In 2011, Buckethead began releasing albums in the "Pike" series, mini-albums usually around 30 minutes in length, each with a sequential number similar to a comic book.

He has released collaborative albums with Brain, Travis Dickerson, Melissa Reese, Viggo Mortensen, Shin Terai, DJ Disk, Bootsy Collins, That 1 Guy and albums with the bands Praxis, Cornbugs, Science Faxtion, Guns N' Roses, Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, and Deli Creeps, in addition to many other collaborations with bands and artists.

From 2000-2004, Buckethead was a lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses, recording on the long-delayed Chinese Democracy (2008) album and performing with the band on the first legs of the accompanying tour.

Buckethead performs wearing a KFC bucket on his head, sometimes emblazoned with an orange bumper sticker reading FUNERAL in block letters.

His early teachers included Max McGuire, Johnny Fortune, Mark Hammond, Pebber Brown, Joey Tafolla, and Paul Gilbert.

After that, I wanted to be that thing all the time.In October 2017, Carroll gave a rare out-of-character interview discussing all ranges of his life, the Buckethead character, his parents' deaths, his health problems, and how he copes with overcoming fear.

It was a runner-up, with editors writing: An astonishingly skilled guitarist and bassist, he demonstrates post-Paul Gilbert speed and accuracy filtered through very kinky harmonic sensibilities.

The song "Brazos" was eventually released on the 1991 demo tape of his band Deli Creeps, titled "Tribal Rites", and again as bonus material in Buckethead's Secret Recipe DVD in 2006.

After some legal complications with Sony Music Entertainment, Buckethead decided to release his 1994 album Dreamatorium under the name of Death Cube K (an anagram).

Death Cube K is a separate entity that looks like a photographic negative version of Buckethead with a black chrome mask, like Darth Vader.

[20]Buckethead released a second studio album that year, Giant Robot, which features many guest appearances by artists such as Iggy Pop and Bill Moseley.

Further releases were Arcana's second and final studio album Arc of the Testimony in which he played with noted drummer Tony Williams and the one-off project Pieces, with Brain.

[24] Buckethead began three new projects that year, the first being the band Cornbugs, a collaboration with actor Bill Moseley, drummer Pinchface, and later keyboardist Travis Dickerson.

Another project, Cobra Strike with an album called The 13th Scroll, featured Pinchface, Bryan "Brain" Mantia, DJ Disk, and Bill Laswell.

Buckethead also began a collaboration with actor Viggo Mortensen, whom he first met through a recording project called Myth: Dreams of the World[25] in 1996.

The first was the progressive rock band Thanatopsis (named after a poem by William Cullen Bryant[31]) with Travis Dickerson and drummer Ramy Antoun;[32] this group went on to release four albums.

The latter includes "Spokes for the Wheel of Torment," for which Syd Garon and Eric Henry made a music video based on the famous triptychs by Hieronymus Bosch.

Buckethead also recorded the final two albums by the Cornbugs, Brain Circus and Donkey Town as well as another release with Viggo Mortensen called Please Tomorrow and a second with Shin Terai, titled Heaven & Hell.

The album features Tankian himself, Maximum Bob (of the Deli Creeps), Death by Stereo singer Efrem Shulz, Bad Acid Trip and others.

In 2006, the cross-console video game Guitar Hero II was launched, featuring Buckethead's song "Jordan" as an unlockable bonus track.

He also released an album with Travis Dickerson, called Chicken Noodles, a move that would see the start of a four-year long collaboration with the keyboardist.

That same year, it was revealed that Buckethead joined a project by the name of Science Faxtion, a band featuring bassist Bootsy Collins and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, with Greg Hampton supplying lead vocals.

Bootsy Collins continued to update his Twitter Web site about Buckethead's condition, stating that he had recently gone into therapy for a few months.

[53] During his absence from touring and other projects, Buckethead's solo release schedule increased speed dramatically- reaching a peak in 2015 with 118 albums, around one every three days on average.

The sixty-fifth installment, Hold Me Forever (In memory of my mom Nancy York Carroll), honored Buckethead's mother, who had recently died.

The album originally released as a free digital download on December 24 (Christmas Eve), included a dedication "to those who lost loved ones" in the title track.

Inbred Mountain, The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock, Crime Slunk Scene, Decoding the Tomb of Bansheebot, Albino Slug, Slaughterhouse on the Prairie, A Real Diamond in the Rough, and Shadows Between the Sky have all been announced so far.

Buckethead cites a wide variety of musical influences, including Michael Jackson, Parliament-Funkadelic, Shawn Lane, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Eddie Hazel, Randy Rhoads, Larry LaLonde, Mike Patton, James Cutri, Louis Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Jennifer Batten, The Residents, Eddie Van Halen, and Angus Young as well as the many artists he has collaborated with over the years.

[70] In addition to his musical influences, Buckethead cites a diverse range of non-musical influences, out of which dedicated songs to said inspirations have been a staple of Buckethead's discography, with particular attention to basketball players like Michael Jordan (songs "Jordan" and "Jump Man", album "Happy Birthday MJ 23"), George Gervin (on "Iceman"), Blake Griffin (on "Crack the Sky" and "Griffin's Spike"), "Pistol" Pete Maravich (on "The Mark of Davis"), LeBron James (with four songs dedicated to him), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (album "Kareem's Footprint").

Other influences include martial artist and actor Bruce Lee (on "The Game of Death" song and inspiration behind the use of nunchakus on stage), author H. P. Lovecraft (on the "Lurker at the Threshold" suite, and his 55th Pike, The Miskatonic Scale), numerous science fiction and horror TV shows and movies including Little House on the Prairie, Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain (on Kaleidoscalp), and Giant Robot (mentioned on several songs, albums, and episodes shown on stage).