BUMBLEFOOT On Hearing KISS's 'Alive!' For The First Time When He Was Five Years Old: 'It Warped My Fragile Little Child Mind'

During a recent appearance on the Guitar Hang podcast, former GUNS N' ROSES and current ART OF ANARCHY guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal reflected on how he first discovered rock music and decided to become a professional musician. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I was born in Brooklyn [New York], and then at a pretty early age, and this is what really did it, is at five years old, we moved to the next borough over to Staten Island, which was all just deer and rabbits before it became a bunch of angry people, too many people in a small place. And I moved into this neighborhood. I was five years old. And there were all these kids my age; it was perfect. So we would just knock on the door and just come on in and we just hang out in each other's houses. And I would go over their house and there would just be albums, vinyl everywhere, lying all over the floor from their parents, their older brothers and sisters they all had. So, just at that age, just out of curiosity, you see this big square of artwork, you're, like, 'What is this?' And you go and you put on the vinyl on the turntable, you drop the needle, you sit on the bed and you stare at the speakers like you're watching TV with your ears and just listening. And there was such great stuff all the time just lying around that at an early age, [I was] getting exposed to — BEATLES and their solo albums and Elton John and QUEEN and all kinds of things. So one of them, at five years old, it was a new album that had just come out. And I was over at my friend Bob's house. And he had teenage sisters, and one of them must have gotten this album. And it had these… They had long hair. I couldn't tell if they were guys or girls 'cause they had painted faces. And I was, like, 'What are they? What's this?' And it just looked interesting. So we popped it on and it was KISS 'Alive!'. And it changed everything. It warped my fragile little child mind. And I heard it and immediately it's, like, 'I don't know what's going on, but that's what I wanna do.' And it just inspired so much. I was just so amazed by what I was hearing and what I was imagining and envisioning. And it made me want to do that."

He continued: "So, by age six I had a band with my brother and a neighbor. And we started making demos using multiple cassette recorders. Record on this one and then play it back and record on this one while we sang to overdub vocals and then play on this one, record on this one, to make copies, to give to all our friends. And we would do concerts in our backyards, and then eventually at the school we went to, and everything, and it just kept on going. And that was it. So, starting at six years old. And similar to this new album, I was fascinated by space as a child — the planets, astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, everything. I was a smart kid. I'm dumb now. I became a stupid adult, but I was a very smart child. And I loved that stuff. And I was fascinated by it, and I would read all the time. Like, everyone would be out in the street playing football or whatever and I'd be in the backyard reading encyclopedias, just sponging up everything. And the first song I wrote was about the planet Jupiter when I was six years old. It's called 'Jupiter Is Nice'. And it was a ripoff of SWEET's 'Fox On The Run'. Because I couldn't make my own melodies yet. I didn't have enough building blocks, I hadn't lived enough life or experienced enough things and I hadn't heard enough music to draw from, so all I could do was just copy things that I heard on the radio at that point."

Thal's new instrumental album, "Bumblefoot ...Returns!", is set for release on January 24, 2025. "Bumblefoot ...Returns!" will arrive 30 years after Thal's debut solo instrumental album. On the new LP, Bumblefoot revisits his roots with a 14-track masterpiece that spans genres from metal to orchestral to blues.

The album's opening track, "Simon In Space", serves as its first single, delivering an electrifying ride through chaos and intensity. In addition to the single, an animated music video created by Bumblefoot and animator Radek Grabinski is also available, as well as a retro-inspired video game, which is coming soon.

"Bumblefoot ...Returns!" features collaborations with iconic musicians, including Brian May, Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Derek Sherinian, Jerry Gaskill and others, showcasing Bumblefoot's innovative guitar techniques, such as his signature fretless guitar and "thimble technique."

On the album, Bumblefoot shared: "It's been 30 years since releasing the debut 'Adventures Of Bumblefoot' on Shrapnel Records, and I haven't done a fully instrumental album since. Writing during the pandemic, these songs became a soundtrack to my life — from heavy fretless growls to bluesy tributes to legends like Lonnie Johnson. It's a reflection of the moments that shaped me."

He added: "Working on WHOM GODS DESTROY's album inspired growling heavy fretless parts like 'Simon In Space'. Watching a blues documentary inspired 'Moonshine Hootenanny'. Losing loved ones led to writing 'Funeral March'. Songs become a soundtrack to our lives."

The album is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and cassette, with exclusive merch bundles at bumblefoot.com.

Thal joined GUNS N' ROSES in 2006 and appeared on 2008's "Chinese Democracy", an effort which contained music that had been written before he came into the group. The disc took 13 years to make and was only a modest seller, moving just around half a million copies.

Thal 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.

Thal spent a few years recording and touring with SONS OF APOLLO, which also featured 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.

ART OF ANARCHY's third studio album, "Let There Be Anarchy", was released in February 2024 via Pavement Music.

Joining founding ART OF ANARCHY members Jon Votta (guitar),Vince Votta (drums) and Thal in the band's new lineup are vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, JOURNEY, SONS OF APOLLO) and bassist Tony Dickinson (SOTO, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA).