Bun E. Carlos

At 73 years old, Bun E. Carlos has this physical status:

Brad M. Carlson (born June 12, 1950), better known by the stage name Bun E. Carlos, is the original drummer for American rock band Cheap Trick.

He was the band's chief setlister and archivist, and maintained recordings of all the band's shows, some of which have been released under the title 'Bun E's Bootlegs'.

Carlos has two side bands with former Cheap Trick bassist Jon Brant: The Bun E Carlos Experience, and the Monday Night Band. Carlos is left-handed and plays a right-handed drum kit, but he is also ambidextrous.

He has several writing credits, the most notable of which is the drum solo track "Who D'King", from the album All Shook Up, and Bun E. in a Box (2004), a drum sample CD. In the late 1990s, Carlos introduced his own line of coffee.

At one point, he offered a Special Limited Edition hand-signed numbered bags of coffee.In 2009, Carlos, together with Hanson singer Taylor Hanson, current Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger, formed a new band, Tinted Windows.

This new project ran alongside each of the artists' main bands.

Tinted Windows played its first publicized gig at SXSW in Austin, Texas on March 20, 2009, and appeared on late-night network TV shows.

Their album was released on April 21, 2009.On March 19, 2010, Cheap Trick issued a statement that Carlos had stopped touring with Cheap Trick but that he still remained a band member.

Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen's son Daxx was named in the statement as the touring drummer.In 2011, Carlos once again debuted a band at SXSW in the form of his new project Candy Golde.

The other members of Candy Golde are Nicholas Tremulis, John Stirratt (Wilco, the Autumn Defense) and Rick Rizzo (Eleventh Dream Day).

Mark Greenburg (The Coctails) was added to the band when they started to play live shows.

Their 5-song EP was mastered by Ivan Julian of Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

The EP contains four originals and a cover of Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble", issued for limited edition 10" vinyl and download on Ten O Nine Records. On August 21, 2014, he filled in for drummer John Cowsill on a sold out Beach Boys concert in Princeton, Illinois. On June 24, 2016, Carlos issued his first-ever solo album, Greetings From Bunezuela!, with Jon E Brant.

Early life

Carlson was born in Rockford, Illinois, on June 12. The year of his birth is reportedly 1950, 1951, or 1953. His parents were Edwin and Violet (née Nelles) Carlson. Carlson was the third of six children. He has two older siblings (Kurt and Jan) and three younger ones (Mark, Gini, and Edwin). Carlson's elder brother, Kurt, was a major in the United States Army Reserve when, on June 14, 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by terrorists belonging to Hezbollah. He was brutally beaten, nearly to death and was held for 17 days aboard the aircraft in Beirut, Lebanon.

Carlson attended Lincoln Junior High School and graduated from Guilford High School, where fellow students included Nielsen and Tom Petersson. Carlson's friendship with Rick Nielsen began in 1963. Carlson and Nielsen met after Carlson's sister, Jan, came home from school one day and said Nielsen was throwing rocks at her. Carlson played football in the fall of 1966 in his sophomore year. He quit the team because he preferred to play music (and be paid for it) than sit on the bench for an entire game.

Carlson came from a family with extensive musical interests. Carlson family oral history says that Carlson's great-grandfather was a drummer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Carlson's father played the accordion, his mother played keyboards and several other instruments, and his brother Kurt was a drummer in the Guilford High School band,

Carlson did not start paying attention to music until about 1962 or 1963, when songs like The Twist, Return to Sender, and Sugar Shack became chart toppers. He initially taught himself to play piano, but when The Beatles' first single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", received radio airplay in the United States, Carlson became a fan and decided to switch to drums. His mother gave him a Sonor drum kit for his 14th birthday. He began taking formal lessons, but was frustrated by having to constantly change the sticking instructions because he was left-handed. Carlson gave up formal lessons and instead taught himself to play the drums by playing along with songs on the radio or jukebox. He was particularly impressed by the drumming of Ginger Baker, co-founder of the British rock band Cream.

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Early musical career

Carlson, as a student, competed in The Pagans, a group that was from 1966 to 1968. The band recorded a single: the A-side was a recreation of The Beatles' 1966 hit "Good Day Sunshine," and B-side a recreation of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything." The single appeared on local radio broadcasts in Chicago and WROK in Rockford, and the band sold about 1,500 copies at local record shops, making The Pagans hometown stars. In 1969, the Pagans split up, and Carlson appeared in Probe and the Lost Souls, another local band (which later changed the name to Albatross).

Carlson received an exemption from the draft at Rock Valley Junior College in 1969. For a brief period at this point, he and Robin Zander, the future lead singer of Cheap Trick, were members of the same band. Carlson appeared in backup bands for Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and the Shirelles for a brief period of time.

Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson formed a band in 1969 and named it Fuse. Carlson dropped out of college and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Nielsen and Petersson. The Fuse of Europe shortened its name to Sick Man of Europe. Carlson, the band's drummer, had changed his stage name to Bun E. Carlos in 1970. Carlson and the band toured Germany, with Nielsen taking over the bassist's duties.

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