Gypsy comment:? I was one of the assholes back in October 2004 who posted shit against Bumblefoot joining GNR.? After reading here about how cool he was at the shows ... on and off stage ... I admit I was so wrong.?
Since I can't give him a personal apology, I figured I would post his biography for those of us who aren't familiar with him and his work prior to joining GNR.
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WTTJ MR. BUMBLEFOOT!!!?
Ron Thal Born: September 25, 1969 // New York, NY, United States
Currently:? ?Princeton, NJ, United States
Also Known As:?
Bumblefoot Genre:? fusion, shred
Ron Thal was a gifted child. He knew how to read at the tender age of 2. At 6, he was a fan of the band Kiss because of their Comic-Strip heroes disguises, wich led him to wanting to play an instrument. He wanted to play bass but his hands were too small, so he was advised to start with the guitar.
At seven he already had his first band, playing punk rock covers with his brother Jeff on drums, and their neighbour John Pecoraro on guitar/vocals. At 12, the ever curious Ron started customizing his guitars in the most funny ways, a particularity he has been later known for. By painting album covers on the back of dungaree jackets, he earned enough money to buy himself a black Ibanez which had the advantage of having a vibrato bar (Ron had since discovered and was highly impressed by Eddie Van Halen). The first thing he did when he got it home was chip off the paint, drill it full of holes, and paint it yellow! This is how his famous "Swiss Cheese Guitar" was born. Several devoted fans have since built their own swiss cheese guitar after his example.
Ron started of his professional life as a teacher in music and photography courses. After work he'd be playing with his funk metal band Love Soup. Ron had been noticed by Shrapnel records for his incredible virtuosity and originality on the guitar, he was signed, but as a solo act, not with his band.
The Adventures Of Bumblefoot was instrumental, with the exception of a few voices here and there (mainly instrumental voices however), but it wasn't shred despite Ron's undoubtful guitaristic talents, it was 14 very different tracks showing Ron's large influences and ability to play anything (funk, country, flamenco...). He then was asked to do a soundtrack for a Sega video game named Wild Woody.
Hermit, the second album for Shrapnel had vocals, revealing to the public how talented Ron also was as a singer.
Having finished his contract with Shrapnel, Ron started his own company in order to release things the way he saw them. He wanted to be part of a band again and released
Hands under the name
Bumblefoot, although the line-up was the same than on
Hermit (that is Ron Thal: guitar, bass and vocals ; Jeff Thal: drums ; and a few guests). From that point, Ron Thal has exclusively made releases under the name
Bumblefoot.
Uncool came next, with a full band line-up this time (Frank Rao playing bass and Joe Bergamini playing drums). The whole album explored the hilarious concept of an aging band from the 70's comprised of crooners and has-beens tempting a come-back. The line up was short lived, and
9.11, the next release by Bumblefoot, was once again Ron Thal playing quite everything and helped out by a few guest (including Dweezil Zappa and Mattias Eklundh). In 2003, Ron released a
Forgotten Anthology, comprised mainly of never released tracks, five of them being however already known by owners of the French release of
Uncool (the American release has a different track listing). 2005 saw the release of
Normal, Ron's first album of full new material since a long time, including Dennis Leeflang (Sun Caged) on drums.
Besides his own releases, Ron Thal works as a songwriter/producer and writes for publishing companies and TV shows.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
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(
Bio Source:?
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/ron_thal )
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