Born: May 24th
Where: Naples, Italy
Instrument: Bass

"Every day is Christmas, and every night's New Year's Eve."

This is true of Jimmy "Two Fingers" Ashhurst's life today… this was not always the case.

Jimmy was born and raised until the age of 17 in Naples, Italy; the son of a U.S. Army Colonel and a classically Neapolitan mother.  Growing up overseas afforded him at a very early age many opportunities to travel, and by the age of 14 he was taking full advantage by hitchhiking summers throughout Europe.  He wound up one summer in London, and having already been bitten by the rock n roll bug was taken in by Rat Scabies, of England's infamous punk band, The Damned.  It was at Rat's house that he was informed he was "…a useless human being and should learn how to play an instrument immediately".  He did. A year later found him in Los Angeles playing with the critically acclaimed band The Broken Homes, a band which also spawned Craig Ross of Lenny Kravitz Band fame, and which landed him his first major label deal at age 18.

After three albums and several tours which included supporting slots for Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Thunders, and many others, the band disbanded. "That was a great band. Those songs still hold up today, but we were doin' Temptations and Chuck Berry songs when the rest of the world was rockin to latex and Aqua Net...we didn't stand a chance."

He quickly joined his long time friend Marc Ford in Burning Tree, but when Marc was recruited by the Black Crowes, Jimmy got a call from another long time friend Izzy Stradlin, founding member and main songwriter of Guns n Roses.

Izzy and Jimmy together orchestrated the creation of The Ju Ju Hounds, who recruited Rick Richards (Georgia Satellites), and Chalo Quintana (Bob Dylan, now with Social Distortion) and quickly embarked upon what would become a four year whirlwind tour that would cover every continent except Antarctica.

When Izzy decided to move on to "other things", Jimmy found himself for the first time in over a decade without a band…which broke his heart and proved to be his temporary undoing.

After several years of self-imposed exile and "retirement-in-protest" from the music business; and after having recovered somewhat from numerous "social ailments" he had acquired during this traumatic period, he ran into Keith Nelson on one of the rare evenings he made it out of the house.

"All I knew of Buckcherry when I met Keith was that I had seen their name on bus benches here in Hollywood while I'd be waitin on the downtown bus…I was like…Who're these cats and how'd they get bus benches?"

He soon found out.  This is the rock n roll band he's been waiting for all his life.

Partial list of sessions and musicians Jimmy's played or recorded with:

Joe Strummer, Joe Cocker, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan, Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter, Stiv Bators, The Black Crowes (mandolin on Amorica)…and many more.

Jimmy Ashhurst's Buckcherry Blog

2006
22 Dec 2006 at 4:24pm
Thank you so much all you wonderful people for helping to make this past year an unforgettable one for me and for the rest of the guys. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all of you and your familie...