Damien High School is a private, all-boys Catholic High School in La Verne, California that is known for its excellent sports program. A bunch of famous people graduated from Damien including home run hitter Mark McGwire, former 400 meter hurdles world record holder Geoff Wanderstock, wide receiver Freddie Brown, pirates pitcher Cody Ponce, and, you guessed it, Buckethead!
It seems weird that Buckethead went to school with all of these super avid athletes, but it’s because Buckethead’s dad was the athletic director of Damien high school for several decades, and probably personally coached most of the athletes who made it to the big leagues!
Tom Carroll was Buckethead’s primary exposure to the love of athletics in general.
Tom and Damien High School can be attributed to the inspiration behind probably all of Buckethead’s sports-related songs and albums, and likely "The Melting Man" from Pike 7, the Shores of Molokai.
The Melting Man may be inspired from the 1977 horror film ‘The Incredible Melting Man,’ or the melting guy from Nightmare Before Christmas, but I think that it comes from Damien High school’s namesake, St. Damien de Veuster.
Damien de Veuster was a Flemish saint who was famous for caring for the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai for over a decade. St. Damien contacted leprosy, most likely from prolonged exposure to the other lepers on the island. Lepers suffer from significant nerve and tissue damage, which sorta makes you look like you’re melting. Hence, the melting man on the Shores of Molokai.
St. Damien de Veuster was also known as St. Damien de Molokai. The fact that the initial release of the song "The Melting Man" just so happens to appear on the album The Shores of Molokai (where the lepers were treated by St. Damien himself) makes me think that the Melting Man is St. Damien himself, after he contracted leprosy.
Whether this is fact or fiction is unclear, but either way, kudos to Damien High School for inspiring Buckethead to write some of his greatest songs.
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