As the frontman of the seminal grunge band Melvins, Buzz Osbourne has made a lot of noise over the past four decades, but he’ll be turning the volume down just a hair for his acoustic tour.
The outing, which launches Thursday in Pioneertown, California, finds Osbourne performing under his solo King Buzzo moniker alongside bassist Trevor Dunn of the equally influential Mr. Bungle. While the instruments will be unplugged, Osborne tells ABC Audio that the energy will still be electric.
“I might be singing a little quieter, maybe, but I doubt by much,” Osborne says. “I have a pretty loud voice.”
“I want it to be intense,” he adds. “I want people to get the same kinda feeling that they would [at an electric show].”
Osbourne feels that he approaches an acoustic show differently from other rock musicians who might “end up wearing cowboy boots and sitting down on a stool” when going unplugged.
“That’s not what I’m trying to do, at all,” he laughs.
During the shows, you can expect to hear songs from Osborne’s two Buzzo records, 2014’s This Machine Kills Artists and 2020’s Gift of Sacrifice, the latter of which he recorded with Dunn. The set list will also include a few Melvins tunes, as well as some “cool solo bass stuff” from Dunn.
“We’re gonna mix in some of [Dunn] doing the stuff he does best,” Osborne says.
Osborne and Dunn are previewing the tour with a new video for their cover of the song “Sidewalk Begging” by the punk band the Dicks.