GN’R Reps Confirm Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal Has Left The Band

[Tom2112]

Ron is a super nice dude, no rockstar bullshit. Meets his fans before and after gigs, completely upfront will tell you anything (Barre his GnR status). But! he's a professional, he either thought or was told not to say anything (GnR are spinning a Bucket story). Ron knows Axl (he actually knows him, doesn't just base opinions from the internet like people on here) and he knows that he's a really private guy, and that he likes to keep his band private too. I can imagine he just didn't want to stir things up, and he accidentally stirred things by doing so.

Facts are, GnR should have squished this story as soon as it got out back in January? February? and way before that on the forums. It's really easy to say, "After x amount of years, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal has decided to move on from Guns N' Roses to focus on other projects and solo material. We wish him all the best." two minutes work. Ron ain't the bad guy, even if he played up the role a tad, more recently "clues are out there" etc. Sad to see him go, but if he wasn't happy then it's perfectly reasonable for him to quit. I can imagine Axl telling him that the next release was going to be the CD leftovers and that helped Ron make up his mind.

I can't believe they (Axl and TB) wasted such an eager musician, DJ too (I know, I'm not a fan of him either). It's like Axl purposefully tries to sabotage himself. Just when he has a stable line up of good, eager musicians he loses interest and disappears, only to come out to play hits or tinker with finished and over finished old recordings labeled "new songs".

I might love CD II as much as CD, but I was far more interested in hearing the band circa 2009-2014 recording a album... current members, making current music... not a non existent band releasing, old as f#ck music. It's a shame! and I know Bumble solo material wasn't very GnR, but there were riffs and solo ideas that would have worked really, really well with some co-writing with Axl and the rest of the guys. Pisses me off, because Ron was by far the most entertaining member of GnR on stage after Axl of course. And he was also my favourite of the new guitar players right behind Izzy and Slash (attitude, feel, understanding of the style of GnR).

I'll finish by saying Axl placed his bets on the wrong opportunist horse (DJ) he could have had a reliable, creative, up front songwriter but he squandered it, what they wrote together probably wouldn't touch the old hits but at least it would have been solid, and with a bit more cojones than CD.

[Padme]

Think it is hilarious that people are getting mad at Ron

Exactly. the guy was more upfront with fans than anyone in the band the last 20 years and suddenly he's the bad guy. Fuck that shit. If Ron quit a year ago then gnR should've releaseda statement saying so. Fucking assclowns. GnR(Axl and team Brazil) are the biggest morons in the history of music. Just another typical blame game from the king of excuses.

People getting mad at Ron in any fashion is astounding to me

All this soap opera... DJ wrote a letter saying he was leaving. Ron on the other hand said he was asked to honor a request not to speak freely about his status although he gave us many clues. And most of us understood he meant he left the band.

It is clear that if Ron was asked not to speak it means Axl didn´t want the public to know he left the band.

Recently downzy spoke to management and he was told that they didn´t know why BBF didn´t make a statement about his status. Now management decided to make it official.

How come management didn´t know that Ron was asked to honor a request about his status? Why Ron felt he had to honor some idiotic and nonesensical request? In fact with so many clues he gave he didn´t really honor it.

[AppetiteForGnR]

Soap opera band management.

[IZZYISGNR]

BBA posted this somewhere else:

Ron said that certain 2014 members didn't seem to want to accept it and that some of them would play "word games" when it came to their status with the band.

Since most were given very little notice and were blind-sided when they found out that their contracts were being terminated with very little explanation at all, it's highly likely that some are holding out hope that Axl might change his mind and that they end up getting a future call.

Last year when the 2014 members received notice that their contracts were being terminated indefinitely, the media mistakenly confused this info for "Axl is Retiring". He later clarified things when he made the statement "I'm not going anywhere". Keep in mind, he didn't say anything about GNR.

Other than Guns, all Frank really has to fall back on is 'Pisser'. So, from a financial standpoint, I'm sure that he is hoping that he can somehow be part of any future plans that might involve Axl or GNR.

This is the first time since the inception of new Guns that there have been no contractual members.

And Osiris74 posted this:

Have a friend who works at a radio station as a DJ in a major North Americian city and he told me the reunions rumours are heating up and Izzy and Duff are on board. Waiting on Slash to finish touring. Adler is out, Sorum is in.

Put whatever stock into that what you want. I went to high school with the guy, he's straight up, no BS.
Just because he's heard these rumours doesn't make them true, but it's still interesting.

[Bono]

I'm not mad at ron, but I do find it to be in bad taste to go out and play 6 out 9 gnr songs. Especially when he made no bones about not being the biggest gnr fan when he was younger, and how he went on and on about creating his own music. Like I said before, if he played 9 songs and two of them were guns song, then whatever. But 6 out 9? That's fucking pathetic if you ask me. Did buckethead do that? No. Did Gilby so that? No. Did Ashba do that? No. When you are essentially stooping lower than EVERYONE, I have the right to call you out on it. He is basically pimping himself out as gnrs former guitar player like he is on the same level as an original member. I have gotten in Slash before for playing to much guns stuff, but at least he helped write those songs, he was fucking there. Same with Adler, Izzy, Duff, and Axl. They were there, BBF was not. But for him to go out and play basically a gnr set, like he IS Slash is some bullshit. Just because he is a nice guy, or was nice to some of you, you are letting that cloud your judgement.

My judgment isn't clouded one fucking bit. I've never met Ron, I've never gone to a show of his, I don't even know what his music sounds like, and I had no idea he's playing GnR songs. BUT so fucking what. He WAS in GUNS N ROSES. We've had people on these sites preach for years that this IS Guns N Roses so that means Ron was part of it regardless. We've had people say they feel this or that version of GNR was in fact better than the original or Illusion era GnR. Seriously those people actually exist. So now that Ron is out of it everyone is pissed off that he's playing GnR songs? Bullshit. If Ron was still in the band nobody would have an issue with him doing that because Ron would be a member of Guns N Roses. Fact is according to everyone who went to the grave with the idea that this farce is GnR, Ron was part of it. Ron was/is GnR. Revionists can argue it all they want but this isn't even about that. It's just some bullshit fans have come up with to hate Ron.

Fact is people are hating on Ron because GnR made some bullshit statement about not being sure why Ron is so evasive about his status in the band, yet the band(organization) did absolutely nothing until now to clear things up for the fans. The assholes in the GnR camp with that tiny comment tried to spin Ron as the bad guy. the irony is they are trying to paint Ron as the bad guy for doing EXACTLY what they ahve been doing to fans for 2 decades. Being completey evasive, vague, non commital, towards the fans. GnR are the biggest spin machine on the planet. They fucking suck at it but that's their MO. Sadly a lot of sheep can't think for themselves and just go with whatever Axl and Co tell them to.

GnR(Axl and TB) are the assholes here, not Ron. PERIOD.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Bono

[Facekicker]

Think it is hilarious that people are getting mad at Ron

Exactly. the guy was more upfront with fans than anyone in the band the last 20 years and suddenly he's the bad guy. Fuck that shit. If Ron quit a year ago then gnR should've releaseda statement saying so. Fucking assclowns. GnR(Axl and team Brazil) are the biggest morons in the history of music. Just another typical blame game from the king of excuses.

People getting mad at Ron in any fashion is astounding to me

It truly is amazing. It's such an Axl mentality. these same people will probably blame Ron for the reason the abnd was never able to relase a follow up album. The one common denominator in all of this massive clusterfuck that is "Guns N Roses" is Axl Rose. It's remarkable that there are people out there who can't for the life of them see this.

What is even funnier is that when GNR does a good thing then GNR = Axl

When it is the reverse - Blame the guitarist

[sliverjazz]

Kotzen' Roses

[Iron MikeyJ]

I'm not mad at ron, but I do find it to be in bad taste to go out and play 6 out 9 gnr songs. Especially when he made no bones about not being the biggest gnr fan when he was younger, and how he went on and on about creating his own music. Like I said before, if he played 9 songs and two of them were guns song, then whatever. But 6 out 9? That's fucking pathetic if you ask me. Did buckethead do that? No. Did Gilby so that? No. Did Ashba do that? No. When you are essentially stooping lower than EVERYONE, I have the right to call you out on it. He is basically pimping himself out as gnrs former guitar player like he is on the same level as an original member. I have gotten in Slash before for playing to much guns stuff, but at least he helped write those songs, he was fucking there. Same with Adler, Izzy, Duff, and Axl. They were there, BBF was not. But for him to go out and play basically a gnr set, like he IS Slash is some bullshit. Just because he is a nice guy, or was nice to some of you, you are letting that cloud your judgement.

My judgment isn't clouded one fucking bit. I've never met Ron, I've never gone to a show of his, I don't even know what his music sounds like, and I had no idea he's playing GnR songs. BUT so fucking what. He WAS in GUNS N ROSES. We've had people on these sites preach for years that this IS Guns N Roses so that means Ron was part of it regardless. We've had people say they feel this or that version of GNR was in fact better than the original or Illusion era GnR. Seriously those people actually exist. So now that Ron is out of it everyone is pissed off that he's playing GnR songs? Bullshit. If Ron was still in the band nobody would have an issue with him doing that because Ron would be a member of Guns N Roses. Fact is according to everyone who went to the grave with the idea that this farce is GnR, Ron was part of it. Ron was/is GnR. Revionists can argue it all they want but this isn't even about that. It's just some bullshit fans have come up with to hate Ron.

Fact is people are hating on Ron because GnR made some bullshit statement about not being sure why Ron is so evasive about his status in the band, yet the band(organization) did absolutely nothing until now to clear things up for the fans. The assholes in the GnR camp with that tiny comment tried to spin Ron as the bad guy. the irony is they are trying to paint Ron as the bad guy for doing EXACTLY what they ahve been doing to fans for 2 decades. Being completey evasive, vague, non commital, towards the fans. GnR are the biggest spin machine on the planet. They fucking suck at it but that's their MO. Sadly a lot of sheep can't think for themselves and just go with whatever Axl and Co tell them to.

GnR(Axl and TB) are the assholes here, not Ron. PERIOD.

I guess we agree to disagree. Im not buying anything gnr is saying either, I'm just calling it how I see it. I for one think It's very hypocritical of Ron to go out and play 6 gnr songs and only 3 of his songs. I would feel that way about any NU member doing that, not just Ron. He just is the only one doing that, so yes I call Bull Shit on any integrity he feels he has. Edited August 1, 2015 by Iron MikeyJ

[smokingarthur]

This entire "New GNR" saga is a complete fucking debacle. It's become so far beyond ridiculous that anyone outside the hardcore fan base would have a difficult time comprehending whats transpired over the years. Axl's mental issues have constantly spilled over into every aspect of anything to do with GNR. This needs to end now, this cannot go on.

[dalsh327]

This must mean Paul Huge is back in the band, Caram's busy piecing things together, Axl's refreshing himself on Pro Tools and figuring out who he's going to sue.

[Dr. Who]

This must mean Paul Huge is back in the band, Caram's busy piecing things together, Axl's refreshing himself on Pro Tools and figuring out who he's going to sue.

So it's 1996 all over again?

[fumardude]

bucket & robin please!

[Słash]

Ron is a nice guy, I have met him and he was the most coolest out of them all, over the years he has spoken about things which no new member has. I really have no idea why he isn't telling, but it would be something legal or maybe personal.

In this case the "management" should have come out and told about this thing before, they knew that Ron is giving hints. The thing which confuses me that Ashba could tell and not Ron? Im sure Ashba would have given a notice 2 to 3 months before, but at least he came out and told, what could be the reason with Ron? I really don't understand any legal stuff in this? like ok you left, now what could be the legal consciences about it?

Even for Ashba, THEY haven't given any statement, really this band doesn't works like a band, its just hired members on contract and they are treated that way, they have no right in making any decision, they can be fired anytime, when they leave no announcement is made cause they are just hired to cover songs.

TB should make some effort to be a little interactive with the fans, but well you have seen how their attitude is.

[wkuk04]

This must mean Paul Huge is back in the band, Caram's busy piecing things together, Axl's refreshing himself on Pro Tools and figuring out who he's going to sue.

I'm willing to bet Axl's been sued more than he has sued somebody. Even your good buddies Duff & Slash have sued Axl, which in fact was a clerical error but they were really quick to blame Axl! Maybe that's why Axl didn't want to know when Slash turned up at his house, I don't think he was in anyway. Before that suit...Slash & Duff sued him previously for "This one alleged that the singer had wrongly claimed ownership of the group's assets after he quit GUNS N' ROSES in 1995. It also claimed that Rose had blocked Hudson and McKagan from licensing the band's recordings to movie producers, "costing the GUNS N' ROSES partnership millions of dollars to date." The case is pending."

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/axl-rose-s-attorney-clerical-error-is-to-blame-for-all-royalties-being-sent-to-singer/#WkODrm38rcSlSd3M.99

Edited August 1, 2015 by wkuk04

[Towelie]

BBA posted this somewhere else:

Ron said that certain 2014 members didn't seem to want to accept it and that some of them would play "word games" when it came to their status with the band.

Since most were given very little notice and were blind-sided when they found out that their contracts were being terminated with very little explanation at all, it's highly likely that some are holding out hope that Axl might change his mind and that they end up getting a future call.

Last year when the 2014 members received notice that their contracts were being terminated indefinitely, the media mistakenly confused this info for "Axl is Retiring". He later clarified things when he made the statement "I'm not going anywhere". Keep in mind, he didn't say anything about GNR.

Other than Guns, all Frank really has to fall back on is 'Pisser'. So, from a financial standpoint, I'm sure that he is hoping that he can somehow be part of any future plans that might involve Axl or GNR.

This is the first time since the inception of new Guns that there have been no contractual members.

And Osiris74 posted this:

Have a friend who works at a radio station as a DJ in a major North Americian city and he told me the reunions rumours are heating up and Izzy and Duff are on board. Waiting on Slash to finish touring. Adler is out, Sorum is in.

Put whatever stock into that what you want. I went to high school with the guy, he's straight up, no BS.

Just because he's heard these rumours doesn't make them true, but it's still interesting.

lol BBA.

He knows nothing. Never has, never will. I don't buy the fan theory that none of the band are under contract anymore. Why are Dizzy and Frank doing competition prizes on the official GNR website if they aren't obligated to do so?

[Majestic Beast]

The band is again broken,something is going so wrong and it can't be every time others fault.

[Axingnr]

Have a friend who works at a radio station as a DJ in a major North Americian city and he told me the reunions rumours are heating up and Izzy and Duff are on board. Waiting on Slash to finish touring. Adler is out, Sorum is in.

Put whatever stock into that what you want. I went to high school with the guy, he's straight up, no BS.

Just because he's heard these rumours doesn't make them true, but it's still interesting.

slash is touring until october: http://slashonline.com/tour/

i can't see a reunion until 2017 though, if they came back it would probably be with a new album

[Deb Rose]

I don't understand why Ashba could just come out and say it and Bumble still doesn't after a fucking year. Grow a pair.

I like bumblefoot a lot, but his attitude towards all this has been very disappointing.

I do not see how the fuck Axl can do anything next year, really. He had a full band and did nothing, now that he has to find TWO guitar players, well NOW things are gonna get going... pfff

Such a shame Axl, you have so much talent, write great songs, if you gave a fuck you could sing great again, but you just waste it all.

Edit: Don't see a reunion either. I mean, the man said "not in this lifetime". When he says SOON it takes 14 years, not in this lifetime would probably take 3 lifetimes. And IF it happens, I don't think it would be any good after all the hate that went on there...

Edited August 1, 2015 by Deb Rose

[TeeJay410]

What are the odds we just get a dump of the rest of the CD sessions, half hearted promo on that, then reunion? That's my ideal situation. I still want to hear the rest of what Axl was god damn working on but really GnR is about 9 years past where they just should have gotten back together already. Better late than never.

[dalsh327]

This must mean Paul Huge is back in the band, Caram's busy piecing things together, Axl's refreshing himself on Pro Tools and figuring out who he's going to sue.

I'm willing to bet Axl's been sued more than he has sued somebody. Even your good buddies Duff & Slash have sued Axl, which in fact was a clerical error but they were really quick to blame Axl! Maybe that's why Axl didn't want to know when Slash turned up at his house, I don't think he was in anyway. Before that suit...Slash & Duff sued him previously for "This one alleged that the singer had wrongly claimed ownership of the group's assets after he quit GUNS N' ROSES in 1995. It also claimed that Rose had blocked Hudson and McKagan from licensing the band's recordings to movie producers, "costing the GUNS N' ROSES partnership millions of dollars to date." The case is pending."

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/axl-rose-s-attorney-clerical-error-is-to-blame-for-all-royalties-being-sent-to-singer/#WkODrm38rcSlSd3M.99

Perla had Slash's balls in her purse as far as those times Slash went to Axl and I doubt he was sober either time. Kevin Lawrence got into how one of Axl's lawyers liked to stay gainfully employed through threats but it wasn't Axl's main attorney. Clerical errors are usually due to someone in the organization being lazy or greedy. Axl didn't get financially fucked like Billy Joel (ex-brother in law) or Leonard Cohen (ex-girlfriend) but all they had to do was an assload of tour dates to recoup the financial losses. Axl did one fall tour to settle with Azoff and didn't half-ass the performances.

This must mean Paul Huge is back in the band, Caram's busy piecing things together, Axl's refreshing himself on Pro Tools and figuring out who he's going to sue.

So it's 1996 all over again?

Burning Hills (and Lawn) Tweet coming.

[ZoSoRose]

Seriously, when has bba ever been an insider ?

[GNRfanMILO]

Even if its real, then why did Frank say a week algo that "there is a plan, and Guns N' Roses is moving forward"?

Smells like bullshit.

Edited August 1, 2015 by GNRfanMILO

[BangoSkank]

Holy shit. I hope this isn't accurate. Here's ron's most recent set list. It's mostly GNR classics:

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bumblefoot/2015/potamos-yermasoyias-parking-limassol-cyprus-1bf661a4.html

His one from May 8th is very similar. Wow.

To be fair, at lot of these are coming from the guitar clinics and small appearances he's doing right now so many times it's fan requested stuff or stuff that he knows people are going to expect to hear (which after almost ten years with GNR is inevitably GNR songs). When he does his normal set (not eight songs) it's generally 20+ songs ranging from his own to Guns to KISS to anything the audience shouts at him. When I saw him last year he didn't do a single Guns song save for the Pink Panther if you really want to count that.

Okay, that's comforting.

Still such a shame to see him go. Another solid player lost.

[gunsguy]

Seriously, when has bba ever been an insider ?

Good point whybare we relaying messages for him?

[Słash]

Even if its real, then why did Frank say a week algo that "there is a plan, and Guns N' Roses is moving forward"?

Smells like bullshit.

Well Frank even said that the band is still the same.....