“Don’t Hide Your Weirdness” Ron Thal on creativity, technique, and a lifetime of pushing guitar boundaries.

"You're better off playing s**t notes with a good rhythm than the right notes that don't have a pocket." Ron Thal on creativity, technique, and a lifetime of pushing guitar boundaries.

Few guitarists embody versatility quite like Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal. From his technically fearless solo work to his time holding down one of rock’s most demanding gigs with Guns N' Roses, Thal has built a reputation as a player who refuses to be confined by genre or expectation. Whether it’s blistering shred, intricate fretless guitar work, or deeply expressive melodic phrasing, his style is as unpredictable as it is unmistakable.

But Bumblefoot’s story goes far beyond virtuosity. Across projects like Sons of Apollo, Asia, Art of Anarchy, Whom Gods Destroy, and his ever-evolving solo catalogue, he’s continually pushed the boundaries of what modern guitar playing can be—blending technical innovation with a songwriter’s sensibility and a fearless approach to tone.

Rich Shaw sat down with the ever-inventive Bumblefoot to talk creativity, technique, career-defining moments, and what still drives him forward as a guitarist. This is an insight into one of the most unique voices in modern guitar.

 

Hi Ron, how are you doing?

Doing well. All is well. No complaints.

 

Good stuff. My first question is, how did Ron become Bumblefoot? I know how the name happened, and I'm sure a lot of people do. It's more about teenage Ron practising at home: how did that sound that you have now develop? What was your practice routine? What kind of stuff were you listening to? What turned you from just being a playing teenager into the style you're known for today.

Alright, I'll try and sum up 50 years as quickly as I can. So, I was 5 years old, it was 1975, we just moved from the New York City borough of Brooklyn to the next one over, Staten Island, which was full of deer and rabbits, and moved to this nice little neighbourhood where all these kids my age. And I would go over to their house to hang out, and there would just be albums laying all over the place, and then we stumbled onto a newly released, just came out in September of 1975, this album with these painted faces on them, and was like, oh, this looks interesting. We'd pop it on the turntable, stare at the speakers as if we're watching TV, and hear the crowd start cheering, and hear Paul Stanley screaming, it was ‘Kiss Alive!’. As soon as I heard that album, 5 turning 6, I knew that's what I wanted to do, and I started doing it.

I didn't have anything to write about, but I started writing songs about things I was interested in, like space, so I'd write songs called 'Jupiter is Nice’, and things like that. I put a band together with my brother on drums, my neighbour John on guitar and singing, and I was doing back-up vocals and just making weird noises on guitar, nothing’s changed. And I just kept on going with it. We would make recordings using multiple cassette recorders, we would have one in the corner of the room, our little nylon string guitars right up next to it, and the drums 10 feet back, and that's how we got levels with distance, like the old days. Record onto a cassette, play the cassette back of the music, and sing along with it while this one records, and that's how we would overdub our vocals. And now we figured out, just bouncing back and forth, how we could multitrack, and we would make demos. And I just never stopped. I would cut up pieces of paper and make cups of confetti when we would have a show in the basement or the backyard of the house, and throw confetti in the air, and nothing changed.

So, I was into all the modern music of the time, which is classic rock. And, you know, things like, 60s rock, The Beatles, Stones, all of that. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time to be alive. Every week there'd be a new album from Queen, or from David Bowie, or then this new band ACDC, and another new band called the Ramones, and it was great. So there was constant inspiration and great music that really had a lot of substance and really touched you.

So… there was that, and I would just play for the song. I cared about being in a band. That was always my goal. I just want to be a contributor. I'm not looking to be a guitar hero. To me, a guitar is just another tool that you use to make the song, that make people feel as good as all this music was making me feel. I just kept on doing that and moving forward with it, and I played pretty much like a very a wound-up Angus Young kind of player. You know, just hyperactive blues licks.

Then I was about 12 years old, someone asked me if I knew how to tap, and I didn't know what that was. I was like, what's tapping? And he showed me. He said, do you know who Eddie Van Halen is? I'm like, no, who's that? I was pretty late to the game. And he showed me, and I'm trying to do it, I'm like (plays tapping lick). He’s like, ‘no, the other way, this finger, and then that one, and that one’. And he showed me ‘Eruption’. It blew my mind. Actually, first he showed me the ‘Fair Warning’ album. And he showed me (plays the intro to ‘Mean Street’), and I never heard a guitar sound like that before. It was like doing a drug for the first time, and your psyche goes to this whole other place it's never been before. And hearing that sound made me realise that the guitar is more than just a contribution, just another instrument to make a song happen. It has its own voice, its own identity. It's your other voice, it's your expression, and you could be so creative with it. So, he gave me a cassette copy of ‘Eruption’, and I took it home and learned it just by ear. There was no YouTube, there were no tab books, anything, you had to just use your ears. So I learned it, and then I opened up the cassette chassis and flipped the reels, now all the music is backwards, and I learned ‘Eruption’ backwards, so that I could really learn it forwards and backwards. Then I just really got into the experimentation and the exploration, and what can you do to a string to make it speak in an interesting way. 

So, it was hearing Eddie Van Halen. I always say there's this dividing line. There's guitar before him and guitar after him, and they're two different things. So, when I crossed that line, it just changed the way I thought about playing guitar. And I started getting into different techniques, just seeing what you can do. I started building my own guitars, or I should say destroying my own guitars, because I don't know how to build guitars, and they were awful. They were monstrosities, they were hideous. They never should have existed, but those were my babies. And that's what I would play, like a weird Swiss cheese guitar, or one where I yanked off all the frets, lined it up with coins, and made sort of this botched fretless. Things like that I would do.

(Begins to demonstrate on the guitar) And then I would start using this: a metal thimble on the smallest finger of my picking hand, where, besides just playing, I would tap with these two fingers, and then with this one, I would extend the range of notes. Because you realise that just because the fretboard stops, the notes keep going, and I wanted a way to access them. So, rather than pressing the string against a metal fret to shorten the length of string and raise the pitch, this was like a mobile fret that I could press against the string, and keep it going. And you just keep it going, and just throw it on there and tap with it. I also realised that from the centre of the string, the way the harmonics are just divisions of the length of string that multiply the frequency, and it's the same in the other direction. That means that if you're shortening the length of the string in this way, you should be able to shorten the length of the string this way and get the same result. So, if you go open to first fret, you take that distance. You apply it here, and do the same thing. And it shortens. Now you can play from both directions of the string. Let's say we're shortening in this direction and we're shortening by that much, right here. It's like a fretless, it slides. You could extend bends, too.

But, you can do all kinds of stuff, you could do all kinds of trilling with it. Extra notes that way, and there's a lot of things you can do to the string. Of course, knowing where those division points are, just knowing where they are, knowing where to grab them to get the exact pinches that you want to get.

So, there was all of that, and I was into some weird music. I discovered all the 70s British prog groups and I was just in love with it all. Yes, Jethro Tull, ELP, UK. And then there was this new sound, new metal, that was emerging, and I was into that. Then the whole guitar world opened up. It was just a typical progression of people my age, and we all ended up being kind of weird, whether it's Buckethead, or Matthias Eklund, or Guthrie Govan. We all had that timeline of exposure to music and influences. That gave permission to explore and find our thing. And we did!

 

It shows, it's phenomenal. All the guys you mentioned there, including yourself, are such identifiable players, but all incredibly unique. Funnily enough, with what you were saying there, you've answered about 4 of my questions, which is amazing. You're doing a very good job.

Oh, man. Fantastic. Thank you so much.

 

You are here to talk, and I'm here to listen and set you up. It's that meticulousness nature that I think makes a good guitar player into a great player, and finding their unique sound, which is why I always try to ask people: how did they become what they eventually become, sound-wise. What do you think makes a good guitar player elevate to a great guitar player?

Oh, there's so many things. First, Rhythm. You gotta have good rhythm, you gotta have good pocket, you gotta have that. If you’re like an untamed puppy jumping in front of the beat and trying to lead the drummer, that’s not good. You're better off playing s**t notes with a good rhythm than the right notes that don't have a pocket, that don't have just any kind of element of swing and dynamics and feel. Speed is irrelevant. It's just another tool in the toolbox, but you don't necessarily need it. You only need to express yourself the way you want to, and what feels genuine to you. It’s fine if your whole thing is just hitting one note every couple of seconds. Wonderful. That is you, that's what makes you you. Unapologetically, wonderfully, you. But being able to do that with a comfortable pulse to it, a comfortable feel, whatever it is you're playing. So that's the first thing. That is the difference between a non-musician and a musician, is having that ability.

Then from there, there's your personality. Not stifling yourself, not editing yourself and limiting yourself, and boldly being you. Show your weirdness, your little things that are different, that make you you. Don't be shy about it. Don't hide, don't feel like you need to fit into the mould of everything else, and don't be afraid to step out of that. The ones that step out are the ones that bring the world forward. For better or worse, do it. Because if you don’t, your whole musical life, you'll feel like you're just in a cage, and that's no fun. So, be you, for sure.

The thing that makes a legend is if people can dress up as you for Halloween. That is a thing. If you could put on Ace Frehley makeup, or a Slash top hat, or even a Buckethead chicken bucket, those are the things that can make you legendary. That's the one step that a lot of us don't take, and we just focus on the integrity of our music and our playing, and we don't do that. And I'm being a little silly about it, tongue-in-cheek about that, but there is some truth to that.

 

I agree, if you can tell a legend by their silhouette. Even Brian May and the hair. That's something that's so identifiable to even non-guitar players and non-musicians.

Yeah, in fact, let's take him as an example. Yes, his silhouette, absolutely, you know it's him. His guitar, you know it's him. The sound of his guitar, you know it's him. The choices he makes in his music, you know it's him. His vibrato, you know it's him. When guitar players play one note, their tone and their vibrato and what they do to that string. The embellishments is what makes them them. That's a big one. It's not the scales that they play, or anything like that. It’s just the one note. He has all of that. The songs he writes, the band he's in, all these things contribute to making him the almighty Sir Dr. May. Absolutely.

 

100%. Speaking of Brian May, he is on your latest album, as well as Guthrie Govan and Steve Vai. I'm aware you've known Guthrie for a long time. But even getting a hold of Brian May and Steve Vai, when did that happen, and when did the idea to get them involved on the album occur?

Oh, I’ve been in contact over the years with everyone mentioned there. I didn't really plan on having guests, but then sometimes as you're building a song and you're seeing what it's becoming, you realise that that person is the puzzle piece that fits more than you. So you ask. It's like, would you do this for the song, and make it what it could be. They all said yes. Also, Jerry Gaskell, drummer of King's X, he's on the song with Brian May. Derek Sherinian, my Sons of Apollo bandmate, plays keys on that song. Ben Karras, a violinist who plays in the amazing band Thank You, Scientist. If you haven't heard that band, go check them out. Incredible band. So, so wonderful. He's on there. And of course, my drummer! My dude, Kyle Hughes! Yes! Phenomenal drummer. He's playing now with, speaking of KISS, Paul and Gene’s kids, Evan and Nick, they have Stanley Simmons' band together, and Kyle plays drums with them now. And he's been my dude since he's been a teenager. We played together, in the UK, did a show, and his band said, hey, we'll be a back-up band for the show and learn the songs, and he just blew me away. He was just such a killer showman, and had back-up vocals, and just played the drums so well, and everything. It’s like, I want this dude to be my drummer from here on. And he was, and we would tour together, and record together, and he's the guy, I can't say enough good things about him. Kyle Hughes.

I know of him, and I have friends who are friends with him, and they all say, he’s a lovely guy, and I know he's a monster player as well. Do you think that's important that you need to get on with everybody in a band, or have there been situations where you think you can put up with certain people's personalities because the music's good enough? I am a Sons of Apollo fan, and I’m assuming you must have a great chemistry with Derek, in particular, because you're in another band with him as well, Whom Gods Destroy. So I'm wondering about chemistry, and if there are any times where you think that the personal chemistry is not there but the writing chemistry is, and it's worth pushing through.

There's a lot to say there, yes. First, yeah, actually, I just last weekend, played a show with Billy out in Chicago, had a wonderful time, and Derek and I are talking all the time and doing things together. A lot of times I'm mixing songs in the studio that he played on as a guest for someone, and I'm doing the mixing. We'll be playing together again in October, if not sooner, at the Starmus Festival, which Brian may might join us. He's one of the organisers of that festival. We play it pretty much every year now.

Jeff Scott Soto, just 2 days ago, he did a show for the release of the new Ellefson-Soto album, so I was chatting with him. We're all in touch. But at the same time, when you're in a band together, it's a marriage. And to have 4, 5 crazy and passionate dudes with their own ideas of things, all trying to get along and create what they think is gonna be this world-changing music and all that stuff that, you know how it is in bands. That is not easy. So, in a perfect world, it would be this harmonious utopia, everyone gets along wonderfully, we love each other so much, we agree on everything, and even if we don't, we are so happy to try each other's ideas and see where it goes, and so supportive, and try to be that way. But every once in a while, you get headstrong about something, like, “no, it should be this. Only 5 times, not 6 times, that it does that part”. Those kind of things could even break up a band! It's amazing what a bunch of children we act like when we're in a band together. The things we would never do at our day job, the way we act, like a bunch of children. Grown-a** men acting like little brats. And that is a band. Because music brings out that child in us that just discovered music, and we still have that passion, and that child is still alive, in the core of who we are. And that child comes out and stomps his feet and so you have a room full of children all trying to create together, whether the children are in their 20s or in their 60s. But we are a bunch of unemployable children. And that passion, and that tension is what leads to great music a lot of times.

You know, some of the greatest music was made by people that hate each other, and can't stand each other. And that tension, that duality that they have, adds something to the music, because every one of us in a band are surrounded by people that have things we don't, that add things we wouldn't or can’t. And when we just back up and just let it happen, it becomes so much greater than it could ever be if we try to control the situation. So, at least for me, what I've learned over time, and also doing a lot of music camps, a lot of rock and roll fantasy camps, and I always give this advice to these camp bands that are thrown together, that we have to get in a room and in four days do two shows and play with a bunch of rock star guests and all these things. Let it happen, see where it goes, just get in the room and play. You'll be surprised as to what comes together easily, and what is a struggle, and just isn't working out, and it's usually not what you think it's gonna be. You just have to let go and just see where it goes on its own. And to be as happy for others when they get what they want musically as you are when you get it, because we are all just a slice of the pie. And together it's gonna be a good pie if we all get to contribute and be our full selves in it.

And I'm just saying a lot of the same s*** with way too many words. So, to sum it up, no, you don't have to get along, and it does reach a point where the person is just so impossible that it's detrimental to the process, and then either you go or they go, whatever it is, but it's just not worth it for the years it takes off your life from the stress to be around those people. There has to be a limit to how much carnage you're willing to endure. And I know you've experienced it, I've experienced it, we all have. Anyone in a band or in any kind of working scenario with people. This is what we all encounter, you know? Sometimes they're the a*****e, sometimes we're the a*****e. We don't think we are, or maybe we know we are, but it's just how we disagree with each other. And we can all work as human beings better at how we disagree, and making that work and using it to be creative and to add, rather than fighting each other so much when we disagree. And that's just in life.

I couldn't agree more with that. It’s about learning about each other, and ourselves, and like you say, create from it. Don't subtract, add.

Well said.

Talking about the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, and of course, you being a teacher. I'm a teacher as well, and I'm always curious to ask other teachers. Do you think teaching has made you a better player?

Oh, of course. Absolutely. Every time you explain something, you understand it more. You get a deeper understanding of things, whether it's how to apply the ideas of music theory and the way, melody connects to its music, or just certain techniques that you're demonstrating. And it's the little subtleties. I'm a nut about details. Let's say you're doing string skipping, and you're just going from one to another, and let's say it's with tapping, and you want to go (plays guitar lick), something like that. And I always make the students focus on the transition from string to string, where the same way as you're going legato up, and the next note discontinues the previous note completely. You want the same effect to happen when you switch strings, where the ear can't even notice that you have switched. You don't want a gap, and you don't want an overlap. So we're working on just releasing the pressure, just relaxing it.

The devil’s in the details with all these things, and I think that's another thing that makes good guitar players great. I think it's that meticulous, almost OCD, nature about it. Speaking of the details, I’ve got to ask you about playing fretless guitar, and I’ve not seen this in interviews I've seen with you so far. For those who don't know, Ron is an incredible vocalist. I'm curious if you being a singer informed your decision to try fretless. Was it one of those things where you hear something in your head, you think ‘oh, that vocal melody would sound great on the guitar, but I am limited by frets’? I'm just curious if the fretless nature of things, and the vocalist nature of things kind of combined, or was that not even a thought?

Wonderful question. I have to, like, dig deep into my skull for that. Without thinking about it much. My first response would be not really. It’s like they're three different languages. Now, here's one language (plays fretted neck). Here's another one (plays fretless neck). And the other one (sings). They’re just 3 different languages that you speak. So with the fretless, it's more of just being able to embellish the notes a slightly different way. You know, you can drag the pinches (plays lick). Just the back-and-forth vibrato that you can really (plays lick) Then the hell of trying to do chords (plays chords on fretless neck). It’s just a different thing. It’s just learning another language. That's kind of how I think of it.

Would you say guitarists could benefit from singing? Because I'm not a singer, I wish I was, and I always think, could it be one of those things where it would make me a more well-rounded musician? Maybe I'd have an appreciation for melody more? I'm just always curious about guitar players who are also singers, if they feel that one informed the other. Being a vocalist possibly affects your note choice, your rhythm choices on guitar, and vice versa, because you hear music in a different way. So I'm curious, do you think guitar players would benefit from singing, even a little bit?

It certainly doesn't hurt, yeah. But in a way, I think guitar players, what we do is we just channel our urge to make a sound instead of here (points to mouth), here (points to guitar). I think a lot of guitar players, we're just singing through our hands, is what we do, and we just rerouted the signal path internally to go to the hands. But it doesn't hurt, and usually I think what guitar players will do is they'll take a vocal melody, maybe not one that we would sing, but one that we hear sung, and we just try and emulate it. But it doesn't hurt to sing, to learn another instrument, to listen to a different type of music. All these things will be building blocks in your structure that when you go to pick up the guitar. They will play some kind of role that add to what you do and influence in some way what you do. They will add to what you do.

You're very eclectic. You listen to a lot of different styles. Even your solo albums are very eclectic, while still sounding very much like you. Is there anything in your career that you feel like you've yet to touch? Is there anything new you're learning that you want to incorporate into your music? Whether it be guitar techniques-wise, singing-wise, or just a completely different style that people wouldn't expect from you? Or do you feel like you've kind of ticked all the boxes in terms of ‘That's me. I'm just gonna continue doing this’? Do you feel there's more that people have yet to see from Ron Thal?

I’ve done everything from a lounge singer under a fake name for tribute lounge albums, like, 25 years ago. I've done a lot of stuff. Things people don't know about. I guess musically, if we just stick to musically. Not that I could think of.

Even in terms of guitar techniques, or world music? I know you've incorporated some of this stuff already, but I'm always curious how creative people stay inspired. 30-plus years into your career, and you're still creating, you still obviously have that passion for music and teaching and sharing your information with us. I’m curious what inspires you and keeps you going decades into a career?

So many things. Now it's been, I guess 51 years with a guitar in my hands, and it's just as fun and inspiring and interesting as it's ever been. The key to it is, don't burn out on one thing. If all you do is teach, you burn out on it. If all you do is tour, you burn out on it. If all you do is guest solos in the studio, you burn out on it. So you need to be diverse in what you do, also different types of music.

I’ve done all kinds of weird stuff. I remember one time playing with this Turkish composer doing this progressive orchestra music as the guitar player in it. And we did all the little bumpers and spots for CNN Turkey in 1998-99. All kinds of weird stuff. Backing music for indie horror movies. Endless things. And it never stops. When something comes your way out of left field that you didn't see coming, that is out of your comfort zone, and something you've never done, say, oh, let me explore that. That entered your realm for a reason. And it's worth looking into, and that's what I tend to do, I don't want to just stay in my bubble. I'm always looking for new, interesting stuff. And you never know how, it’ll inspire you musically, not just in music, just in life. Recently, I had a conversation with the AI of the Hera spacecraft that is analysing the DART mission, and how it exploded on the, the asteroid to change its directory. And we had this hour-long back-and-forth conversation, that's gonna be in a book. Things like that. This is the kind of stuff you want to do in life. Just the stuff you didn't see coming, and don't say no to it. Do it, and at some point, that will show itself musically. Like, that thing, that unexpected thing. You gotta lead an interesting life first and foremost, before anything else. Otherwise, your stories are gonna be just the same, and not exciting to even tell for you. So, you need interesting things. Doesn’t have to be dangerous, or illegal, or anything, but things that excite you. Push yourself a little bit. You know, you can keep one foot in the comfort zone and just stick the other one out. That helps a lot, and it keeps you from getting bored in life. It keeps your passion alive, not just in music, just in life. And that's what you want, because your music is an expression of you. You don't work for the music. The music is secondary, it's just telling the stories you have to tell as a human being. So that is the part you really need to focus on, is yourself, your soul, what you experience, and what you can share from that with people. So, that is the main thing you want to do.

That's a great answer, and I'm gonna say thank you for that, because I really needed to hear that right now, so thank you.

Absolutely.

What was the mindset around the album, and are there any standout tracks for you. Any personal favourites?

Oh, let's see, which of my children do I love the most? That’s such an impossible question. Each one is its own story of just something. The opening track ‘Simon in Space’. I'd just gotten a new cat at home, Simon, and he would love just staring out the window in his circular bed that looked like he was sitting in a spaceship, looking out, and I made a silly little Instagram page called ‘Simon in Space’, where it's just him in his bed, like, in space, in different scenes, just for my own amusement. I was making that song, I was writing for the Whom Gods Destroy album, and there was this one riff I came up with, and I thought, you know what? I think I want to save that one for myself, and just turned it into this. Whenever I'm writing instrumental songs, it's almost like I'm scoring an imaginary movie, and seeing where it goes, what happens next, and writing for that, for each part, and ‘Simon In Space' just feels like a space adventure, and it just all came together. It perfectly scored the imaginary movie.

‘Planetary Lockdown’, and that was the first thing I did as soon as I was locked in the studio in 2020, and the urgency made that song. ‘Moonshine Hootenanny’, just a fun boom-cha-boom-ba-cha-ba-boom kind of song. That was just a fun song that I thought would take a really weird, nice detour in the middle and just go to unexpected places. The Brian May song, ‘Once In Forever’. That just reminds me of a father and daughter wedding dance, or prom night, like this one moment in your life that you reminisce about, think back on, as a special moment. It just had that sound and feel to it, all the melody and everything.

The song with Guthrie Govan (‘Anveshana’), that was a riff I had since 1989 that I never did anything with. I thought, let me just start this album by doing that. And in 1989, that's when I first met Guthrie, I was in a guitar magazine, and he wrote to me. Back then, we would write handwritten letters, you know, with a stamp, and he wrote to me and said, ‘I'd love to hear your demo’, and we became pen pals, and would trade cassettes of our demos back and forth. So, with that song, I pictured in the middle having this open space where, like, a trade-off could happen, and it only made sense that it should be him.

‘The Thread’. I have this email thread with a bunch of guitar players on it, and I was working on that song, and I was showing it to them as I was working on it, and they gave their thoughts and said, oh, what if you did this? What if you did that? And the song became what it was because of them. It wouldn't exist if not for their input when they gave it, and so I named the song after them, that's why it's called 'The Thread’, because that's what we just call it, you know, ‘The Thread’.

Whom Gods Destroy released an album in 2024, and I'm curious to hear if there's new music in the pipeline for them or new solo material. What’s next for you?

Oh, Whom Gods Destroy. I always think of it like it was a summer fling. Sons of Apollo had put out two albums, we were doing our 2020 tour, which, of course, that ended abruptly. The world shut down and everything. We had all this time in our studios, locked up, and Derek and I just kept on writing for what could have been a third Sons of Apollo album, but not all the members had that in their upcoming plans. So, we took all of that, and with Dino Jelusick on vocals, and I also started doing another thing with Jeff Scott Soto, and we were all doing lots of different things together, but it wasn't Sons of Apollo. So, what could have been Sons of Apollo's third album became this new thing, Whom Gods Destroy, named after a Star Trek episode. And we made this album, and I love it. I thought it was just something that would have worked really well live at metal festivals, and it was really intense. But once the pandemic ended, and everyone could get right back to what we were all doing previously, everyone got busy with what we were doing, and it didn't leave any time for the summer fling. And there was talk about doing touring, but a lot of the members said, oh, I would want to do a second album first. And I started writing some ideas for a second album. But collectively, everybody was just too busy making up for lost time with everything else that became their priority again. And it's understandable. So, in the end, I look back on it, and we made this wonderful album together. And that's it. If another pandemic happens, maybe we can make a second album in 100 years.

So, what is next for me? I've been wanting to do a comic book as part of everything I'm doing for the Bumblefoot ‘…Returns’ album, and I did backing tracks and very detailed transcriptions. You get all the weird guitar sounds at the Line 6 Marketplace. There’s vinyl, CD, cassette, everything. All the music videos, whether it’s a demonstration-type video, or an animated video that took a year to make, this crazy animation stuff, just whatever I could do just to make that album release just a stretched-out, big event, the way album releases used to be, before it was just throwing it up on Spotify. The next thing, and it's just taken me way too long, is I've wanted to make a start doing a comic book, where it could be digital version, click on things, and it takes you to other things, as well as the physical version.

So, more of that, more of what can I do that's just engaging for people, another way they could enjoy the music. If there's little secret music things that happen in the comic book, that you click on, a little hidden thing, and maybe a secret song, or something. Yeah, a lot to think about with that.

The hot sauce, ‘Moonshine Hootenanny’, named after the song on the album. I've had this hot sauce business going on for, yeah, 13 years now. Love my hot sauce.

I have another, Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp coming up. That one's gonna be with Roger Daltrey and, Steve Morse, so that'll be fun. And more producing, I've been producing a ton of bands, a lot of up-and-coming bands, and trying to help them get on the field and get out and do it. A great one called Shavrock, which is like Daughtry, Creed-type rock; great guitar playing and harmonies. A band called the Dodies. Such interesting stuff. Been working with them since 2018, and they make the most interesting music. It's so deep. And the places it goes melodically, you don't expect. It's just a duo of, like, garage rock, but it's somewhere between Radiohead and Nirvana, and even Weezer. Just really, really good stuff.

More teaching-type things, music camps, things like that. Getting out and playing these one-offs like we did last week, it was Carmine Appice, and Tony Franklin, and Billy Sheehan, and Doug Pinnock from Kings X, and Pat Travers, and Eric Gales, and Doug Aldrich, and Artie Dillon, who plays in the band Cactus. We had a blast, and it was a big fundraiser for Tunnel to Towers, and Music Cares, and Music Will. So, more things like that, just these one-offs that serve a greater good, hopefully.

The Starmus Festival in October, and we'll see what else. I'm just leaving it kind of open and seeing what happens at this point. I call myself a retiree, and I'm not, I'm busier than I've ever been. But my attitude is not climbing up that hill with the claws deep in it and fighting the fight. No, I'm just doing what the f*** I want, when I want, how I want, on my terms, saying no to 90% of everything, and just enjoying being a musician, and not feeling like I'm obligated to anything anymore. I'm not gonna die that way. So I'm having fun and just enjoying all the studio work. Everything that I get to do, mixing and mastering for people's albums and guest solos and producing. I always loved the creative side of things more than the performing side or anything else. So I'm really spending more time on the creative part, and less time just living out of a suitcase.

Great stuff. I've really enjoyed this interview. Thank you, Ron.

Me too, my pleasure.