Here Today... Gone To Hell!

The following interview was conducted at www.gnrevolution.com with Rob 'Bumblefoot' Thal:

GnREvolution: Who are some of your favorite guitarists..past and present. and for our resident U2 fanatic...what do you think of The Edge as a guitar player? Is there any musician out there who you'd dream of doing a solo collaboration with but thus far haven't?
Bumblefoot: The Edge always did the perfect thing for the song, always the right atmosphere and energy. Some of my favorite guitarists...  Angus Young, Jimi Hendrix, Ace Frehley, Eddie Van Halen, and as far as guitarist's guitarists, guys like Al DiMeola, Allan Holdsworth...  so many inspirational players out there...   Would love to do some kinda band with John Sykes. My friend Mattias Eklundh from the Swedish band 'Freak Kitchen' and I have been talking for years about doing some kind of album together but neither of us ever have enough time to get it rolling.

GnREvolution: If the opportunity arose, would you ever collaborate with former GnR members such as Slash, Izzy, Duff, Buckethead, etc....either in or out of GNR. If such a collaboration could happen with you maintaining your position in GNR.
Bumblefoot: Jammed with Izzy plenty of times, and we worked out a nice version of 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia', does that count?  Haha...   Bucket and I talked before he joined GNR about me singing on his stuff, way back when - generally, if someone's cool and there's no issues, I give things a chance. You can always find a reason to not do things, I say fuck it and just play...  but there are people in my history I'd never play with again no matter what, so I understand anyone feeling that way about anyone. And it's best not to get in the middle of those situations.

GnREvolution: Which tracks on Abnormal feature the fretless...
Bumblefoot: The main guitar in 'Jenny B' is all fretless.  Some little noises in the breakdown of 'Last Time', the 'siren' sound in the last verse of 'Abnormal', middle solo after the speed-up part in 'Guitars Still Suck', 2nd solo in 'Redeye'.

GnREvolution: What equipment did you use on Chinese Democracy.
Bumblefoot: Les Pauls, the Vigier fretless, Vox or a Cry Baby wah pedal, Marshall heads and cabs, sometimes a Boss Blues Driver pedal for extra juice.  Brought down my old JCM800 for some stuff...

GnREvolution: What songs (and in what ways) did you retool guitar work on to add your touch to for each respective song. can you tell us what guitar parts (Rhythm's, leads, riffs) are yours on the album?
Bumblefoot: If I can remember, been years...  in most of the songs I put in loose riffy rhythms, I think it freed everything up a bit.  On top of that, song by song, in 'Chinese' the fretless in the verses, 'Shacklers' the solos, 'Better' some little noodly stuff in the end of the 2nd verse, some little melodic lines in the rhythms in 'Dreams', solos in 'Catcher', 'Scraped' and 'Riad', the rest I don't remember. Like trying to remember how many sprinkles ya put on an ice cream cone 3 years ago...

GnREvolution: What was your process for recording solos? Were you given any advice as to the type of solo to play/tone etc, was it all improvised or were you asked to replicate but add your stamp to some existing melodies etc. (Like how Brain was asked to re-do the notes Freese hit but with Brain's feel etc) and generally any other suitable stories or tidbits that relate to the great work you've done on your parts.
Bumblefoot: I'd spend 14 hours laying down every type of thing I could, different directions in rhythms and solos, as well as different guitars, pickups, amp settings, ways of playing. All my own parts, didn't re-play anyone else's, but there was also a collaborative input. Decisions would be made for what they thought was best, using what where and when. Chi Dem is not your typical album, there's no other that's gone through the journey that album did, and no other probably ever will. It's not a simple 'play what ya want on your own song how ya want it and no one else gets a say in it'. My own albums are like that, this one is about being a piece of a very big musical picture. Where else will you hear me and Bucket and Frank and Brain and Robin and Richard and Axl and Sebastian and Dizzy and Chris and Tommy and Paul in songs together? It's a one of a kind, the rules don't apply.

GnREvolution: I would like to ask if your solos on Shacklers and Riad were influenced at all by Buckethead and did you secretly try to out do him?
Bumblefoot: Hahaha, no and no. Listen to my demos from 20 years ago and you'll find that I play the way I play, long before there were buckets on anyone's head or bumbles on anyone's feet. Guys from the same era like me, Bucket, Mattias Eklundh, Christophe Godin, Guthrie Govan, and plenty more, all have a similar thread in the spirit of what we do. No one's copying each other, the same way most 70's blues rock guitarists aren't copying each other - but there was something in the air at the time their cast was solidifying, that affected how they expressed themselves. This happens throughout every era of music, and in our case, the transition from the fun gluttonous 80s into the tighten-your-belt 90s, a time when cultures began to merge, big hair rock turned toward funk rock, grunge, rap rock...  there was an open-mindedness, more of a multi-mindedness that occurred.  Listen to any of our solo albums, you'll hear what I mean.

GnREvolution: Are there any songs on Chinese Democracy that nearly didn't make it? What can you tell us about the alternate album artwork and CD booklet?
Bumblefoot: Ah man, I never get into things that haven't happened - it can affect the final outcome of things, ya can't do that. It's like going up to a stranger and saying, 'In 10 seconds I'm gonna try to steal your car.'  Guaranteed, the outcome won't be the same. So I never talk about plans, things that haven't happened yet - also, as I'm here typing this, managers could be walking out of a meeting in LA, and I don't know what's up until they tell me. Anything I'd say would be mis-information until it's so absolutely undeniably definite, in which case you'd probably find out from them soon after I did.  In my own band, there's less riding on things, it's ok to open the window and let everyone see inside. And I enjoy that, making videos in the studio as an album's being recorded, letting people know what I'm planning for myself - no biggie, if the plans don't happen, it's not like multi-million dollar companies have invested time and the work of hundreds of people are affected by the change. There's a need for protection and privacy when it comes to GNR bizz, or anything on that level. I know it can make you feel frustrated, invisible, abandoned - even though it sucks, I hope you understand that there's too much at stake to risk being irresponsible with information.

Continued...

Awesome!!   :rofl:

That comment about wishing to have had a strong personal connection with the fans is an interesting one.  It could be interpreted in different ways.  One person could see it as expressing a general level of frustration with how things haven't happened as he would have liked, without laying blame.  Others could see the comment as not wanting his answers to be seen as blaming "anyone" as being a shot at Axl.

It really could be seen either way.  I can't blame anyone for seeing either way, too.

Ali

very good job on the interview.   it was cool of him to mention the video interviews that never came to pass.

Bumblefoot is phenomenal, damn how I love this guy!  :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

he's clearly not very confortable with the type of interaction GNR has with its fanbase, but he still manages to make interviews interesting.

bumble +7  :peace:

That was a good interview on everybodies part   :peace:

Like that part about effecting a lot of people's jobs.  And that reach through the computer.

Interesting read... This guy should definitely handle all GNR related publicity.   This is the interview that Axl should have given with Del James; notice how he doesn't blame anyone for anything but makes the best attempts to remain positive and cordial.  Would really like to see this guy hand most GNR related interviews and given carte blanche to speak about whatever comes to mind.

Cheers,

Andrew

Excelent Interview, Ron Is Amazing Person & Respect.

 :beer:

Pd.


 :rofl: :hihi: :rofl:

awesome quote eh?  :rofl: this is an interview no one can say that about IMO

Obviously referring to Slash.

I got a kick out that as well!!   :rofl:

Thanx for posting, russtcb!   : ok:

thanks a lot

The was a good read.
Thank god for Ron Thal,  his continual input is reassuring.
Mass respect !!

Thanks RON !!

First: thanks to whoever fixed this to one thread. It was late when I posted it and wasn't thinking clearly.

Second: Ron really is a class act! Great answers and good humor.

Respect to you Ron  : ok:

Rons is always clever with interviews. thanks for sharing, rus.

NOT.

Thanks Rus.

Ron "Attitude" Thal


 :smoking:

Yeah, I don't see it. Slash and Ron never played together as far as we know so I don't Slash is in his "history".


"Hey guys, here's one more thing that never happened"

That's cool?

Yeah, you're right. It's far better not to say anything and let you complain about it not happening.

Oh wait.... That's not good either!







Thanks for posting the Q&A.  : ok:



/jarmo

Interesting interview! Thank you.

He sounds depressed.  I wish GN'R would do something....

he doesn't. what part of the interview gives you that impression?

How could anyone have complained if they never knew it was going to happen? I'm not saying Bumble shouldn't have mentioned it, that's fine. I just don't get that excited like some people do about intentions that never turned into actions.

Good Interview!!  : ok:
Ron is a cool guy and like his jokes.

"Thanks for the questions. And if ya say 'great, another interview where a bandmember tells us nothing' I'm gonna reach through the computer and punch you in the balls.

Ron" 

 :hihi: :rofl:

I like a lot the questions, great interview.

No problem whatsoever. I'm glad to share. And yeah, I do think it was cool of Ron to offer an explanation on certain things. Talk about "not owing" and still coming through!

Glad everyone enjoyed. Kudos to Neemo for getting it arranged and handled!

I'm not getting "excited", I just thought it was cool of him to acknowledge it. 

Agreed he is a great guy to be around and you can tell that from just watching or listening to 5 seconds of him talking he is a great guy and great on guitar hope he dose something with Bucket Head though that album would be epic just thinking about it makes me  :drool:  :rofl:

Bumblefoot is awesome. Cool interview.  :)

thanks 4 the interview - obviously i hope the 'pieces fall into place' sooner rather than later

Depressed isn't the word I'd used, but he does appear to be just as frustrated as us about the way things have been going (or rather, they way they haven't).  There seems to be a sense of "I did my bit to promote the record... where the hell was everyone else?" vibe.

It was a great interview, and I'm glad that Ron takes the time to do so many of these, whilst offering as much insight as he possibly can into the inner workings of the band, and what's been going on.

Why this interview (and similars in the past) isn't be uploaded on the official site of the band?

That is a great question I would like to know to but I don't think we will get our answer here

ps: mine was the 900th read ;)

Only a guess but probably because this interview was conducted by a fan site (as opposed to it being conducted by a "professional" establishment like billboard or rollingstone or whatever .........


...... that and, if the official site were to upload every time Ron talked 'publicly' to someone, the site would probably overload to the point that it would explode and cause a chain reaction of overloading/exploding every site across the entire world wide web, causing complete kayos to satellite communications across the universe (to include the rover on Mars and the Hubble telescope) which would then cause an errant signal to all the nuclear reactors and missile silos that would annihilate every form of life on the planet........


but like I said, only a guess on my part.

excellent interview! great job!

interesting to hear that he hasn't written any new songs with gnr  ;)

If interesting = sucks then yes I agree.

That's a pretty big compliment to the interview itself and Ron's answers!

But as others have said, since it's not really a "professional interview" perse, I could see why it wouldn't end up on the official site.

I think those were some fantastic questions and some great answers by Ron.  He was really looking forward to a tour and seemed excited about the possibilities of playing with DJ Ashba!

Kind of funny how the fan interviews with Axl and Ron are way better than any professional interview

yeah D isn't that funny!

loved this interview, thanks for posting!

And Axl's was done by a pro...and what makes a pro...Such as the music magazines who actually reviewed leaked demos of CD...Is that professional?ld

It was a very good interview and should at least have a link on the main website, but for one reason or another it does not.

As for comparing Axl to Ron I think is unfair.  It is like interviewing an actor and asking them about the shot selection or the way the film was edited.  While they have an opinion it is not their place to comment on it unless they are also one of the producers on the film.  Ron is very much like an actor he was hired because of his talent and  Axl wanted him to bring his style to the music but t the same time Ron does not have any control over what GnR as a whole does. 

Yeah, I hear that.

To be honest, I'd love to see it posted on the official GN'R site. I wouldn't even begin to know where to submit it to though.