Through addiction, industry upheavals, and personal reinvention, a rock survivor’s unwavering path forward.
Perseverance is more than just endurance—it is the art of weathering storms without losing sight of the horizon. For Josh Todd - the last remaining original member of Buckcherry - survival in rock and roll has never been about mere resistance; it has been about forward motion, an unrelenting push toward something greater. With the recent vinyl reissue of 15 on Real Gone Music, Todd finds himself looking back—not to dwell, but to recognize the grit and resolve that have kept him moving when so many others have faded.
Todd’s journey is one of endurance sharpened by intention. From the early days of Slamhound, where raw energy often outpaced direction, to the seasoned clarity of his present self, his career has been less about reinvention and more about refinement—a steady chiseling away at anything that does not serve the greater vision. His long-standing sobriety, maintained since the mid-1990s, has been more than a personal victory; it has been a quiet, steadfast rebellion against the industry’s norms. While countless peers were undone by excess or disillusionment, Todd stayed the course, his focus cutting through the noise like a compass pointing toward blue skies in the midst of a storm.
That same drive extends beyond music. When the world stood still during the pandemic, Todd refused to stagnate, earning a certification in phlebotomy rather than succumbing to inertia. For him, perseverance is not just about surviving hardship—it is about carving meaning from it, about turning each setback into a stepping stone rather than a stopping point.
Today, we explore his ethos: the lessons forged in decades of relentless touring, the will to hold a band together when gravity pulls it apart, and the mindset that transforms obstacles into momentum.
Evan Toth: You've been at the front of Buckcherry for decades, and you're the last original member standing. What's it like being the anchor of a band with such a history, and how does that feel at this stage where things are being reissued, and you're looking back on your career, and just thinking about your position now?
Josh Todd: Yes, it feels great. I mean, this is my baby. I started this from nothing. To see it come this far, 25 years, and 15 is 20 years old now, it's incredible.
ezt: My generation, of course, was around when you guys first hit, and that was exciting. I remember those records coming out, and they were a thing, man. People loved it.
jt: Yes, I appreciate that. Yes, we dropped our first record in 1999, and the years just fly by when you're on the road, and you're constantly putting out records. I don't really think about it so much until I have to do one of these, and look back on something like that.
ezt: Reading a little bit about you and learning about your path, I was interested to learn that your first band many, many moons ago prior to Buckcherry was called Slamhound, and it was really like a glam band, right?
jt: We looked glam, because that's what was going on in LA at the time, but we were far from that live, and as far as what we were doing. We were hell on wheels, we were all on drugs and alcohol. Came very close to doing a lot of things with that band, and then it just all [chuckles] imploded. Thank God for that, because we'd probably all be dead by this point in time.
ezt: Yes, that's how the story goes, right? Of course, you've been sober since 1995, which is a long time ago. Is that correct? Am I accurate in that?
jt: Let me think. What year did I get sober?
ezt: '95? Does that sound right?
jt: I think it was '94.
ezt: Sometimes when I've spoken with entertainers who do that, it's a really difficult thing to continue in the entertainment field, and with that sobriety. I was just watching a great-- There's this great clip from Alice Cooper going around lately, and he's just talking about, "Hey, it stopped," and he was so lucky to have that feeling taken away from him.
Can you talk-- Do you feel comfortable just talking a little bit about being in that entertainment industry in this way, and maybe what you would say to someone who's struggling to do the same thing, and still maintain their place in the entertainment world?
jt: First of all, I want to say Alice Cooper is a lovely guy, and his wife, and his whole entourage. They treated us really well when we were out with them. I want to give a shout-out to them and say, "Hello."
ezt: I love Alice Cooper.
jt: Yes, he's amazing. People who put in the time like him in their recovery, are usually pleasant and grateful. What would I want to say? What was the question actually? I got caught up in Alice Cooper. [chuckles]
ezt: Just about navigating that entertainment world, which is so rife with temptation and those things. Also, maybe have you seen people along the way, where you've been able to give a little guidance?
jt: I can tell you what to do, and it's very important. It's very important to get a really good foundation before you get out there, and start working. At least, it was for me. Before even Buckcherry started happening, I had a year of recovery under my belt. I had done the steps. I'm active in AAs to this day. I just went to a lot of meetings, and got a sponsor, and did the steps.
I started understanding that the drinking and using was a symptom of my problem. The problem is my head. My mind is different than normal people. Once I really started understanding that, by putting pen to paper, and turning it over, and having a God of my understanding, the obsession slowly started to be removed, so that when I was around people who were drinking and using, I don't preach to anybody.
It's like, "Do your thing." I don't have a problem being around people who are getting loaded. I can only take it in small doses though, of course, because when you're not getting loaded, you can only last so long, you're over it. There's some drugs that I can't really be around, I don't want to be around cocaine. I don't want to be around that. Other than that, it's pretty easy. You just let people know who you are up front, and everybody's pretty respectful.
ezt: Of course, what we're really here to talk about today, is the reissue on vinyl with Real Gone Music. They are reissuing your 15 album from 2005. That album did very well for you back then. Can you talk about just revisiting that album in particular, and the vinyl reissue process, and how much you were, or maybe were not involved in getting it back on vinyl.
jt: Yes, this is 20 years, and Stevie and I took three of the songs, and rerecorded them acoustically, which was a lot of fun. We just had so much fun doing that. We slowed them down, and made them interesting. Good songs just translate really well, whether you speed them up, or slow them down. It was fun to do that. Those are bonus tracks on it, which nobody has until today.
As far as revisiting 15, it was a real turning point in our career, and opened the door for us to have longevity. This is like laying the foundation. We tour a lot to have longevity. It's really a stepping stone. It was a big one. I think the reason why 15 was so special for me is, because everybody had really written us off. We had been on hiatus for quite a while. Nobody wanted to sign this band.
I've told the story many times. Our manager at the time, Allen Kovac, said, "I'll start my own label, and we'll put it out on that." He started Eleven Seven, and we put it out on that.
We had an upstreaming clause with Atlantic. They distributed it, and they had the option, if they wanted to, to take it on. Of course, nobody wanted to get into bed with us until we basically proved ourselves again, and then everybody wanted to be our friends again. It was a great lesson learned, to really stay the course, and stick to who you are and what you believe in, and everything will work itself out. Stay out the results.
ezt: It's interesting to hear your reflections on that. When I think about Buckcherry, I think about you guys being almost one of the last bonafide rock and roll bands.
jt: We are.
ezt: Yes. You were like-- It's interesting that you said-- There was, you went through this phase, because you guys were just as high-energy rock band that it was like, "This is great." Why do you think there was that turn in the fortunes there before you came back? It seemed like what you were offering was pretty solid stuff.
jt: It's pretty simple. When you say it like that, that's really what Buckcherry is, a high-energy rock band.
ezt: There we go.
jt: That's all we were. We were just using our raw talent as much as we had amongst each member, and making the best songs we can make, and getting out there. We have been never in the mainstream of rock music since we started.
We started in '99, and there was rap rock, and what I call nerd rock, that shoegaze, Buddy Holly glasses, dressing in suits, looking down at your shoes. There was that rock going on. Then, it morphed into active rock, which we don't fit into as well. We just kept doing our thing, staying on the road, and playing. They call us the Kings of the B Markets. We would play everywhere, everywhere you want a rock show.
You know what? Those shows are the funnest, because people in those small towns or small cities, they don't get entertainment like you do in New York, and LA, and Chicago, you know what I mean? We just kept doing that year-after-year, and we would put in over 200 shows a record cycle, and we just keep putting out records. Here we are today. We're about to drop our 11th record, June 13th. It's called Roar Like Thunder, and it's so good.
ezt: That's cool. I think that's news to me because, as I said, I'm really here to talk to you about this vinyl release, but I didn't know that. You've got a new record coming out. That's great. Congratulations.
jt: Yes, thank you.
ezt: Yes, you're welcome. Maybe you could just weigh in about, do you think the idea of a rock band, and young kids starting a rock band, and really taking the country by storm, or at least a big chunk of the entertainment pie in the 21st century. It's been a tough road for rock bands in the last decade or so. Do you see the tides turning ever, maybe coming back to that, just a couple of guys on stage making a lot of noise with instruments, or have we gotten too far with electronics and AI, and everything else?
jt: In my opinion, it's still about melody. If you got great melody, if you got great songs, you're going to find an audience. That's just it. I just think you got to have great songs. You got to have songs you can remember. You got to be unforgettable, especially, now because information is spread so thin, and people's attention span now is brutal. It's like you got five seconds to get somebody's attention online. You got to have great songs, and you got to have a story, and you got to know who you are, and if you can put all that together, you can have success.
ezt: Just another left-field fact from your bio, which I know you've talked about before, but during the pandemic, I guess, you became a phlebotomist, and you've had all these experiences in your life, a rock star and all this stuff. Of course, something during the pandemic, you said, "You know what? I'm going to become a phlebotomist."
jt: I did, yes. One thing about me is my addict behavior has morphed into my sober life, so I am not good with idle time. I like to learn new things, and when the pandemic hit, I was-- Every year when I do my annual physical, I get blood work done. If you're smart, you go to Quest Diagnostics, or a place where all they're doing is taking blood all day.
Basically, it's the best phlebotomists around are in those places, where they can get blood from you, and cause you virtually very little pain. Phlebotomists can draw blood better than nurses can, because they're doing it more often, just repetition is the mother of skill.
Anyways, long story short, I was in Quest Diagnostics, and this big tall, tattooed dude came in and in my head, I'm just like, "Oh man, look at this character," and then he hit my vein. I literally didn't feel it, and I was just watching his whole process. I'm very interested in people's process when they're really good at something.
ezt: He was like, "I'm a bass player too, dude."
jt: No, [chuckles] I didn't ask him about music. I just was like, "Hey, man, how did you get into this? I didn't even feel that. You got a great touch," and he's like, "Yes," and he just started-- He was very kind, and just went through the whole thing with me. I was like, "I'm going to go do this," and so I went to school, and passed the national exam. I had to go and do my internship where I had to get X amount of hours doing phlebotomy. Then, I worked at this place called Covid Clinic in downtown LA during the whole pandemic, and I did it.
ezt: It's so true. Sometimes you get the shot, and it's a whammo, and sometimes you get and you're like, "Whoa, that would thank you very much. That was really good."
jt: Yes. I had a lot of pride and that whole time, because I felt like I was contributing to what was going on, you know what I mean? I was united with my city, and I was in the thick of it, and the Angelinos. At one point, we had a 60% infection rate at where we were at, and it was crazy. I'm in full PPE all day and doing this, and I had a guy I worked with, he was a first responder dude. His name was Juan, love the guy, and we just listened to hip-hop all day, and drew blood, and did tests and talked, and it was awesome. It really helped me pass the time, and learn a lot about other things.
ezt: Bonding over phlebotomy, and listen, kids, you heard it from the lead singer of Buckcherry, get your blood drawn every year, get those physicals done.
jt: Absolutely.
ezt: That's it.
jt: Knowledge is power-
ezt: That's right.
jt: -and everything is in the blood.
ezt: Sometimes we don't want to know.
jt: You got to know.
ezt: I don't want to know, so you've had this long, fascinating journey with Buckcherry, and as you look back, and I guess we're talking a lot about reflection today. As you look back on it, if you could snap your fingers, if you could change anything about the band's trajectory or your path, it was a moment, or a decision, or a collaboration or something, or what-what-- Is it anything pop into your mind about what that might be?
jt: Oh, my.
ezt: That's a tough one.
jt: There's so many things I would do differently. Do I have regrets? No, I just-- I can't. I can't have regrets, or it would just make me uncomfortable in my own skin, and I have to work that out. I have to work on myself, or that doesn't go away, and it festers, and I don't want to have regrets. I don't have regrets, but if I had the knowledge that I have today and I was in my young body, I would have done a tremendous amount of things differently.
ezt: Like? [chuckles]
jt: I'll just speak about myself and not other people, because that's better, but as far how I worked on my craft, I would have gotten sober at a much younger age. I would have really worked on vocal technique at a much younger age. I had so much voice back then, and I just was reckless with it. That's something I would have done differently. I really would have paid attention to the business side of things from the get-go, which it took me a while to take off the artist's hat and put on the business hat and just be okay with that. Now, I'm really great at it, but I had to go through my hard knocks to get here, so stuff like that.
ezt: Yes, it takes time. Did you do some damage to your voice? Do you feel like you were really rough on it, because you're one of these guys that's got this vocal sound that you listen to and you go, "Wow." How is this happening, and what do you sound like after a show? Do you feel like you're really crazy with it?
jt: Well, if you listen to Slamhound, we made a record, it's called Chaos Personified, and never got released. We were on an independent label for a while, and, man, when I listened back to that guy, I was like, "Goddamn, I had so much voice. I could sing so high." It was crazy, and I wasn't warming up. I wasn't doing anything, no vocal exercises, because I tried to get a vocal coach when I was 15, and the lady was like, "Go home and learn "Every Breath You Take"," and I was like, "I love the song," but I was just like, "Okay," and I left, and I came back with "Back In Black" and I was like, "I want to sing like this." She's like, "Oh, we don't teach that here," and I go, "Okay," then I just never went back.
I just self-taught myself all the way through the record deal, and the first Buckcherry record, and then I just started getting fatigued, because this is before in-ear monitors. I was getting killed by all the noise on stage, and so, therefore, I was pushing my voice harder than I need to. I was losing my voice a lot at that time, and so I finally got a coach and started working on things, but, yes.
Then, age, once you get to a certain age, for all people, your voice starts to change. I had to teach myself a different way to sing to get the same results, and that was a learning process. Just if I would have gone back, and I would have done that differently.
ezt: It reminds me of, there's a documentary, there's a scene of a woman who did some vocal coaching for Johnny Rotten for a while, and she's like-
jt: [chuckles] Okay.
ezt: "Well, Johnny came in, and we sat down, and we went through 'Submission'." [chuckles] That's what I would imagine your session would have been.
jt: I will not sing without warming up. I will not do a show without warming down. Now, it's like a whole different ball game for me.
ezt: As I mentioned, 15 will be out on vinyl. I think there were some other vinyl reissues on Real Gone. This is the label that's releasing these records on vinyl. Are you a vinyl guy at all?
jt: I am now.
ezt: Yes?
jt: Yes, I just recently bought my son a turntable, and I think I've been in his room more than he's been in his room, listening to records, because I used to have such a moment when I was a kid. That was such a sacred time for me. I would go to the record store, and I'd get a record. I would come back and I'd put it on, and I would sit there with the artwork, and I would look through the artwork, and I would read the lyrics as I was listening to every song.
It was a very spiritual experience for me, and so now I'm doing the same thing. Even with my new record, I got in there as soon as my new record came, and went up there and put it on, and listened to the whole thing. I had so much pride in that, and I really enjoy it. I try to tell my son, Jack, he's really getting into music, so I bought him the turntable, and I got him a Doors record.
I got him a Nirvana record, because he listens to a lot of Nirvana. I tried to get him Badmotorfinger, but I couldn't find it, and then let's see, what else? I got him one more record-- Oh, Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy, because that's one of my favorite, Led Zeppelin records.
ezt: Buckcherry was at their height during the height of the loudness wars, where the mixing and mastering was-- Everything was so digital, everything was on CDs. You guys sold a gazillion CDs, but not too much vinyl. Do you get a different impression of the sound when you hear this stuff? You're your own music back now than you did then, or even has it changed your familiarity with your own music at all?
jt: I don't hear that crazy difference in sound that everybody's hearing, or that people talk about, because once you start writing songs as a musician, all I do now when I listen to music is, I'm not so much listening to the sound, I'm listening to the songs. I'm listening to song structure. I'm listening for the lyrics, and the melodies, and how it all goes together, and I'm picking it apart.
That's why it's kind of a curse, because you get into this, and you are a fan of music. That's why you're doing it. You're so passionate about it.
Then, once you start learning how to compose songs, and then you start finding out what a good song is, and what a bad song is, all is you're doing is picking everything apart. That's why I tell them I like electronic music as well. I have SiriusXM, and there's a station called Chill. It's basically electronic music, and no vocals. I love it because-
ezt: I've listened!
jt: -I don't want to think about song structure sometimes, I just want to relax, and just check out, and do something unrelated, while I'm-- I'll put it on, and I'll clean the kitchen. Then, sometimes I'll write complete melodies, and songs to these electronic compositions. I got this idea, because I really want to make an electronic record before I die. I was like, "I should just call these artists and just say, 'Hey, I want to use this song, and I'm going to write some melodies over it, and let's just mix my voice in there and that'll be the song.'" I thought about calling random electronic producers who put out all this stuff, and making a record be fun.
ezt: Josh Todd. Lead singer of Buckcherry, loves to chill to smooth jazz.
jt: [chuckles] Well, electronic music. I don't know if it's jazz.
ezt: [laughs] I know, I embellished a little bit there. What's next? This is exciting news. You said the new album's coming out in June, and you've got this reissue. Where can people go to? Stay connected to you, and the band's journey, and what's next?
jt: It's buckcherry.com or @buckcherry on IG. Everything's there. All our updated touring and merchandise and vinyl packages for the release coming up, and all that stuff. Everything's going great. We're going to start a heavy touring starting at the beginning of April. We just did ShipRocked, which was a lot of fun. We were there with The Struts and P.O.D., and the list goes on.
A lot of bands on that bill-- Parkway Drive. It was a lot of fun, and did a lot of 15 songs on that. It was cool, and here we are. We're going to start hitting it hard. In April, we're making two videos this month for the new record. It's called Roar Like Thunder. It comes June 13th, and we're doing on two videos this month, which is going to be great. That'll be dropping, I think, in March. Everything's going on.
ezt: Cool. Josh, I really appreciate your time, and it's a pleasure to talk to you after listening to you for so many years. Good luck with the reissue. Good luck with the new record. Good luck on tour. We'll see you around again sometime, I hope.
jt: Thanks so much, man. I hope you feel better. Thanks again, man.
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