith Nelson played with Slash and for a while but just when it was looking up; Slash pulled the plug on the project, claiming Todd’s voice was not what he was looking for.

In 2006, Nelson and Todd decided to resurrect Buckcherry but in order to raise themselves up from the ashes they needed a new band with dedicated musicians who would forgo the drugs and booze and put the music first, a lesson both founding members had learned the hard way. They released an album and had two huge hits in “Crazy Bitch” and “Sorry.” In 2008, they hit the Top 10 with the album Black Butterfly and toured with Motley Crue as part of the Cruefest. They continued to fight their way back up the mountain of success, being support acts for bands like Motley Crue and Nickleback and finally, in 2011, they were given the chance to headline the Jagermeister tour.

Buckcherry may have taken a detour in order to learn a few life lessons but now they are back, with a rare second chance, and making the most of their opportunity.

Classic Rock Revisited caught up with Keith Nelson for a quick update on how the tour is going, what the future holds and what Todd and he will do when they run out of skin to tattoo.

Keith: Unfortunately we had two shows that got postponed due to bad weather but we are making arrangements to redo those shows. We have Hellyeah, The Damned Things, All That Remains and us and we are rolling through and having a really great time on this tour

Keith: I appreciate that. It kind of seems that there are not many rock n roll bands left. We consider ourselves to be one. It all comes down to the live show. The live show drives everything that we do; the way we rehearse and the songs that we write. I am glad you picked up on that.

We love what we do so that really drives everything. The most important thing is really the show we have to do that night so everything we do is going to serve that. We have been doing it so long that it is just how our lives are. Living out of a suitcase and playing rock n roll every night is what we do; it comes naturally to us.

Keith: I think each time we make a record we top the previous one. Sometimes they don’t sell as well as the previous one or maybe it does not have the same commercial success as the one before it but I think that we do not make the same album over again. When you’re in a rock n roll band there is a fine line to walk there. I think we have become better musicians and songwriters than we were before. Plus we have a great band that we have spent every waking second with for the past six years. We know each other very well.

Keith: No, I don’t think we ever anticipated that. I will tell you what we did anticipate though. Josh and I, from the very first conversation we had when we decided to put the band back together, knew that the band would have to be about the five guys that would be in the band. We were done with all of the bullshit that goes along with it. I think that’s the thing that has driven what we are about. First and foremost it is about the music but we got these guys because we knew they were all good dudes. We knew they were good musicians but we also knew they were good people. It is much easier to teach a person how to do a part than it is to teach them how to be a decent human being. I think that kind of brotherhood can be felt in everything we do.

Keith: We are playing three songs off of All Night Long and we are going back and digging out some songs we have not played in a long time off the previous records. We have done a lot of supporting tours where we only got to play thirty-five or forty minutes at night so we are having a lot of fun being able to play an hour and a half every night. We are having fun playing the new songs as well as the old.

Keith: I feel we are evolving, lyrically, as Josh writes some great words. If you look at the early records then you can see that we were just a bunch of young kids who were running around Hollywood. We all still had day jobs and were making about five dollars an hour. We are in a different place now than we were then. I think that is a good thing. I think if Josh were still writing lyrics from the place he was at fifteen years ago then he would be in big trouble as a human being.

I know we will make a very honest record the next time out. I know it will be better than the one we did this time. When we sit down to make a record we don’t really plan anything out. We know we want to capture the best songs, the best performances and the best body of work that we can do at that time. Albums really mark a point in time for us.

Keith: They are both true. There was a transvestite named Buck Cherry and there was an interview with Chuck Berry where he talked about turning his name around and calling himself Buck Cherry. So, as you can see the correct answer is that they are both true.

Keith: Well, there is always piercings, isn‘t there.

Keith: That’s a really good idea too.