GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist BUMBLEFOOT Discusses Solo Career, Touring In New Interview

Ronald van de Baan of Metalkrant recently conducted an interview with GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalkrant: You keep the fans updated about your new album through Twitter and Facebook. Can you tell us more about the new upcoming solo album?

Thal: I'm not gonna do an album. It's a big investment of time, and I don't have time. It's the big ongoing battle in my life, finding time for everything and everyone. So I'm gonna take it a song at a time, and release each digitally. I'd rather keep releases at a steady simmer than wait for a big pot to boil every few years. Know what I mean? We have the technology to do it this way now, wanna give it a try...

Metalkrant: You come [across] as a very social guy. You always got time for fans and often play with them outside the hotel. Is it hard to keep being that way. Now that you are in the famous rock band GUNS N' ROSES?

Thal: Playing in GUNS N' ROSES, I have more of an opportunity to do things like this. It's been good. It always happens spontaneously. Fans outside a hotel, I'm walking in with a guitar, or they have one, we're talking for a while, next thing ya know we're all singin' and playin'. It's nice. It's why I'm here. On Earth, I mean.

Metalkrant: Being away from home for such a long time must be a hard thing to do. How do you keep up the good spirit and continue being on the road for that time?

Thal: My wife visits a lot; we get to see the world together, it's great. I think Skype keeps everyone sane, fathers getting to see their families. There's a lot of band and crew walking around with laptops in front of their faces, talking to it, everyone waving to each other through the screen as they walk by...

Metalkrant: Besides making good solo records, you also are one of the lead guitarists in GUNS N' ROSES. Is it hard to combine your solo-work with being in GUNS N' ROSES?

Thal: Yes. The more we tour the less time there is for everything else. The last thing I did was put out my own "Abnormal" album and acoustic "Barefoot" album in 2008 while GUNS N' ROSES' "Chinese Democracy" was in its final stages to be released. I spent most of 2009 living out of a hotel room in L.A., prepping with GN'R for this past year of touring. Took a break over that summer and wrote and recorded a batch of my own music, toured with Lita Ford for a few months, then got back to biz with GN'R, hit the road end of '09 and have been touring since. On breaks in between legs of the tour, I'd try to knock out whatever I could. My first album was re-released by the label that owned it and I transcribed and released a 200-page tab book of the album, I laid some guest solos, started laying vocals to the '09 songs I wrote ("Invisible" will be the first of them...),did a song for a "Rock Band"-style video game of rock versions of Chopin's music, mixed RETURN TO EARTH's new album, "Automata" (Metal Blade Records),mixed and mastered some other demos and albums, did work with some charities as well... Just a big race against the clock all the time. I'm getting' things done, but I definitely feel the constant impending "to-do" list hovering over my head at all times, and scramble to knock down the list every free chance I get....

Read the entire interview from Metalkrant.