GUNS N' ROSES guitarist
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal has slammed
NME.com for allegedly "twisting" his words "into an attack" on the band's lead singer,
Axl Rose.
In a recent interview with
Ryze-Up magazine,
Thal was asked what advice he would give to newbies in the music scene. "1. Be on time," he replied. "By 'on time' I mean 'be early.' Make sure you're there for when you need to be — wait in your car, communicate, let them know 10 minutes early that you'll be there in 5 minutes, and walk in 5 minutes later. 2. Be prepared. By 'prepared' I mean 'overly prepared.' Know more than you need to. If you're gonna lay guitar parts, know the drum grooves and where all the accents and up-beats and fills and breaks are, know the bass lines... When the bassist doesn't show and they freak out and you say, 'I know the bass part. I can lay it down,' you'll be the MVP 3. Be cool. And by that I mean, be a calm, relaxed, easy-going, soothing presence in the room. When everyone is contagiously breaking into panic and stress mode, you'll be their voice of reason without even trying. Players can be replaced — people are chosen by who others want to spend their time with."
Earlier today,
NME.com reported on the above-mentioned interview and
erroneously included a comment that was posted on
Metal Hammer's
web site — "Remember kids, only massive goobers make a habit of not being on time." — as part of
Bumblefoot's response. This prompted the guitarist to pen the following missive via his
Facebook page:
"Some 'info' sites will twist anything into an attack on
Axl, lol (only way to get more readers and hike up rates on advertisers I guess...)
NME is *not* a legit source of music info by any stretch. Not only do they make up quotes that aren't true (I've NEVER used the term 'massive goobers' in my life, lol), I also didn't speak to
Metal Hammer.
NME is using a piece of an interview I did with
Ryze-Up magazine. If
NME is going to point fingers, they should have more integrity and class in what *they* do, yes?"
He added: "I'm at the venue early, I'll have dinner with crew, watch opening acts, get warmed up, I'm at every meet-n-greet, and I'm ready to get on stage at show time. That's me. My advice was for musicians starting out, hopefully it served its positive purpose :)"
