BUMBLEFOOT Says Waiting For A New GUNS N' ROSES Album To Get Done Is 'Just Too Much'

Steve Mascord of Hot Metal recently conducted an interview with GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On GUNS N' ROSES' plans for the follow-up for 2008's "Chinese Democracy":

Thal: "There's been talk all the time within us about the next album and what we're going to do and when we're going to do it. But, you know, life always gets in the way. Things get in the way. It's hard to have the momentum and the focus and everything that you need. It's hard to put everything aside and do a whole album.

"Personally, I don't want to do an album. I would like to just do a song. Let's just bite off a song and get a song out there and then bite off another song and get that out there. It's easier to do.

"Look, waiting for an album to get done is just too much. I can't do it myself. If I waited to finish an album, it still wouldn't be done and the album still wouldn't be out.

"When there's so much touring and so much other stuff going on, don't try and take on 14 songs. Do a song, then another song, then another song and then figure it out from there."

On singer Axl Rose's decision to skip GUNS N' ROSES' April 2012 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame:

Thal: "Honestly, we tried to work it out with the Hall Of Fame to come up with something but they had it in their mind that it was their way or no way. So they wouldn't budge and they were just trying to force a situation that wasn't good for everybody. We wanted it to be good for everybody. So…

"A lot of people should be in there that aren't. DEEP PURPLE isn't in there. That's a fucking travesty…"

On allegations that when GUNS N' ROSES played Townsville on December 1, 2010 that Rose had been "caught" lip-syncing, with local television sneaking into the venue and filming the performance:

Thal: "I assure you, everything Axl sings is real, everything I play is real, everything I sing is real. Trust me, we fuck up enough that you know it's real."

On GUNS N' ROSES' concert tardiness:

Thal: "You know what? When you're waiting, I'm waiting too. I don't want to wait fucking three hours to get on stage. I want to give you guys a show and I want you to be happy. But, hey, it's out of my control."

On reports in India that GUNS N' ROSES bassist Tommy Stinson had lost his temper on stage during an encore performance of ROSE TATTOO's "Nice Boys (Don't Play Rock'n'Roll)" in Gurgaon in December 12:

Thal: "It wasn't that. What happened was, we did our bow and we were walking off stage and we said, 'Let's do some more.' They were already packing up the gear and shutting everything down. So they first had to fire up everything all over again and half the shit was away so we started playing with half our gear and finally it was just like, 'You know what? Fuck it.' Some shit wouldn't go on, we're re-connecting cables, so the crew was going crazy trying to get it all done and it was just another moment in the history of the band."