LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JUNE 12, 2019…HE WAS BORN BRAD CARLSON BUT THE WORLD KNOWS HIM AS BUN E. CARLOS, THE ORIGINAL DRUMMER FOR CHEAP TRICK.
NOT ONLY WAS BUN A FANTASTIC DRUMMER, BUT BEHIND THE SCENES HE WAS THE BAND’S CHIEF SET-LISTER AND ARCHIVIST, AND HE MAINTAINED RECORDINGS OF ALL THE BAND’S SHOWS.
HOWEVER THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITHIN THE BAND. ACCORDING THE CARLOS:
“Me and the singer don’t get along very good.”
ONE OF THE MAIN FALL-OUTS WITH LEAD SINGER ROBIN ZANDER HAPPENED IN 2009:
“I don’t like doing 25 songs. I think that just kills the audience. I think the show should be 17, 18, 19 songs and encores. Robin [Zander] wanted to do longer shows….The final straw was, we were offered 100 Sgt. Pepper shows in Las Vegas with a huge back-end. He only wanted to do 50. I said, “Why do you only want to do 50?” He said, “[Whiny voice] I have to take my daughter to kindergarten in September. I don’t want her to go to school in Las Vegas.” I smartly replied something like, “We’re scheduling shows around your daughter’s kindergarten classes?” Then he was like, “Fuck you, you fucking asshole.” Then I just hung up the phone. People tell me to get fucked, I hang up. That happened two days in a row.”
AFTER ANOTHER ARGUMENT IN 2010 CHEAP TRICK ISSUED A STATEMENT THAT CARLOS HAD STOPPED TOURING WITH THE BAND, BUT HE STILL REMAINED A BAND MEMBER. CHEAP TRICK GUITARIST’S SON DAXX WAS NAMED AS THE NEW CHEAP TRICK TOURING DRUMMER.
THE AGREEMENT WORKED OUT GREAT UNTIL HE WAS FORCED TO FILE A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE GROUP IN 2013. ACCORDING TO BUN E CARLOS:
“We just drew up a contract that said, “I don’t tour with the band, but I’m a full member of the band.” We’ve got all these corporations. The touring company said, “If you quit touring, you lose your vote.” I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’m a full member of the band. So we drew up a piece of paper, and a couple years later the check stopped coming. And then I had to sue them in federal court to get my money back. We did a settlement last spring and it’s all hunky dory. That’s the short story.”
ON FEBRUARY 2015 ROBIN ZANDER ANNOUNCED THE LAWSUIT WAS OVER:
“We’ve settled our differences. Bun E.’s a member of the band, but he’s not touring. … We’ve had our differences, but we’re all settled up now and hopefully we can forget about that era. These decisions that Cheap Trick makes, Bun E. is part of.”
SO CARLOS IS A BUSINESS PARTNER IN THE CHEAP TRICK MERCHANDISING BUSINESS AND REMAINS INVOLVED IN THEIR RELEASES OF OLDER MATERIAL WHICH HE PARTICIPATED IN THE RECORDING OF ( KEEP IN MIND HE WAS THE ONE WHO ARCHIVED ALL OF THE BAND’S EARLY MATERIAL)
AS FOR HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BAND, ACCORDING TO BUN:
“any friendship we had went away when I had to file a federal lawsuit. That cost a bucket of fucking money. Going after these guys wasn’t pleasant. The friendship sort of frittered away there.”
HERE’S CHEAP TRICK FROM 1977 APPEARING ON DON KIRSHNER’S ROCK CONCERT
