Rock Royalty Speaks: A Candid Interview with Brian Forsythe of KIX and Rhino Bucket at Rocknpod 2025

At Nashville Rocks, we’re all about shining a spotlight on artists who’ve shaped the soundtrack of our lives—and few have done that quite like Brian Forsythe, lead guitarist of the legendary rock band KIX who is also, currently, with Rhino Bucket.

In this exclusive interview, now available on our YouTube channel, Brian opens up like never before. From the early days of grinding it out to playing packed arenas during the golden era of hair metal rock, Brian shares stories that are equal parts inspiring and raw. You’ll hear firsthand about the brotherhood behind the band, and the highs and lows that come with decades in the music industry.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering KIX or Rhino Bucket for the first time, this conversation is a must-watch. Brian’s laid-back storytelling, musical insight, and genuine passion for rock ‘n’ roll will keep you hooked from start to finish.

Why Watch?
Because this isn’t just another rock interview—it’s a rare, unfiltered look at one of the genre’s unsung guitar heroes. You’ll laugh, you’ll nod along, and you’ll definitely want to revisit your favorite KIX and Rhino Bucket tracks afterward.

Don’t miss this chance to catch up with one of rock’s true road warriors.
Watch the full interview now on the Nashville Rocks YouTube Channel!
And while you’re there, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more behind-the-scenes stories from your favorite artists.

VIDEO

Transcription of Interview

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:09:23

00:00:09:23 – 00:00:24:22
All right, everybody, we’re here at Rocknpod 2025 yet again at the Nashville Fairgrounds. And we’re privileged to be joined by Brian Forsythe. Buddy, I appreciate you coming out and taking the time to talk with us. Yeah. My pleasure. Man, we got we have so many questions.

00:00:24:23 – 00:00:44:17
And I’ve got my partner here, my partner in crime, Tommy. And I know he has a thousand questions for you. I was just just a huge fan. Man. Very excited to see you here. So, I want to start off by saying I saw you guys here in town. I think it was. It was at the old Municipal Auditorium, which is now, I don’t know what they call it now.

00:00:44:19 – 00:01:05:20
It’s like the state building or something, I don’t know what it’s called, but and I remember, I think, matter of fact, I think you were with me, if I remember correctly. And I remember the bassist coming in during soundcheck or something. I remember my chest rattling and my whole body was rattling from how loud you guys were. How’s your hearing doing?

00:01:05:22 – 00:01:32:09
Good. Considering. Consider considering, So, let’s let’s go all the way back to the beginning, if that’s okay with you. What really led. Was there ever an inspiration point to you as a kid? That said, you know, I think I’m. I might be good at music. Well, even before that, when I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

00:01:32:14 – 00:01:51:18
Oh my gosh. I mean, I didn’t know I was only like, I know, kindergarten or first grade or something like that. And it it made me want to do it, but I didn’t know if I was any good yet. Okay. Okay. Like. Like every kid. That’s all the Beatles, right? Right, right. So what made you pick it up?

00:01:54:23 – 00:02:15:13
Well. It’s weird. You know, like, when when something inspires me. I there’s this gap like. Well, how do you do that? You know. Right. So it took a while. First you have to learn. So. So at first, I just faked it, and and just me and my brothers just pretended to play an air guitar and write with.

00:02:15:15 – 00:02:36:23
I don’t know what we used. We did this, like, like a tennis racket or something. We did that. Years later, you know, Brooms, hairbrushes, anything you can get Ahold of and, Yeah. And I’m left handed. So. So, I saw Paul McCartney. I go, oh, he plays. That’s that’s how I could do it. And I didn’t realize he was a bass player.

00:02:37:01 – 00:02:59:13
I just thought it was a guitar. Right. But, my. Then my brother, my older brother, my, my father got a acoustic guitar from S&H Green Stamps. I don’t know if you remember those. I don’t, I don’t get I remember. I remember Green Stamps, but I don’t remember like it wasn’t Green Stamps. Like like you feel and say oh yeah.

00:02:59:13 – 00:03:22:06
Yeah. And then you. Yeah. He cast him in on a acoustic, cheap acoustic guitar. And then my older brother took it over and learned how to play a little bit like he played Bob Dylan songs and size. So when I was about eight years old, I started well, first I started left handed and I eventually switched to right handed.

00:03:22:08 – 00:03:40:09
But, my brother taught me, like, all the basics, right? Right. All right. I’m going to be jumping all over the place with my questions, because that’s all right. I’m just that way. But let’s talk about, like, you’re touring. You guys are still you’re still going to play it, right? No, not with kicks. Actually, I had the pleasure.

00:03:40:09 – 00:04:05:21
Yeah, I had the pleasure of seeing them on their last tour Twice. Okay. And, they still had it. I mean, you guys are amazing. Not everybody hangs it up when they’re still good. Right. So what was the reasoning for that? Good question. This is why you’re here. Well, because we we saw so many other bands that should have hung it up and didn’t.

00:04:05:22 – 00:04:27:02
True. And we didn’t want to be one of those and get that. And mostly it’s it was our singer’s decision because, you know, because the singer, he I mean, he’s he’s out front and you know, it’s it’s different with a guitar. You can sort of fake it. It’s sort of, approaching more power chords, but you can’t with vocals.

00:04:27:04 – 00:04:46:08
And he was he was starting to struggle a little bit. I mean, it wasn’t that noticeable. A lot of bands to replace him and you guys were like, we’re not going to do that. No. There was a brief moment where across our minds we thought, well, oh, could we replace him? But he’s more than just the singer. He’s the sound.

00:04:46:10 – 00:05:11:22
He was an entertainer. And and to find somebody, I mean, it’s just to replace him that there would be just too much missing. So if you’re not touring now, what are you doing to satisfy your creativity? You’re feeding the deer. I’m so full on retirement. No. No, you can’t full on retire right now. You’re on stage. Other side of this.

00:05:12:03 – 00:05:36:22
That’s all you. He’s lying. False. He’s lying. Yeah. But I always say, you do go out. You’re going out and playing, and, I’m still playing with Rhino bucket. And so, I mean, we don’t play that often. But yeah, I’ve got that sort of to fall back on, but I’ve got my eyes open. I’m sort of looking around.

00:05:37:03 – 00:06:05:09
Gotcha, gotcha. Let’s talk about the touring years, like you guys. You’ve toured obviously everywhere, right? Yeah. Probably all over the world. Well, mostly. Yeah. Was between Kicks and Rhino, but, yeah, I’ve been everywhere. Yeah. How have you seen the the touring industry kind of change over the years from when, you know, let’s say when Don’t Close Your Eyes was like this huge hit.

00:06:05:09 – 00:06:13:22
And as you guys continued to play, how does that how did tour really change?

00:06:14:00 – 00:06:39:08
Well, we, we we took that break like a ten year break. During the 90s. Then when we came back, it was more fly dates. Okay. You know, just fly for a weekend, do a couple shows, then fly home. Before that was all bus, right? It was van or whatever, but every band has a has a minivan story.

00:06:39:08 – 00:07:12:02
Probably. Yeah. But, Yeah, mostly what’s changed just is like record companies. I mean, nothing’s the same as far as the music industry. Yeah. It’s crazy. What does that look like to you now? As as you’re kind of seeing what other bands are doing and what how they’re having to promote their music. Like what? What is your outlook on like, okay, you see an independent band and you’re thinking about what you guys did to get your music out there and what they’re having to do now.

00:07:12:04 – 00:07:36:18
Well, it’s weird with the internet and, you know, social media and all that. I mean, you know, I wanted to, but somebody can come along and just boom, you know, they’re huge, right? And they don’t even have a band. You know, it’s. Yeah. That’s true. It’s weird. It’s I don’t know I don’t know if that was possible. Back in the old days, everybody was looking for a record label back then, right?

00:07:36:19 – 00:08:01:11
Yeah. Now it’s like you don’t even need a record label. Correct? But it’s like, I don’t know, a lot of it’s self-promotion and and all this stuff, like, I’m not good at that. Everybody’s got their thing. Yours is guitar, right? So what, how do you think you’re playing? Style has really changed over the years. It’s like, oh.

00:08:01:13 – 00:08:28:15
It really hasn’t. You like your thing and you stick with it. Well, yeah. It’s like my influences growing up and and and in my early days of playing, those are still. That’s still what I rely on now. What you love is like, you know, I literally Beatles influenced. Yeah. Yeah, sort of Beatles. But you know, further on, like, you know, cream.

00:08:28:15 – 00:08:56:20
And then then there was, there was the Allman Brothers and Leonard Skynyrd and Z.z Top and that all those excellent influences out and then, then AC, DC, AC, DC was probably my Ma. I can’t say my last real influence, but a big one. Yeah. Yeah. It was a big influence on on the band, but yeah. Like when Van Halen came along, I’d already, you know, I you’d already had your stuff.

00:08:56:22 – 00:09:23:20
Yeah, yeah. So that wasn’t that didn’t influence me at all like that. The whole 80s thing was all Van Halen influence, right? That’s true. Yeah. So since you’re kind of semi-retired, are you are you involved at all in finding New Talent? looking for people that you’re like, hey, you know what? You should you should be doing this.

00:09:23:22 – 00:09:45:17
Not really. So I don’t go out much. How long have you been in that? Do you like the idea right. You live in Nashville? Yeah. So how long have you been here? About six years now. Okay. And have you seen the resurgence of metal music in Nashville? It seems like a lot of young bands. It seems like it’s grown.

00:09:45:17 – 00:10:12:07
It’s exploded. And you’ve been here? Yeah. I mean, even before I moved here, you know, you think about Nashville, you think country music. Exactly. And it’s not. It’s everything. It’s. Yeah. And, well, especially like, well, I, I try to avoid Broadway, but with down Broadway that you walk around down there and and and there’s a couple places that I’ll have a country band, but you don’t hear country.

00:10:12:10 – 00:10:33:20
Yeah. It’s weird. Yeah. Yeah. Very true, very true. What was your, what was your deciding factor to come to Nashville? The home prices. Yeah, I was in California. Yeah. And and I got a buddy out there. I know exactly what you’re talking about. Man, between the home prices and gasoline. Yeah, it’s just a ridiculous.

00:10:33:21 – 00:10:58:05
Yeah. And and, I mean, I was out there for 26 years, and the girls, my girlfriend at out there, when our relationship ended, she owned the house, so I was, like, all sudden, I was, like, out on my own. Like, I had to leave, and I go, what am I going to do now? Like, I’m a fully established musician here, and I don’t have a house.

00:10:58:05 – 00:11:22:02
What’s going on? And I, I couldn’t imagine paying a rent because the rent out there is is more than a mortgage. Sure. So I said, well, I gotta do something. And I was looking around out there for something to buy. Yeah, but what I could afford wasn’t what I wanted. And it was high. And then not, few of my friends had moved here before.

00:11:22:04 – 00:11:41:02
Before me. And they were telling me about how how it seems like a lot of. And we know this to be true, but it seems like a lot of the rock stars are moving to Nashville. Is that right? You think that’s primarily the the deciding factor is the fact that, hey, we got cost of living in LA is nuts.

00:11:41:02 – 00:12:02:00
Yeah. We can come to Nashville. We have all all the studios. We can still do our creative bit, but we can afford a nice place out here as opposed to, yeah, that’s well that’s that’s kind of that’s for most other half of it. The other half is the music scene’s really happening. Yeah. And it pretty much dried out a dried up out in L.A now like Rhino Bucket.

00:12:02:00 – 00:12:23:09
It’s LA based and we couldn’t we couldn’t get a show, gig around y’all couldn’t get a show. We’d have to go out of towns to play as well. You know, I’ve told, like, in the earlier years in Nashville, I’ve always been a big proponent, a proponent of independent music in Nashville. And I’ve always told like independent. Oh, you want to make money?

00:12:23:09 – 00:12:41:03
Has a they actually make money. You got to play outside. And, yeah. Because in Nashville there’s a lot of tips going on. Right. There’s a lotta, you know, you know, you can play, we’ll give you some beer, you know, like, yeah, I have a good time. But if you wanted to actually make money with your band, you had to play outside of Nashville.

00:12:41:03 – 00:12:59:04
Say you’re Nashville band. Play outside, make some real money. Yeah, I guess that’s so. It’s the same situation, only on a different level. Except in LA, we couldn’t even get booked right. Couldn’t even get a gig. Well, we, every once in a while, there’s, like, like maybe two places that we could play, but we can’t play there that often

00:12:59:04 – 00:13:24:11
And so I think we’re seeing a connection here between LA drying up and Nashville’s metal scene exploding. Right? Yeah. Well, if anybody wants to find out more about what you’re up to, do, you have, like, are you still, like, promoting doing website thing and all that, or are you just like, I’m going to pop up somewhere and you’re going to see me shred on the stage and you’re going to see me walk behind the curtain?

00:13:24:13 – 00:13:45:03
Well, I’m on Facebook, you know, I got my, my Facebook thing and and, Instagram. Okay. But that’s mostly food. But yeah, I know I’m kind of embarrassed because my websites link to those things and you go to my website, it’s just you’re just touching my food. I know, dear, do you have pictures of bearded?

00:13:45:05 – 00:14:14:20
Well, I do on Instagram cause. But I didn’t see y’all. We’re going to have deer on some I but my website I haven’t updated it in probably ten years. It’s just sitting there. It’s like I’m. I need a a website manager or something, but I mostly do Facebook and Instagram. Yeah, yeah, I got you. I got some, you know, if somebody wants to reach out to me, you know, it’s that’s actually me out there.

00:14:14:20 – 00:14:33:07
So that’s why those are. Well, I want to say thank you personally for coming and being a part of a show like this and sitting down with unknowns like me. Yeah, exactly. And allowing us in an interview like this with someone that man we listened to from the time. Yeah, from the time we were teens to now. Yeah.

00:14:33:07 – 00:14:40:06
So what did super appreciate it. Well my pleasure. All right. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Appreciate.

00:14:40:06 – 00:14:59:16