bumblefoot - yes or no?

Here's a load of quotes from an interview with the man himself from 1999, enjoy ?

Hi there Ron. Could you give us some biographical info?

Ron: I tore my poor mother's body apart in a hospital in Brooklyn. I believe it was September '69. That's when I knew I wanted to play guitar, join a band, and be the next Britney Spears. So I started taking guitar lessons at age 6 or 7, for about 8 years. I studied reading, theory, jazz, classical, and the Torah.

Did you do any recording apart from The Adventures of Bumblefoot, Hermit, and Hands? Can you tell us something about your latest project, Bumblefoot? That stuff about a soundtrack for the game Wild Woody, was that for real? What's it about? It sounds really obscene.

Ron: I have a recording studio in NYC and engineer/produce 20 - 30 albums a year. A lot of hardcore - Indecision, Shutdown, Inhuman, One Second Thought - and some hip-hop too. Of the last things I produced, there was the band Tyris doing a re-make of the Door's "Love Her Madly" for a Polygram compilation, and Bretagne Celtic rock artist Pat O'May's "Breizh-Amerika" CD. As far as my own stuff goes, I've done a lot besides the "Adventures", "Hermit" and "Hands" CD's. There was an instrumental guitar version of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu piano piece on Shrapnel Record's '92 compilation CD, "Ominous Guitarists From the Unknown," and Guitar On The Edge compilation CD's volumes 2, 3, and 4. Then there was Wild Woody, a SEGA CD-ROM video game about a giant penis that works as the leader of a Western nation, who fucks everything that walks in his office. Oh wait, that was Wild Bill. Wild Woody is a game about a pencil that can erase his enemies and draw shit - there were all different worlds he was caught in - a Pirate world, Mythology world, Science Fiction world, Mechanical world, and a Cemetery. A fun little game. In late '97, I bought out my contract from Shrapnel Records and started my own production company called "Hermit, Inc." I released my latest CD titled "Hands" with my band BUMBLEFOOT in the summer of '98, available all over the internet (cdnow.com, amazon.com...) and I'm finishing up my next CD, to be released the end of '99.

Weren't you in a guitar magazine Spotlight column somewhere around 1990? You already had the Swiss cheese guitar. What did you submit as a demo? I remember Mike Varney [talent scout and owner of Shrapnel Records] writing it was the most impressive demo he ever heard. He also compared your music to Zappa's.

Ron: Yep. Guitar Player mag, August '89 - Jeff Healey on the cover. No one remembers me - they only remember that Swiss Cheese guitar. Hahaha!!! I submitted some weird instrumental songs I had - one was called "Sex With Ducks" where there was a solo section in the middle of the song where I used a bunch of guitar tracks to make it sound like a big sex orgy involving a man, a woman, and 7 ducks. I think it was more of the light-hearted silly approach that reminded him of Zappa, and not the music.

You don't sound much like the average Shrapnel-shredder. Why are you on that label? Aren't you afraid that people will automatically assume you're a soulless neoclassical spandex-clad copycat? If the lyrics to `Can't play the blues' are anything to go by, you're not too keen on that kind of guitarist.

Ron: I'm NOT a Shrapnel shredder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I knew I'd be type-cast and labeled as one, I never would have signed with Shrapnel!! I was a singing guitarist in a rock band BEFORE Shrapnel, I did 2 albums for Shrapnel giving Mike Varney what he wanted - solo guitarist records. Now, I'm off of Shrapnel and I'm a singing guitarist in a rock band again. That's what I am. "I Can't Play the Blues" was just a silly song poking fun at guitarists (myself included!). But the truth is I don't like most instrumental guitar music, and I'll explain why. I really do enjoy ALL kinds of music, but there is a problem with guitar instrumental music. The great leaders like Malmsteen and Vai had passion and they expressed themselves. AND they had incredible technique. But then all these other players came around that did a terrible thing - they developed the technique, but didn't think the spirit mattered. So all this spiritless music flooded the guitar instrumental scene where it was all about technique and no one put in the extra effort to SAY SOMETHING in their music. Music is an exchanging of souls - it's like fucking. It's a musician pouring his heart out, or telling a story, or even telling a joke, but the point is to bring the listener inside you and make them see what you see, and feel what you feel. Too many technical players refuse to give that part of themselves, and they have re-defined "instrumental guitar music" as something empty and lacking soul. That's why it has such a small audience - people want to be MOVED and TOUCHED by a piece of music - whether it's technical or not, it doesn't matter - it MUST have a life in it. And too many shredders lost sight of what makes music. It's kind of sad. The good instrumental guitar music is GREAT MUSIC. There's just not enough of it out there, compared to how many CD's are released that suck. I think the shred record labels released too much quantity, and not enough quality - that was the problem. And that's why the primal sound of grunge followed as a backlash to the empty extravagance of so much 80's surface music that lost its depth. It's the same with a lot of R&B vocalists that do all this fancy shit, trying to capture in the throat what Stevie Wonder did from the heart.

Some of your stuff, especially on Adventures of Bumblefoot, is pretty advanced harmonically. Do you listen to a lot of jazz, fusion or modern classical music?

Ron: Actually I like listening to Manowar.

What's unagi? And wasabi?

Ron: Unagi is eel. Wasabi is a hot green horseradish you mix with Soy Sauce to dip sushi in. Japanese food is my favorite.

Did people ever tell you you look a little like Jack Nicholson? Two axe-wielding psychos crashing through doors, is it JUST coincidence?

Ron: They tell me I act like him. I don't see it. Perhaps I should become an actor.

Did Calvin Klein design your hat? I've got CK underwear exactly like that.

Ron: Actually, it's not a hat. It IS a pair of CK underwear.

Please react to the following names:

Ron: OK, I will type the first things that enter my mind...

Frank Zappa - Deep Dish Pan Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella and Tomatoes.

Steve Vai - Cold Lo Mein Noodles with Sesame Paste and Fire Sauce.

Allan Holdsworth - Humphrey Bogart.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Burger King's #4 Value Meal.

David Tronzo - Bananarama.

Buckethead - Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Henry Kaiser - Tuna Salad on a Roll.

Sonny Sharrock - Cher.

Vernon Reid - Lives near my studio.

Bill Bruford - Tight.

Chris Poland - Warsaw.

Mike Varney - Old friend, had a bad experience, put it behind us, now friends again.

Shawn Lane - Andy Gibb.

None of those answers have any hidden meanings or insults or anything like that. It's just the first words I had in my head.

Can we expect a new solo album in the near future? Will you be touring? Any work as session musician?

Ron: I was going to do another instrumental solo record, but instead I'm putting a few instrumentals on the next band record. I'd like to do an instructional video for the Vigier fretless guitars soon. I played in France a lot last year, and did a small show at the '98 Music Expo in Rotterdam. I want to gig a lot to promote the next record. I do little bits of session work here and there in the studio - usually if a client needs a guitar line I'll throw one down. No biggie. Now I will go eat dinner - a deep dish pan pizza with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes, some cold lo mein noodles with sesame paste and fire sauce, a hot tamale, a Burger King #4 Value Meal, some KFC, tuna on a roll, and some unagi with extra wasabi. Peace my brutha.

Just a few random quotes from a Q & A

The whole thing is here..... http://www.bumblefoot.com/press/199909-w3m3/199909-w3m3.htm