Guns N’ Roses
// Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, guitaristGUNS N’ ROSES is a hard-rock band from Los Angeles, California. Co-founder, pianist, singer-songwriter, and vocalist Axl Rose has led the band to release six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album during their career. Guns N’ Roses has sold an estimated one-hundred million albums worldwide, with the most recent release being “Chinese Democracy” (2008) available from Geffen Records. Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal is a guitarist, producer, and songwriter from New York City. Ron Thal’s “The Adventures Of Bumblefoot” (1995) was available from Shrapnel Records, “Wild Woody” (1995) video game soundtrack was available on Sega CD, and “Hermit” (1997) was available from Interference Records. Bumblefoot’s “Hands” (1998), “Uncool (French Version)” (2000), “911” (2001), “Uncool (American Version)” (2002), “Forgotten Anthology” (2003), “Normal” (2005), “Abnormal” (2008) and “Barefoot: The Acoustic EP” (2008) are all available from Bumblefoot Music LLC and Hermit, Inc. Bumblefoot features on every song for “Chinese Democracy”, and has toured Europe, North and Central America, Oceania, and Japan on Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy World Tour.
Websites: www.gunsnroses.com and www.bumblefoot.com
Photo: Chad Batka / ChadBatka.com
Interview:
A simple message in a song to draw from; “Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting…” [“We Can Work It Out” by The Beatles]. There have been times where I pulled that piece of the song from the back of my head as guidance to a better place. Nothing else would have gotten me there as effectively, and I’m grateful for it. A good amount of songs I’ve written came about by taking whatever was weighing heavy on my chest and letting it in, facing it, and returning it to the world as something positive, a way to help make sense of it all. It’s like paying it forward, giving the next person a message to draw from when they might need it most.
It’s a way you connect, and connect to millions of people, all sharing that sense of being – people from different generations, different cultures, different personality types that would never have had any exchanges, but the music brings them together. People forget their differences and are inspired and united. What is music’s spiritual significance? It’s the ingredient that lifts us to a higher place; it gets us through our darkest times; it frees us to express who we are; it speaks for us when we can’t find the words; and it connects us to each other and creates a collective euphoria. Sound is the Almighty voice, music is the language.
“What is music’s spiritual significance? It’s the ingredient that lifts us to a higher place… it connects us to each other and creates a collective euphoria.”
– Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, guitarist in Guns N’ Roses
