Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal has been in Asia, Sons of Apollo and Guns N’ Roses. He and I recently became acquainted when I was in his band at Rock N’ Roll Fantasy Camp back in February. We became fast friends bonding over music and music trivia. It was also easy because he is a humble and genuine guy. I saw that he was releasing a new video for his song the “The Thread” from his album “Bumblefoot… Returns!” So, I connected with him to have a conversation about the video and the album.
The album is his second instrumental album out of about a dozen solo records. He said doing an instrumental album “You feel like you’re scoring an imaginary movie.” He described it like a “Virtual piece of tape over your mouth.” He said you then “Transfer everything to your hands and let that be the voice.”
To speak of his voice in that way means we had to discuss Bumblefoot’s guitar. It is very in your face in the video for “The Thread.” I have seen the guitar up close and had the opportunity to play it as well. It is a unique beast. Ron spoke about Van Halen, “It destroyed my brain; it totally changed the way I thought. Started experimenting a lot musically and also with guitar, I won’t say construction, guitar destruction. I would try and build my own guitars.” Touring in France in 1997 when someone at one his shows encouraged him to check out a Vigier guitar he had with him. He was resistant but when he finally tried, he realized it was a better instrument than the ones he was building. But it wasn’t just about the guitar. Bumblefoot sang the praises of the owner of the company and how the way they get along is important.
At the NAMM show in 1998 Ron saw these fretless guitars the company made where the neck had a metal surface. The company had only sold one of them in about 18 years at the time. He took one home and started playing it. He described in depth how it made him write differently. “It’s like a different language in a way, and it became more and more a part of what I do, what I play, what I write, everything.” From there he expressed not wanting to have to choose between the fretless or a regular guitar and that the solution was a double neck. The most interesting thing to me about the guitar is the magnetized hole that houses a thimble. You need to watch Bumblefoot describe what that is about.
There are many guests who show up on the album, including Steve Vai, Brian May, and Derek Sherinian. As recording progressed that’s when Bumblefoot would identify players who would sound good on certain songs. The guests were invited when he heard something for a track that wasn’t him. The track “Once And Forever” actually was named by Brian May. Ron’s varied influences come through when he is describing the songs in terms of well-known classic artists.
There are many styles throughout the album as well. I was struck by “Moonshine Hootenanny.” Which might be the polar opposite of “The Thread.” It was fun to hear him talk about how the song came to be as he was singing the guitar parts too. That led us into talking about the song “Simon In Space” and its video and video game. The description of the song’s inspiration is quite amusing. You have to hear him describe everything included in the digital book for the album.
The video for “The Thread” was meant to be simple. Black and white is the overall look. You’ll notice you never see the face of the guitarist in the video, just his hands. The thimble for the guitar that we mentioned earlier can be seen up close in the video. Then Ron explained the reason why the song is called “the Thread” is because of a decade old email thread started by Jeff Watson of Night Ranger. While writing the song Bumblefoot felt he had stolen the melody from somewhere, but he couldn’t place it. He put it in the thread and asked, “What is this?” Bob Daisley jumped in an identified it as the Gary Moore song “Parisienne Walkways.” He changed things up and brought the tune back to the thread. Ron gives the players in the thread credit for how the song turned out.
We wrapped up with what will certainly just be our first conversation with a questionnaire.
