Bumblefoot Says Discussing GNR Is A 'Headache,' Talks Favorite GNR Songs

[STPFAN]

Interview: Bumblefoot Refuses To Discuss GNR, Talks Scott Weiland Recording Art of Anarchy Material Without Band

by Mike Mazzarone - Mar 23, 2015

Today I had the chance to interview Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. While Bumblefoot touched on many topics including his relationship with Joe Satriani, Art of Anarchy, a potential Little Brother Is Watching world tour and his favorite GNR material, Ron was very hesitant to answer anything related to Guns N’ Roses. I was able to get him to discuss his favorite GNR tracks and recording the “Pink Panther Theme,” but otherwise he said that talking about GNR would give him a headache.

Bumblefoot also discussed recording the Art of Anarchy album, and how Scott Weiland worked with the band, praising his work, but being unsure of his commitment to the band. Thank you to MSL and GNRTruth for providing many questions.

Are you planning a Little Brother is Watching World Tour?

It’s possible. I would love to, I definitely want to, I need to, I should. However, first I want to nurture the album a little bit more, I want to put out more videos, I want to do more things to let people know that it exists so people can check out the music and get to know it. After that though, I would like to hit the road, all over the place.

What accomplished songwriters that you’ve worked with have influenced your solo work most?

(Laughs) Ones that I have worked with that have influenced me the most? Let me think. Accomplished, that I’ve worked with? There are accomplished songwriters that I haven’t worked with, and songwriters that I have worked with that weren’t accomplished at all! I would say the one person that has it all is Tony Harnell (of TNT), he writes beautiful melodies and definitely makes me think a bit more when it comes to vocal melody.

Is there any material you initially wrote for GNR that ended up on your album?

Yes, I had two songs, “Argentina” and “Don’t Know Who To Preach To Anymore” that when I first wrote them I left them unfinished and I was thinking that I could bring them to the table with GNR but I felt ultimately that both songs were better fits on my solo album.

A three part question here: What is your favorite original GNR song, your favorite Chinese Democracy song, and your favorite unreleased GNR song?

Did you get the memo about no GNR questions or no?

No sir, I was never informed of that.

Oh, well, I’m sorry, I’m not supposed to talk about GNR. I will answer this question but from here-on we cannot discuss GNR. It actually would be fucking fantastic if you skipped every question you had about them from here-on. It would save a lot of headache. However, my favorite original GNR song is “Don’t Cry”. For personal reasons, of course it’s a beautiful song but that was also a time during shows where I would play the solo, the fans would sing along and it was my own personal chance to connect with the audience and that made that song extra special for me.

As far as stuff off of Chinese, I would say “Shackler’s Revenge” because of all the crazy setlist stuff, two handed stuff and doing that wild singing, it kept me busy and out of trouble.

How much time did Scott Weiland spend writing and recording with you guys in the studio, and did it come off to you like he was committed to the band, or just doing it for the check?

(Sigh) Well, he started off and wrote one song with us, he did everything in his own studio and had Doug Grean, his former right hand man doing everything with him at his place. Scott did one song called “Til The Dust Is Gone” and it came out beautifully. In fact, it’s probably going to be one of the singles. We shot a video for it and then he agreed to do the whole album so he pretty much banged out really quickly, in about a month. Scott would just write, write, write & hand things over. It was great.

As far as getting inside of his mind or spread any sort of negative dirt, that I cannot get into or even tell you. That is not stuff that I can answer.

Have you considered doing guitar and vocals for Art of Anarchy if there is a tour and more albums after the debut is released?

I don’t think so, no, because Art of Anarchy was created as a supergroup. Meaning, it would have a singer with one background, me in there with another background…etc. I think that’s what made it special and if I take over vocal duties I would compare that to teaching a three legged dog to run. I would love to if Scott was willing to see it through but if he didn’t then I would love to find someone that would be willing to see it through.

What is the current status of Blowout-NYC? Any plans for more shows?

There is no status, that’s not happening. Yeah, we did one show and everyone is too busy doing other things so that’s just not going to happen.

Can you tell me about the recording session for the track “Pink Panther Theme.” I understand most members of GNR contributed with the exception of Axl.

That one, we actually played live and then I put it in my solos at my place. We did it live in California and then we took it live before we hit the road and I wrote my solos on it, spending around three weeks trying to transcribe it.

What was it like meeting Joe Satriani and playing with him? Do you have a favorite song of Satriani’s you like to play?

Joe is just a sweetheart, just a wonderful guy. We stay in touch, we see each other, whenever Chickenfoot would come into town I try and get over there and say hello. One of my favorites is “Always With You”. That song has such a beautiful melody and could go on forever and never stop being beautiful.

Wonderful track. Beautiful song, I would like to thank you for taking par-

Hey listen, do you have some actual questions for me about my solo album, or no? Anything of interest that you want me to tell you about, anything? Anything that doesn’t have to do with GNR or Scott Weiland?

Here, I’ll tell you something cool about the new album, one thing that was cool about it was that I really enjoyed the process. I had 100 fans and friends and we all met at a venue in Brooklyn. So, like this listening party but the album wasn’t finished yet. We played each song in the state that they were in at the time, talked about each song with a little Q&A talking about what each song was about as well as different things. I then showed everybody different parts to sing and we sang them together so the album has group vocals of about 100 different people chanting stuff and singing different stuff. That is something that I really wanted to do.

For me, albums I like including people that are actually going to be listening to the stuff and make them part of the process. To me that’s most special because it’s for everybody, not just for me.

[TyRod Tulip]

He obviously hates the fact that people want GNR news and not Bumblefoot news.

[Jakey Styley]

He needs to chill, man.

[EvH]

Great read, until the "Hey listen" BS.

[tberrie007]

i guess its not biting the hand that feeds anymore but it still look bad on BBF the way he addressed that. but in all honesty, how many people outside the Gnr realm give two shits about this guy??

[gnfnrs1972]

Ron seems like a good guy and has been very accessible in the past. I don't see why some of you crap on him.

[tberrie007]

its his passive aggressiveness that sucks

Ron seems like a good guy and has been very accessible in the past. I don't see why some of you crap on him.

[WhazUp]

I would love to listen to audio of that interview, BBF seems really annoyed

[WAR™]

WTF!

this interview it's just a joke...

c'mon no questions about his album???

[Bards]

Ron seems like a good guy and has been very accessible in the past. I don't see why some of you crap on him.

This.

And doing an interview regarding his solo album and not asking any questions regarding said album is a bush-league move on the part of the interviewer. Day 1 shit.

[IncitingChaos]

When he told the interviewer to skip past the rest of the GNR related questions, the interviewer should have said "well thanks for your time, I have nothing left to ask"

[RussTCB]

WTF!

this interview it's just a joke...

c'mon no questions about his album???

I agree with that. If you're gonna do an interview with someone about their new album, it might have been nice to include some questions about their new album.

[Axl_morris]

Why are gnr wanting to keep this quiet???

If they press released this a year ago that he was out then there would be no secrecy and life moves on.

its not as if they need him for a tour or album release. He has no promotional value to GNR anymore when there is nothing to promote. They should respect his wish let him go and say what he wants.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Axl_morris

[highvoltage]

The interviewer probably should have done some more research. Ron has already stated plenty of times, he's done answering questions about GN'R.

So why bring a list of solely GN'R-related questions.... unless you're only trying to get under his skin?

[niceguy]

How is it even debatable if he's still Beta's employee? Of course he's not.

[Silent Jay]

The interviewer probably should have done some more research. Ron has already stated plenty of times, he's done answering questions about GN'R.

So why bring a list of solely GN'R-related questions.... unless you're only trying to get under his skin?

most of the questions are from gnrtruth

[GUNNER PT]

ahah an interview just to bumblefuck Ron

[Bards]

The interviewer probably should have done some more research. Ron has already stated plenty of times, he's done answering questions about GN'R.

So why bring a list of solely GN'R-related questions.... unless you're only trying to get under his skin?

most of the questions are from gnrtruth

What's gnrtruth and why would it dictate what the interviewer asked?

[Silent Jay]

The interviewer probably should have done some more research. Ron has already stated plenty of times, he's done answering questions about GN'R.

So why bring a list of solely GN'R-related questions.... unless you're only trying to get under his skin?

most of the questions are from gnrtruth

What's gnrtruth and why would it dictate what the interviewer asked?

alternativenation thank gnrtruth for providing questions. Looks like they don't know much on BBF or GNR.

gnrtruth is a gnr website.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Silent Jay

[ZoSoRose]

I love Ron, but what the fuck. Dude, you were in Guns N Roses. Its the reason I and almost all of your other fans found you. The bitterness is just crazy right now, and that interview sucked.

The interviewer should have asked more solo album questions, but jesus christ

[hitmanhart408]

from the guy that conducted the interview:

Hey everyone. This is Mike Mazzarone and I was the one that conducted the interview.

I will do my best to really explain the situation here. When I confirmed regarding the interview with Ron, I was never, under any circumstance told by his publicist that anything was off limits. Therefore and logically we used questions regarding Scott Weiland, GNR, and more hot button topics. Softballs were included and we are going to do a full review of the album, however when I was told "Did you get the memo about no GNR questions", that was the first time I had heard such a thing. By Ron himself. I had many more questions that I was going to use and that wasn't useable because of that last second curveball. Ron never told me that it was due to legal issues or a gag order, he said that he just didn't want to discuss it. While he did answer the three parter, he even felt nervous about that.

I honestly put full blame on the publicist, however Ron was just as unprofessional about his handling over the phone about it. However, and I can't stress this enough, I was never told ONCE that any questions about Guns N' Roses were off limits.

Well, I truly believe that if you don't want me to ask something then that should laid out. The PR actually emailed me a second time, today saying that Bumblefoot contacted me on a wrong number, so he had multiple chances to e-mail me and state that "do not talk about this or that". To make it seem like it's common knowledge is insulting to me. Their PR never even e-mailed me the album when I requested for it, so I couldn't really ask anything about the album. I had sent follow ups or no avail so it would be something that I could not ask him anyway.

I am trying to get a digital copy for review purposes but I think all of you can understand that it would be impossible for me to ask questions on something that I don't really have any familiarity with. I stuck with what I did know and I don't see any fault in that. If anyone wants to single anyone out, blame their PR. Not me or AlternativeNation.

Edited March 24, 2015 by hitmanhart408

[Sixes]

I blame Dee Snider

[Bards]

from the guy that conducted the interview:

Hey everyone. This is Mike Mazzarone and I was the one that conducted the interview.

I will do my best to really explain the situation here. When I confirmed regarding the interview with Ron, I was never, under any circumstance told by his publicist that anything was off limits. Therefore and logically we used questions regarding Scott Weiland, GNR, and more hot button topics. Softballs were included and we are going to do a full review of the album, however when I was told "Did you get the memo about no GNR questions", that was the first time I had heard such a thing. By Ron himself. I had many more questions that I was going to use and that wasn't useable because of that last second curveball. Ron never told me that it was due to legal issues or a gag order, he said that he just didn't want to discuss it. While he did answer the three parter, he even felt nervous about that.

I honestly put full blame on the publicist, however Ron was just as unprofessional about his handling over the phone about it. However, and I can't stress this enough, I was never told ONCE that any questions about Guns N' Roses were off limits.

Well, I truly believe that if you don't want me to ask something then that should laid out. The PR actually emailed me a second time, today saying that Bumblefoot contacted me on a wrong number, so he had multiple chances to e-mail me and state that "do not talk about this or that". To make it seem like it's common knowledge is insulting to me. Their PR never even e-mailed me the album when I requested for it, so I couldn't really ask anything about the album. I had sent follow ups or no avail so it would be something that I could not ask him anyway.

I am trying to get a digital copy for review purposes but I think all of you can understand that it would be impossible for me to ask questions on something that I don't really have any familiarity with. I stuck with what I did know and I don't see any fault in that. If anyone wants to single anyone out, blame their PR. Not me or AlternativeNation.

As someone who's conducted literally hundreds of interviews, the only one that was "unprofessional" was Mr. Mazzarone. I believe that he didn't know about not being able to ask GNR questions going in. I'm willing to buy that as an honest mistake on his part. But Ron answered his GNR questions even though he made it clear it wasn't an area he was comfortable talking about.

But Ron's doing a PR tour to support his solo album. This guy doesn't even bother to ask ONE question about it? Like I said earlier, that's day 1 shit. A far better option would have been to ask the solo album questions up front and then try to sneak in some GNR and Art of Anarchy stuff towards the end, even if he didn't know GNR was off limits. The way he did it was what we call "going in dry".

I do not know Mr. Mazzarone, but if this is reflective of his work then he's terrible at what he does.

[classicrawker]

sounds like Ron's publicist fucked that interviewer. no waring about off limit topics and did not provide the interviewer an advance copy to review before the interview. I think Ron needs a new publicist.

with all due respect to Ron does he really think people are not going to ask him about Guns or Scott?

That is the money shot for them not questions about his solo album which most fans will never hear.

[IncitingChaos]

I bet Ron is under contract with GNR until 2017 or something dumb like that. Axl probably sued him for leaving and not paying back terminated contract fees and now it's going to court which is the reason Ron is not allowed to talk GNR. Case solved.