Josh Todd says that
BUCKCHERRY "wasn't a band for a while" prior to the departures of guitarist
Keith Nelson and drummer
Xavier Muriel earlier this year.
The singer made his comments while promoting the upcoming debut album from his
JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT side project, which also features
BUCKCHERRY guitarist
Stevie Dacanay (a.k.a.
Stevie D.).
Speaking to the
"Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" podcast,
Josh stated about
BUCKCHERRY's latest personnel shuffles (hear audio below): "The last three years,
BUCKCHERRY was just changing. It just wasn't what it was. There was no collective thought. It just wasn't a band for a while. And we were touring a lot. I think just people had other things that they wanted to do.
"I was kind of blindsided by the whole thing, honestly," he continued. "So I just kind of made my adjustments. Alls I knew is that I wanted to make new music, and I was really fired up about making a new record. And so that's what I started doing, and then it all kind of unraveled. And it wasn't like a big… It all happened in January, so people didn't know about it till later. And we got the new guys, which is
Kevin Roentgen on the guitar, and I just carried
Sean Winchester [
EVERCLEAR] over on the drums, 'cause he's just so good, and I'm such a rhythmic singer, having a drummer that I really like is important to me. And I didn't wanna keep auditioning guys and teaching guys new music; it was starting to become just crazy for me, because I was dealing with two bands. So I got Sean in there to play drums, and he's just doing a great job."
According to
Todd, the current lineup of
BUCKCHERRY "is the best it's been in a long time. We're having so much fun, and we're a gang," he said. "
Kelly LeMieux is still playing bass, and
Stevie is playing guitar, and we're having a great time. Eventually we'll make a new record, and that'll be something I'll be tending to a hundred percent again. But right now my focus is on
THE CONFLICT, and
BUCKCHERRY is just doing, like, fly dates."
Asked why it was important for him to keep the
BUCKCHERRY brand alive and not just focus exclusively on other projects following the latest
BUCKCHERRY shakeup,
Todd said: "Well, listen,
BUCKCHERRY is a huge part of my life, it's a big part of my career. All those words and all those melodies came out of my head, so I'm very passionate about it and I love it. And it's something that I will always tend to and put a lot of effort and love into. And that's what's gonna happen till I'm done with this game. So that's that. I also have other sides of my that I wanna express. I like being diversified.
"This is the day and age of being diversified, especially in rock music; you can't just do one thing anymore. And the average music listener is not just listening to one thing. The kid that's listening to
'Crazy Bitch' or whatever is also listening to
Drake, he's also listening to
Bruno Mars. It's just a different situation now.
"I love rock music, so that's why I wanted to create
THE CONFLICT — something heavier and more along the lines of that other side of me that I really like to express."
The new lineup of
BUCKCHERRY made its live debut on April 28 at the
Rock Into Spring festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.
BUCKCHERRY's latest album
"Rock 'N' Roll", was re-released in January 2016 via
F-Bomb/
Caroline. The deluxe edition featured the record's original track list as well as a new version of
"The Feeling Never Dies", a brand new song titled
"Getting Started" and a B-side called
"Cannonball".
JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT's debut album,
"Year Of The Tiger", will be released on September 15 via
Century Media.
