2010.08.12 - Rolling Stone Brazil - The Neverending Work

English translation from Bumblefoot's site
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The neverending work

By Paulo Terron

The guitar player Bumblefoot divides his time between GNR concerts and Studio!

Ron Thal, aka Bumblefoot, has a really demanding work-life: when he’s not on the road, touring as GNR’s guitar player (till now, 130 concerts with Axl Rose and the others members), he is in his studio recording. “When the tour ends I go right to the studio to work. When I’m returning to tour it seems like vacations”, he explains, from his house in New Jersey, (USA), during a pause from the Chinese Democracy tour! “There are two different worlds; I think I would miss the work in the studio, even making amazing concerts. At the same time, if I lock myself recording, I would want to travel.”
At this moment he’s waiting for another leg of the European tour with GNR that is going to restart this month and he’s waiting for a special edition of his first solo album, The Adventures of Bumblefoot, from 1995. This work came from a really different time in the musician’s life. When he was 24 years old, he lived with his parents and was in charge of the music department in a school, with attributions that go from the coordination of a choir to a jazz band. “My world was very varied”, remembered him. “There were a lot of things happening”.

The album was recorded in a basement, while he fought with technique deficiency and a surreal enemy: the air conditioning noise, which was working to refresh from the heat of that year’s summer. “I went upstairs to heighten the thermostat temperature to avoid the device to turn on. I could record for one hour until my mother screamed: Why is the house too hot? It’s looking like an oven here!” [laughs]. Thinking of his Brazilians fans, Bumblefoot made his CDs available in a website, called Mercado Livre, that he controls himself with a Brazilian friend’s help. “It’s nice to have this connection with people”, he says, “I like to give people options, without forcing them”.

About a recent misunderstanding, involving GNR and a not confirmed supposed GNR performance during Rock in Rio 2011, he explains: “The fans were making a campaign about it on twitter. I wrote the same message to give my support, but it was just to show that I also wanted it. All concerts depend of managements and promoters, not the artist.” For now, the band plans will go to the end of the year, when they're going to perform in Australia. “But I hope the tour doesn’t end this year! Unless if it is to record another album, that would be cool.”

http://www.bumblefoot.com/press/20100812_-_Rolling_Stone_%28Brazil%29/20100812_-_Rolling_Stone_%28Brazil%29.htm