Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (formerly of Guns N’ Roses) praises Slash’s talent

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal made an appearance on “The Card King Sports And Variety Show” on March 14, which is broadcast on the ABC news affiliate KMET 1490 AM. Thal talked about how, more than 20 years ago, he got the guitarist position with Guns N’ Roses, as per Blabbermouth.

Joe Satriani hit me up and said, ‘Hey, I just recommended you for the Guns gig. They’re looking for a new guitar player.’ Just so if someone reaches out, you know it’s legit. And they reached out. That was in the summer of 2004 — 22 years ago, my God. And then a year and a half later, two years later, they had a tour, and we got together in New York. We jammed seven times and hit the road and finished the ‘Chinese Democracy’ album, and [it was] just eight solid years of a lot of touring and putting stuff out. We put out ‘Chinese Democracy’. We put out this DVD/Blu-ray ‘Appetite For Democracy’; it was this live show. And then, after that long, it was 2014, and I just missed everything else I was doing.

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal expressed this while thinking back on his choice to quit Guns N’ Roses.

The Guns gig wasn’t gonna become more than it was. And I missed being creative with a band, writing and recording and doing more. And I missed teaching, I missed producing, I missed everything else I was doing. So I went back to all of that, and had Art Of Anarchy and then eventually did Sons Of Apollo, which did pretty well, that band.

Ron responded to the interviewer’s observation that Slash is “more of a blues-based melodic, hard rock-style performer” and Bumblefoot is more technically accurate.

Well there’s this old joke. It’s a joke making fun of jazz people. It’s rock versus jazz — you can play three chords for 3,000 people, or 3,000 chords for three people. And the thing about Slash is he’s just an icon. He’s a legend. If you were gonna say, what is a rock guitar player? It’s Slash. And he came up with the things that every little kid — one of the first things they wanna learn on guitar is something that he came up with. He is the top. Absolutely. And it’s not about technicality. It’s not about any of that stuff. That’s the 3,000 — you could say 3,000 notes for three people. Slash, he made things that you can sing and that you recognize within a second. And that is a talent and a skill that is rare. And it’s fantastic. I mean, I do what I do, he does what he does, and the world is complete with everybody doing what they do.

We all have to be true to who we are. We gotta be genuine, we gotta be authentic. And for me, I’m a weird dude, so I play some weird stuff. And that’s just how it is. Is it gonna appeal to the masses? No. It has its place. It’s not gonna be on radio, but it’s gonna be on TV and video games and things like that. And that’s what I’m happy doing. And if I didn’t do that, there would be a little hole in the universe that I was meant to fill and I didn’t. And that goes for every human being. That’s everybody. It’s not about being famous or any of that crap. It’s about being true to yourself. That’s the most important thing. That’s it.