During an appearance on the “No Guitar Is Safe” podcast, former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal was asked to name one of the solos that he enjoyed playing the most during his time with the band. He responded (hear audio below): “There was a lot of stuff on [the] ‘Chinese Democracy’ [album] — just being able to play my own parts with the band, it felt good. There is something to be said about that — when you get to play something that you came up with, that you wrote, that you recorded.”
He continued: “As much as I loved playing the other songs, which everybody loves, and you’re there to please the audience; you wanna make them happy and you wanna deliver those songs the way they love them and not rewrite anything… I’m not gonna rewrite the solo to ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ — that kind of stuff. Give them what they came there to hear. But when it came to the spots where there’s a little bit of freedom, or if I got to play my own things…
“I think ‘Shackler’s Revenge’ was the song on ‘Chinese’ that I loved playing the most, because I feel like I added the most to that song,” Thal added. “I mean, there were a bunch. There was ‘Scraped’, there was ‘Shackler’s’, there was ‘Catcher In The Rye’ — certain songs where I was doing a lot of the leads.”
Ron never officially announced his departure from the GN’R, but a source confirmed to Detroit music writer Gary Graff back in 2015 that the guitarist had been out since the end of the band’s second Las Vegas residency in 2014.
Thal later revealed that he was focusing on his solo career and other projects after spending eight years playing in GUNS.
Ron joined GUNS N’ ROSES in 2006 and played on 2008’s “Chinese Democracy”, an album which contained music that had been written before he came into the group. He has also released a number of solo CDs.
Thal is currently a member of SONS OF APOLLO, which also features drummer Mike Portnoy, keyboardist Derek Sherinian and bassist Billy Sheehan. SONS OF APOLLO released its second studio album, “MMXX” (pronounced: 20/20), in January 2020 via InsideOut Music/Sony.
