Even Newer New Bumblefoot Interview (New)

Peter Hodgson at i heart guitar just conducted another new interview with Guns N' Rose master of P.R. and fan liason, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.

A brief excerpt follows.

What are your memories of Australia on the Guns N' Roses tour?

Oh man, let’s start off with the flight to Australia. At first I was dreading the flight because it was a good 14 hours, but it was the most comfortable flight I’ve ever been on. It was the first time I actually had a full comfortable night’s sleep on an airplane in my entire life, so it’s the first time I ever experienced that. So it was off to a good start.

I think we landed in Sydney then shot all the way over to Perth. Then we drove up to Fremantle and visited Bon Scott’s grave, paid our respects. Just the little things you remember. I remember being on a train and there was a young girl who had part of her face painted – she was going to a football game and the way it looked was something different to what you see in America. She had a little flag painted under her eye. It’s the little things like that. I remember those things more than the shows. Just the normal, human moments. Those are the things that really stand out.

Y’know, the view from the hotel in Sydney overlooking the Opera House and the bridge and everything. Walking around with my wife, Sebastian Bach and a couple of guys from his band, and suddenly some guy in a trenchcoat comes running up to us going “Hey! Hey! Hey!” and he opens his coat up and pulls out Axl’s microphone. It turns out that the night before, when Axl through his microphone out, that’s the guy that caught it. Oh what else ... I remember also in Sydney eating in a really nice restaurant along the water at night… just the nice moments like that.

The shows are always ... how do you even describe a show? It starts and your brain is in this other mode, and next thing you know the show is over and it’s more like one of those hazish dreams: “Did I just play, or didn’t I?” So unless something very significant happens in the show, I don’t really remember the show in a very clear way. But it’s everything after.

Going back afterwards and meeting Chris Szkup and his girl, hanging with them. I can still picture seeing them and this nice drawing they gave me in a frame, which is hanging in my living room right now. It’s hanging over my wife’s head as she’s sitting on the couch right now watching Hell’s Kitchen on TiVo. So it’s little things like that. No matter what happens, good or bad, those are the fond memories that make it an endearing experience you cherish. The dinners, the hanging out.

Are there any plans for more GN'R touring?

There have been a lot of plans, it’s just that when it comes to battling the economy ... there are so many variables that could make it not work. I’m guessing at this point that if something is confirmed, management would let everyone know. So at this point if I said anything it would be premature, so I should just wait for them to say anything.

(As usual, this is just a short snippet. You can read the full interview here.)

A Modern Classic

"You know, we've only done one show before this, and already we have been criticized for playing the old songs, but I have no intention, and I never did, of denying you something you enjoy, and I thought it was only fair for you to see that this new band can play the fuck out of these songs.

It's very hard to ask a musician to learn to play the part or parts played by other musicians before them. These guys here have worked very hard.

As for you guys ... On lead guitar here we have Mr. Buckethead. You've already met my friend Mr. Paul Tobias. On keyboards once again Mr. Dizzy Reed. On the drums - Brain, and on the keyboards over here, Mr. Chris Pitman. You've met Mr. Robin Finck, and leading us through these rehearsals, General Tommy Stinson.

This is a new song, I hope you like it, this is called "Chinese Democracy."

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.