BUMBLEFOOT To Fans: Don't Treat GUNS N' ROSES Management As Villains

GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal has asked fans not to blame the band's management for his inability to clarify his status with the group, explaining that he is "trying to please both sides at the same time that have a different approach to things."

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."

Now, in a new message that was posted at the unofficial GUNS N' ROSES forum MyGNRForum.com, Thal said: "Let folks know I'm not being forced, and TB [Team Brazil, the management company that manages GUNS N' ROSES and Rose] doesn't need to be treated like monsters, and I ask that they not be treated like villains. It's on me, I've been trying to please both sides at the same time that have a different approach to things, and everyone loses a little in the process — that's on me, not them. I hate causing TB and the fans grief, there's just no smooth way to act on two opposing philosophies at the same time, and that's always been difficult for me."

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.

Thal will release his tenth CD, titled "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 and a crowd of 100 fans stomping, chanting and singing backing vocals recorded at a listening party in New York. The album's first single and title track, "Little Brother Is Watching", is now available digitally.