Ron's allaccessmagazine.com interview (link)

I thought his answer to this question was candid:

AAM: Joining a band with a long and rather tumultuous history must not be an easy task? how did you approach joining Guns and Roses? Making your own mark on an already painted canvas? what has that been like?

Ron: Well, even the nice history with Guns and Roses is rather turbulent and tumultuous! Umm, starting in 2004 I had gotten an email from Joe Satriani and it said ?I have recommended you to Guns, so in case you want to check it out just so you know if they get in touch it?s not a joke or anything.? Then a few hours later I got an email from one of the guys in the band and then I got a call from the producer of ?Chinese Democracy? and then management got in touch and we ended up chatting on and off for maybe 2 months or so.

I was feeling it out but I was also teaching at SUNY Purchase College, I was producing a ton of bands at my studio, I was putting out my own music and touring, licensing music to TV shows and my world was pretty complete and I was happy with it. I knew that if I joined Guns I would have to give a lot of that up, and this was around the time when everything happened with Dimebag? and I started thinking, ?Do I really wanna be the guy that gets shot, for stopping the old band from getting back together? You know there was a lot to consider and at first I kind of turned them down. Then we didn?t speak for about a year and ? and the they had a tour coming up and we all got back in touch and we decided to get together and rehearse in NY and I brought my guitar and jammed to three songs?said that?s cool, let?s do it again tomorrow? and we just did that for three weeks, and then we hit the road and played 27 countries!