BUMBLEFOOT On His GUNS N' ROSES Bandmates: 'I Don't Know If We Ever Got To Really Know Each Other'

In a brand new interview with Rock.About.com, GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal was asked if it's true that he was not treated well when he first joined the Axl Rose-fronted group in 2006 and that he had to "get a little violent" to gain other members' respect.

"You know what?! I don't want to get into dirt and all that negative crap," he responded. "There were so many good things that happened with GUNS. People just wanna put all the bad stuff on Wikipedia. They don't wanna talk about any of the good stuff. They don't wanna talk about visiting a children's hospital in Dallas.'

He continued: "Well, ultimately, when I joined the band, in the first month, it's true and I'm not revealing anything that I haven't already put out there. So it wasn't the warmest welcome. I kind of had to earn it… I think it was just more of a situation like a new family member was brought home without the other siblings' consent [laughs], or to their surprise. It was, like, 'Who the fuck is this guy?' [laughs< ] So it took a good minute for us to get to know each other. I don't know if we ever did. I don't know if we ever got to really know each other, to be honest. I feel like the environment I was in never gave me a chance to just comfortably be myself and not feel guarded. But that's just me, and that's just the way the pieces fell, you know."

Thal recently revealed that he was focusing on his solo career after spending eight years playing in the Axl Rose-fronted band. Thal, however, stopped short of saying that he was no longer a member of GUNS N' ROSES, which has caused some fans to criticize him for not coming clean about where he stands with the group.

Thal responded to one fan via Facebook about the lack of clarity surrounding his position in GUNS N' ROSES. He wrote: "I can't erase a decade of history and I can't stop the media from asking what they want to ask and making up their own titles on their interviews and posts. No matter how much I ask them not to do it."

He added: "I've been honoring a request to not make any public statements about anything related to it, which continues to put me in a very awkward position that I don't want to be in. Not how I do things, repeatedly taking the bullet on this one."

Bumblefoot joined GUNS N' ROSES in early 2006 as the replacement for Buckethead. He made his live debut with the band at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on May 12, 2006.

Bumblefoot released a new solo album, "Little Brother Is Watching", on February 24. The disc was composed, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Bumblefoot at his studio in New Jersey, and also features drummer Dennis Leeflang.