Butch Walker
(born Bradley Glenn Walker
on November 14, 1969) is an American recording artist, songwriter, and record producer, best known as lead vocalist and guitarist for alternative rock band Marvelous 3 from 1997 until 2001.
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BUTCH WALKER TICKETS
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Career
Walker grew up in
Cartersville,
Georgia and stood out as a guitarist and performer in several rock bands in the 1980s including Bad Boyz and Byte the Bullet. In 1988, he took Byte the Bullet to LA and they were signed to Virgin Records within the year. The band then changed their name to
SouthGang and released two albums,
Tainted Angel
in 1991 and
Group Therapy
in 1992. SouthGang was one of the first bands to tour China in the early 1990s.
Afterwards, Butch took over lead vocals and with ex-SouthGang members Jayce Fincher (Jay Fincher) and Mitch McLee (Doug Mitchell) formed several bands in the 90s including Floyds Funk Revival, The Floyds, and the popular band
Marvelous 3 which had a relatively successful hit with the song "Freak of the Week." After the break-up of the band in 2001 (their final concert was on August 3, 2001 at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in front of their hometown fans), Butch then began a solo career, releasing the albums
Left of Self-Centered
in 2002,
Letters
in 2004 and
The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites
in 2006, and in 2005 played over 200 live shows across both the
U.S. and
Japan. Butch Walker was recently featured as a headlining artist on the
MySpace-promoted Inaugural Hotel Cafe tour, supporting independent artists from the
Los Angeles venue of the same name. He has recently created a new band, 1969, which released its full-length debut album titled
Maya
on April 1, 2008.
Several of his songs have been hits for other artists, including
Bowling for Soup's "Girl All the Bad Guys Want". He has written and produced records for such artists as
Avril Lavigne,
Family Force 5, Bowling for Soup,
Pink,
Lindsay Lohan,
Lit,
Simple Plan,
Sevendust,
Injected,
The Donnas,
Hot Hot Heat,
American Hi-Fi,
Default,
Gob,
Midtown,
Puffy AmiYumi,
Pete Yorn,
Fall Out Boy,
Quietdrive,
All-American Rejects,
SR-71,
Rock Star Supernova,
The Academy Is... and recently
The Cab,
Saosin and
All Time Low.
Also, he cowrote and performed on the minor Tommy Lee hit "Good Times" from the
Tommyland: The Ride LP.
In late 2005, he released his first DVD,
Live at Budokan
and ended the year as ''Rolling Stone
s producer of the year. On July 11, 2006, his third solo studio record was released, entitled
The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let’s-Go-Out-Tonites''. It was recorded with his backing band, the Let's Go Out Tonites. His second DVD titled "Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street" was released in early 2008.
Walker was a guest judge on the second season of the American
reality television program
Rock Star: Supernova
, during which Walker aided
Tommy Lee,
Gilby Clarke, and
Jason Newsted in selecting a
lead singer for the new band,
Rock Star Supernova. He later explained his limited participation in the televised show, stating: "I wouldn't give 'em more than one appearance. They edited the shit out of me, kind of made me seem like a kiss-ass. They skipped over the 10 contestants where I had critical things to say."
[1] Lukas Rossi was chosen, and Walker produced a
self-titled album for the band, which was released
November 21,
2006.
In 2007, Walker provided guest vocals on Fall Out Boy's third record
Infinity on High
, on the track "You're Crashing, but You're No Wave", and co-produced the track "Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?" with singer
Patrick Stump. He also made a brief cameo in the video for "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race".
Walker also appears in The Academy Is... videos for "Slow Down" and "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" as well as the video for "So What" by Pink. He also co-wrote the song "Younglife", which is performed by Anberlin and co-written by them.
Walker also joined the 9th annual
Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
[2] He was also a judge for the 8th annual
Independent Music Awards.
[3]
[4]
Currently
Butch Walker began 2008 by setting out many dates for new songs, DVDs, new albums with the band 1969, which he is the bassist and lead singer for, and also a solo record titled
Sycamore Meadows
.
Sycamore Meadows
was going to be released on a holiday in the summer of 2008, as Butch stated that he was planning to release something on every major holiday in 2008, but was postponed due to personal reasons until November 11, according to his MySpace blog. The new albums for 1969 and his solo record
Sycamore Meadows
were to be released on a limited run of vinyl. On February 14, 2008, an audio release of Walker's live performance in his hometown of Atlanta, GA, was released. A DVD of this show followed on March 17, 2008. The DVD and audio are titled
Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street
(Luckie Street is the road the venue at which the show was played,
the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA). The release for
Maya
by 1969 was on April 1, 2008.
Butch signed on to judge a competition called Spin's Hot Pursuit to find an unsigned band for Epic Records/Original Signal hosted on Music Nation. http://musicnation.com/contest/spin/judges
Butch Walker's new solo album,
Sycamore Meadows
, was released on November 11, 2008. The first single, "The Weight of Her", and an additional track, "Ships in a Bottle", are available on iTunes. The video for "Ships in a Bottle" documents Butch walking on the grounds of his home on Sycamore Meadows Drive in Southern California after it was destroyed by the wildfires of November 2007.
Butch also appeared on the
Ellen
show with friend Pink to perform "Here Comes the..." His iTunes sales have rocketed since the appearance.Butch is also touring starting in March.
In January 2009, post-hardcore band
Saosin tapped Walker to produce their second album for
Capitol Records.
In March 2009, the song "Open Happiness" debuted, a new business venture by
Coca-Cola, written by Walker, and featuring
Cee-Lo Green,
Travis McCoy,
Janelle Monae,
Patrick Stump and
Brendon Urie. This song has a Cantonese cover version by
Joey Yung on her new album,
A Time For Us
, and she is also filming advertisements for Coca Cola in Chinese.
In July 2009, Butch Walker plans to work with Weezer. Butch mentioned working with the band during a radio interview with 99x. He was being interviewed via phone along with Cee Lo from Gnarls Barkley who was in the actual studio.
Personal life
In November 2007, Butch Walker lost all of his possessions, including the masters to every song he had ever recorded, when the
Malibu home he was renting from
Flea of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers burned down as a result of a
wildfire in
Southern California.
[5] Butch titled his new album "Sycamore Meadows" after the street the house was on.
Discography
Albums
- Left of Self-Centered
(2002)
- Letters
(2004)
- This Is Me... Justified and Stripped
(2004, live album)
- The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites
(2006)
- Leavin' the Game on Luckie Street
(2008, live album)
- Sycamore Meadows
(2008)
EPs
- Heartwork
(2004)
- Cover Me Badd
(2005)
DVDs
- Live at Budokan
(2005)
- Leavin' The Game On Luckie Street DVD
(2008)
Featured In
- "Over The Mountain" by Fozzy (2000)
- "Good Times" by Tommy Lee (2006)
- "You're Crashing But You're No Wave" By Fall Out Boy (2007)
Produced Records
- Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter (2001)
- Injected - Burn It Black (2002)
- Bowling for Soup - Drunk Enough to Dance (2002)
- SR-71 - Tomorrow (2002)
- Pete Yorn - Day I Forgot (2003)
- Gob - Foot In Mouth Disease (2003)
- Default - Elocation (2003)
- Sevendust - Seasons (2003)
- Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin (2004)
- Simple Plan - Still Not Getting Any... (2004)
- Midtown - Forget What You Know (2004)
- The Donnas - Gold Medal (2004)
- American Hi-Fi - Hearts on Parade (2005)
- Lindsay Lohan - A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005)
- Pink - I'm Not Dead (2006)
- PUFFY - Splurge (2006)
- Family Force 5 - Business Up Front/Party in the Back (2006)
- Pete Yorn - Nightcrawler (2006)
- Quietdrive - When All That's Left Is You (2006)
- Rock Star Supernova - Rock Star Supernova (2006)
- Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing (2007)
- The Academy Is... - Santi (2007)
- The Honorary Title - Scream & Light Up The Sky (2007)
- Hot Hot Heat - Happiness Ltd. (2007)
- PUFFY - Honeycreeper (2007)
- The Automatic - This Is A Fix (2008)
- Katy Perry - One of the Boys (2008)
- Pink - Funhouse (2008)
- Your Name Here... - Everyday Creatures (2008)
- Secondhand Serenade - A Twist In My Story (2009)
- PUFFY - Bring It! (2009)
- All Time Low - Nothing Personal (2009)
- Weezer - Raditude (2009)
- Saosin - In Search Of Solid Ground (2009)
- Upcoming Never Shout Never album
(2009)
- Plastiscines - About Love (2009)
References
- Takiff, Jonathan. "Butch Walker, going his own way", ''Philadelphia Daily News'', July 21 2006.
- Independent Music Awards - 9th Annual Judges
- PRLog
- Independent Music Awards - 8th Annual IMA Judges
- Avril Lavigne producer Butch Walker was renting Flea's Malibu house; he 'lost everything'