Brian Carroll is the real name of the avant-garde guitarist, Buckethead. The reason behind his alter-ago is that Brian(Buckethead) has terrible stage fright and is an extremely shy individual, so he hides behind "Buckethead". That's pretty much all that is known about the person behind the bucket. He was given lessons by Paul Gilbert(RacerX, Mr. Big, Solo) for a year as a teen. Here's how he got the idea for the bucket and mask.
"Nobody much liked the 1988 fright flick "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers." After 10 years, this slasher franchise was pretty much played out. (Even though it's still with us today!) But Brian Carroll was inspired by the film. He went right out after seeing it and bought a Michael Myers-like white mask. Then, that night, as he was eating from a bucketful of take-out fried chicken, another inspiration struck. He described it in a 1996 interview with Guitar Player magazine: "I was eating it, and I put the mask on and then the bucket on my head. I went to the mirror. I just said, 'Buckethead. That's Buckethead right there.' It was just one of those things. After that, I wanted to be that thing all the time." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.