Guns N' Roses 2009

 

What the Spies Said

Notes from the arena dress rehearsals in LA:

Richard Fortus is playing through a 1973 Jose Marshall along with a Friedman "Marsha" amp and some modified Randall modules, all driven by a Randall RT-2 power amp. His pedals are incorporated with all of the above (pictured) and are racked and switched through a custom system built by Dave Friedman of Rack Systems Ltd. Fortus has 2 Randall isolation cabinets with Celestion Golds and Celestion G12H loudspeakers. He's playing a Chet Atkins Gretsch guitar, a Gibson ES-335 and a bunch of Fender Telecasters and Gibson Les Pauls.

DJ is also using a "Marsha," as well as a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier tube amp. The Mesa Boogie plugs into a 4x12 with Golds and the Marsha is using V30's. DJ has a ton of different Les Paul's he's playing with.

Ron is sticking with his Engl heads played through Marshall 4x12s. He's using Vigier guitars. He has a double-neck Vigier with a fretless.

... And, just in case you were wondering, the lineup is still: Axl, Dizzy, Tommy, Chris, Richard, Ron, DJ and Frank

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=628969

Slash Can Stand Under Rihanna's Um-ber-ella

(Slash & MJ photo via gunsnfuckingroses.tumblr.com)

I guess she figures: "Why put Richard Fortus on your record, when you can just use the 'real deal?'"



Music producer BigChris Flores released some great news via Twitter! Looks like Rihanna is taking her rock edge to a new level by working with rock royalty.

The music producer updated his Twitter with the following messages:

- Got L.A. Reid coming to the studio with Slash today, to lay guitars on a new Rihanna song.

- Session with Slash for Rihanna went great.

(via examiner.com)

Slash contributes guitar to the appropriately titled "Rockstar 101."

In the video below, Slash talks about his collaboration with Japanese Singer Koshi Inaba (thanks Blabbermouth).

Dizzy Fucking Reed

via Blabbermouth
DFR, the band featuring Dizzy Reed and Richard Fortus, Mike Duda and Mike Dupke (W.A.S.P.) and Todd Youth (Danzig, D-Generation, The Chelsea Smiles), will perform this Saturday, September 26 at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood, California.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Ages are 15 and up. Tickets are $18.00 in advance. Tickets will be $22.00 at the door. Also appearing on the bill is Vains OF Jenna.

For more information, visit www.ClubVodka.com

For further discussion: DFR: Dizzy F!n' Reed & Richard Fortus @ Club Vodka

Slash and Steven Adler at the Viper Room

Slash and Steven Adler joined Aces & Eights on stage!

Slash: "Going to the Viper Room is like going back in time a couple decades everytime I go there, like a time warp. Cool, but disorienting."


"It's So Easy"

Richard Fortus: "Playing the last show at the Viper Room tonight with Dizzy at midnight"

Dizzy Reed: "Viper Room tonight. Playing some new original songs with Richard Fortus and other surprise Guest Stars. You don't wanna miss this! Come and rock!"


Photos via twitter by T.J.Roe. http://twitter.com/@intr0vert

Richard and Dizzy at the Viper Room, Part Deux

It's a Guns N' Roses reunion!



[Part One]

Thanks to: Matt Larsen.

Dizzy Reed at the Viper Room

Try as I might, I can't seem to find much information on Dizzy Reed's shows at the Viper Room.

I was able to find this blurry picture from his performance there last Saturday night, but that's it so far. Apparently, he's showcasing some new songs from his "upcoming" solo album. I haven't been able to find out any song titles yet.

I also found this:

August 15

Summer Fest 2009 featuring Natasha Bedingfield, 3 Days Grace, 7 Bridges, Draw the Line, Tessane Chin, Dizzy Reed and Richard Fortus of Guns N' Roses and Secret Po Po at the National Stadium. General admission $75, $105 reserved on the field, and $205 VIP. Doors open at 5.30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Go to www.bdatix.com for tickets. (The Royal Gazette)

Don't Be A Dick

Appetite for Discussion
Interview with Richard Fortus

What's your favorite track from Chinese Democracy; what about GN'R in general?

Favorite track from CD is probably "Chinese," but it's hard to say and changes often. As far as a favorite GN'R track ... It's one YOU haven't heard yet!

You can read the entire interview here.

As a fan, I find comments like the above particularly insensitive considering Axl's comments regarding the follow-up album, "have no idea and don't care. Hopefully, we'll be working Chinese for a good bit. Of course there's the same idiots that have been around forever already demanding release dates."

Maybe Dick shouldn't be such a tease.

Thanks for the interview ... I guess.

Bumblefoot Interview - Brazilian Guitar Player Magazine

There's a "new" Bumblefoot interview in the current issue of Brazilian Guitar Player Magazine (with Joe Satriani on the cover).

It's pretty much the same Bumblefoot interview we've read several times before - but at least he's talking!

Guns N' Roses' Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal
by Henrique Inglez de Souza

Delayed, expensive, polemic. Those are some of the most common words for Chinese Democracy, the so spoken of latest album from Guns N' Roses. Released at the end of 2008, it was the first studio record in 15 years and brought significant changes. Among other things, the band is really different from the time they had Slash. The band's hard rock added eletronic music elements and now has not only two, but three guitar players - the current ones are Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Richard Fortus and DJ Ashba.

Putting aside comparsions, Chinese Democracy is historic. Now you can read this exclusive interview with Bumblefoot, one of the five guitar players who recorded the album.

How do you join Guns N' Roses?

In 2004, Joe Satriani put me in contact with managers, producers and band members.

When did you record your parts for Chinese Democracy?

Before the North-American tour in 2006, in Los Angeles studios. After the tour, we finished in New York, in the begining of 2007.

What was your work?

When I joined the band, the songs were already written and recorded. I added my parts and some new stuff, like the fretless guitar in the title-track verses. We spent 10 hours or more a day in the studio. I recorded everything I brought, testing different ideas with the fretless guitar for rhythm and solos. At the end of each day, we heard the material and decided the final touches.

What was your gear in those recordings?

For the most part, I kept a simple setup: Gibson Les Paul plugged in a Marshall JCM800. Sometimes I used a wah-wah (Vox or Dunlop) or distortion (Boss Blues Driver). I used a lot of the fretless guitar Vigier Surfreter.

Your tone mixes rawness with some blues.

Yeah, it's a classic rock very simple, which creates a good contrast and balance with the other guitar tones in the album. We tried some amps and also different guitars and pickups setups for each song. We tried everything and we chose the best tones. Credit goes to the sound engineer guys and producers, they were amazing.

Are there songs for two more albums besides Chinese Democracy? Are you making some kind of trilogy?

I wouldn't expect a trilogy because I learned that each album gets its own life and it doesn't matter if we want to plan this kind of thing. It doesn't always work. The songs on Chinese Democracy were not all of what we recorded. There's more and we expect to use it on the next albums.

Which of the old songs do you like to play live?

Some because of its energy and groove, like "My Michelle" and "It's So Easy," others for the solos, like "Nightrain" and "November Rain," besides the ones the crowd loves like "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City."

Do you keep the original line or come up with something new in the old songs solos?

In some I keep faithful to the original because there is solos that are more than just solos. They are an important melody and gives an identity to the song. To change it would be like changing the lyrics. This is the case in "November Rain" ending solo. But in songs like "Nightrain" and "Paradise City" I can jam something different every night, playing with my inspiration.

How do you, Fortus and DJ share the guitar parts?

In a general way, I do the most crazy stuff, DJ gets the melodic parts and Fortus plays something in the middle of all this. It's a good way of keep our identity in this wall of guitars. We do something like that in the rhythm, when I play the low tonic of the chords and riffs with the bass. Fortus fills up the rest of the chords while DJ puts something on top of that. This is the general idea, but it all depends on what sound better for each song. We're getting along well and working a lot on our guitar sounds. We tried different instruments and heads. We're polishing the sound that the crowd will hear, which is very important. After all, whats the use of getting a great guitar tone on stage if the sound that makes to the crowd is bad? Everyone, band and staff, worked hard to make sure that the sound that people hear will be the best.

Is there a solo on the new album that could be as classic as Sweet Child O' Mine?

Oh, I don't know! The current band and the old one sound different. It's hard to say. I'm more of a fan of the song as a whole than the solos. To me, "Sorry" and "This I Love" stand out from the others in a general way. "Better" could also be the song of this album. It starts with a remarkable riff. It has a cool sound.

Are you inspired by any of the Guns N' Roses ex-guitarists?

I try not to be. Not to be direspectful, but because I want everything to be authentic, untied and without any influence in relation to how a particular guitar player would play. Otherwise I wouldn't be truthful to myself. Integrity is everything in life. I've already met Gilby Clarke a few times and Izzy Stradlin was with us in the 2006 tour. They are both great guys. If it was to be inspired by them, it would be in a personal level in a way I could play with integrity and still be myself.

How is to work with Axl Rose?

Axl has a vision of work in which I believe. Part of it is to let your bandmates be themselves, creativity-wise and letting them do what they have in mind. It's great!

From the things we hear and read about Axl, what is not true?

Almost everything. [laughs] Don't believe in half of what you read and doubt the other half. People don't want the truth, but instead they want to be entertained. They believe and repeat whatever story is entertaining, even if it trashes a person's name. Don't believe it unless you have seen it with your own eyes.

Thanks to Voodoochild at HTGTH.

Dizzy Reed and Friends

Dizzy Reed & Friends will be appearing at The Viper Room every Saturday in August at 10PM.

The Viper Room is at 8852 West Sunset Boulevard, in West Hollywood, California.

I'm going to go ahead and guess that this latest Dizzy Reed project is in someway related to his "upcoming" solo album.

Featuring keyboards and vocals by Dizzy Reed, and lyrics by Del James and Dizzy Reed, the album was recorded over the past 5 years or so in California.

It features guitars by Richard Fortus, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Alex Grossi (Bang Tango, Beautiful Creatures, Adler's Appetite), Todd Youth (Danzig, Murphy’s Law, D-Generation), Whitey Kirst (Iggy Pop), Ricky Warwick (The Almighty), Jeff Duncan (Armored Saint, DC4) and Bobby Hamble (Biohazard).

Bobby Hamble plays on the track "Cheers To Oblivion."
Jeff Duncan plays on the track "Mother Theresa."
Alex Grossi seems to be the "main" guitarist, he claims to have played on every track.

Tommy Stinson, Mike Duda (W.A.S.P.), Greg Coates (The Bangkok 5) and Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot), all share bass duties on the record.

On the drums, Dizzy has Frank Ferrer, Frankie Banelli (Quiet Riot), Mike Dupke (W.A.S.P.) and Adrian Young (No Doubt). Anthony "Tiny" Biuso (The Dickies, T.S.O.L.) also plays drums on two tracks.

The disc is due out sometime this century.

I've been looking forward to hearing more of Dizzy's material ever since I heard these 2 tracks of his from The Still Life Soundtrack.

I really do like his voice and I hope the new material he's got has the same "glam" feel as these 2 tracks.

Did I mention that I love Bowie and T-Rex?

"The Air"


"Silent Light"

Chinese Democracy Guitar Tab Book

Coming June 30 from Hal Leonard, The Chinese Democracy Guitar Tab Book.

Awesome. It's great to see things moving again with this project. I hope the book is well done. There's a lot of guitars on this record, so it could be a pretty sweet book (if they do it well).

Amazon

Part II of NEW Bumblefoot Interview

A HUGE "Thank-you" goes out to eye2eye at the Chinese Democracy Forum.


Q : Which song on Chinese Democracy did you contribute the most to?

Ron : Oh, that's not an easy question. In "Shackler's Revenge" there is of course my solo. But sometimes I played things normal listener won't hear. For example in the song "I.R.S". I don't play solos on this, but I laid down a lot of guitars in the background, the most among the Chinese Democracy songs. They're not heard at first, but they're there for sure. Only know, when we start to play those songs during rehearsals, I start to remember how many guitars I recorded. I totally forgotten about them. Hmm, if I have to point songs with my biggest contributions I'd choose "Shackler's Revenge", "Catcher in the Rye" and "Chinese Democracy" on that one my rhythm parts changed song a lot. I also used fretless guitar on "Scraped". Those songs really show my guitar playing. Also I add small parts here and there, for example short bluesy solo at the end of the second verse of "Better". Generally I really like my rhythm parts, for me they're the most important think I recorded, they changed a lot. After those parts songs became more rock n' roll than industrial.

Q: What do relationships inside the band look like? Is it democracy inside or it is "Chinese democracy" with one man rule?

Ron: I'd say that there is democracy inside. We all have great contributions to the band, we share opinions, ideas. We all make choices...People from outside like to make theories, that in GN'R there is only one man ruling. It's not true. Of course, Axl has all the rights to the name. If some is to make a definitive decision, of course it's up to him. But it's not a dictatorship. He treats as all very well. And we respect it. I won't run all over the world with statement that Guns N' Roses is my band and everyone do what I tell to do. We won't behave that way, Axl as well not. As far as ideas - musical or other are concerned everyone gives opinions and we all are interested in all points of view, others feelings.

Q: Do you meet each other outside the studio?

Ron : Of course. There are weeks, when we go out together almost every day, sitting whole night and going into trouble (laugh). We're in touch all the time. For example last week I went to San Diego to play charity show with Nashville country artists. I played on acoustic guitar with them, then as a band member. It was all for navy veterans. On the way there I exchanged about 30 messages with Axl , basically doing jokes all the time. It's how it look like. Last night, phone rings, I reach for it and I see funny message from Axl I replied immediately. And we write to each other like this all the time almost without stop. Or Richard sent us all e-mails in which he was making fun of George Bush. Yesterday I, Frank and guys from the band were at the hotel and started a party. Customers made a lot complains about noise , co we have to go down to continue party in the lobby. We all make such things as it happens in the pack of friends.

Q: How often do you make rehearsals?

Ron : I've been in L.A. since January. At first we had try-outs for new guitar players. Then I took care of my equipment: amps, etc. I was checking what would be the best for the tour, it took some time. Also we needed some tweaks when DJ joined us. Those months were very intense, because of practicing all the stuff. I hope we'll move our asses and start touring.

Q: Is there any new material played on those rehearsals?

Ron : At the moment no. We're focused on Chinese Democracy. We must played that material through before we do something new. I feel that we are not finished with it - no matter how stupid it sounds. We didn't do everything what is right, with that album. We didn't make a tour, some other things lacked. So before we start something new, we must be sure that we did everything he could with that album.

Q: There were information about Chinese Democracy being first part of trilogy, It is rumored that the material has been already recorded. Or maybe you started recording something new in that line-up?

Ron : I would like it to be that way, to create together. But I played on many other songs, I added solos, rhythm parts, fills some of them didn't make it on the album. I don't know if it be a trilogy out of this or it was only a rumour , which gone out of control. Maybe there was such idea, but ideas change. When you record an record, you start with one idea, but finish with something totally different and have to discard previous ideas. It's hard to say, maybe on the one stage there were plans of doing trilogy, but as far as I'm concerned I don't think it will happen. But it is possible it was an idea or it was only loud thinking and someone took it as a definitive plan. It happened with my albums as well. Last one was supposed to be double - one CD with heavy stuff, second with ballads. I discarded that idea and I created Abnormal.

PART I

ANOTHER New Bumblefoot Interview

Thanks to eye2eye @ the Chinese Democracy Forum.

Q : Having this in mind. I want to know how you share guitar duties in Guns N' Roses. In the past it was simple : there was guy who played solos, and there was guy who played rythm. Now there are three guitar players...

Ron : You're right, in the post there was rythm and solo player. Now you got three solo players, and every with totally different style. DJ is someone like Slash, he plays melodic parts, but also can play very fast. He is very talented guy. Richard Fortus can play everything on awesome level. I'm also very flexible considering style, but I play usually all weird stuff - tapping, untypical sounds etc. So I think that I am responsible in GN'R for all the crazy, weird, new parts, DJ is for melodies and Richard has a share in everything. We share it that way, but it is also why I don't play as much melodic parts as I am able to. But that is how it works in Gn'R.

Q: Does the proportions changed when DJ joined the band ?

Ron : Not really. We tried to keep it as it worked in the past. By the way some songs have as much as three solos so everyone plays one in that case.

Q: And how it looked like on Chinese Democracy?

Ron : I played a lot of things. Many rythm parts, many solos. In some songs, solos had been recorded for years. And after such time it seemed that playing anythind different in that place wouldn't be a good idea. We simply left it as it was. Live I play all the parts, orginally written and recorded by Buckethead and those, which I recorded myself. DJ will take Robin parts along with Richard. Richard of course plays his parts as well. Guitar wise there is a lot of interesting things on Chinese Democracy.

There's much more to this interview here.

Rolling Like a Square Wheel

Dizzy Reed has a new project called 'Empty V'
Starting this Wednesday, June 3, Empty V will be playing once a week at Dragongly in Santa Monica, California. Dizzy will be joined by Eric Dover (Slash's Snakepit), Scott Griffin (L.A. Guns), and Troy Patrick Farrell of White Lion. Empty V will play the hottest hits of the Eighties, everything from Huey Lewis to Prince.


Tommy Stinson and Soul Asylum have a couple of dates booked this Summer. July 2 at the Minnesota Zoo, and July 3 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.


Chris Pitman was last seen on April 20 at the Key Club, where he played with his band SexTapes.

Richard Fortus recently recorded some guitar tracks for singer Anina Stang


Bumblefoot's played more shows with Duff McKagan than Axl Rose since the release of Chinese Democracy last November.

Frank Ferrer played at Don Hill's in NYC Fiday, May 22. Bumblefoot showed up and played with them too.



DJ Ashba hasn't been heard from since March 21 when he officially joined Guns N' Roses. Here he is in March 2007 with his buddies Alice Cooper, Nikki Sixx and Slash.


"We have some exciting things in the works this year for GN’R, I’m looking forward to it." -Irving Azoff, March 4, 2009.