Bun E. Carlos

Born Brad M. Carlson, Bun E. Carlos serves as the congenial and skillful timekeeper, historian, and song-sequence architect for the celebrated Cheap Trick, hailing from Rockford, Illinois. After stepping away from the oldies circuit, he sharpened his avuncular stage presence and reliable groove while the group advanced from hometown favorites to international headliners, cresting during a short-lived peak in the late 1970s. A notable highlight arrived when he collaborated with John Lennon in 1980. The quartet navigated a challenging stretch through the 1980s before “The Flame” reached the top of the charts in 1988—their sole number-one single, which all four members disliked as a formulaic power ballad. Carlos conducted drum workshops, produced the Blues Hawks, and joined guitarist Rick Nielsen in supporting Jim Peterik’s project World Stage. Following a period of relative quiet, he reemerged in 2009 by assembling Tinted Windows alongside Taylor Hanson of Hanson, James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins, and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne; the supergroup issued a single album and completed a short tour. In 2011 he launched Candy Golde, which delivered only one EP. Legal disputes with his Cheap Trick colleagues were eventually resolved, allowing the original lineup to receive induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, where they shared a stage for the first time in years. Later that year Carlos issued the solo covers collection Greetings from Bunezuela!, drawing material from the Bee Gees, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Guided by Voices; Robert Pollard of the latter appeared on the opening track “Do Something Real.” Fellow Tinted Windows member Taylor Hanson contributed alongside his brothers, while Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and John Stirratt of Wilco also lent their voices.