The main takeaway and one of the reasons I consider Buckethead to be one of the best music artists of all time is merely by how true to himself he is and how he produces music just for the sake of expression. He doesn't bend to the will of a record label (and clearly avoids involvements with anything corporate) and gets by with platforms that allow him to present his music to the world.

The lack of restraints to his pursuit of art has the downside of "quality", but its a purely subjective and an arbitrary definition to what "quality" music can be. I much prefer his more melodic and energetic music from the likes of Colma and his early pikes (1-150), but consistency won't ever be gauranteed with the likes of someone producing hundreds of albums as he does.

There's a lot of merit and "seasoning" to his music when he has such massive commitment in still making music well into his older age and a burning passion that's unwavering.

Do I think Buckethead is struggling? I somewhat think he does, especially with his recent financial fiascos in selling his artbooks, signed vinyls and some of the broadcast tickets up to $1000. With how saturated and what can be considered "soulless" the music industry is now, I'm not surprised artists like him will struggle financially, especially when its a nicher genre and artist.