Ex-GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist BUMBLEFOOT: 'I'm Trying To Travel And Tour As Little As I Can Get Away With'

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, former GUNS N' ROSES and current SONS OF APOLLO and ART OF ANARCHY guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal addressed some of his previous comments about his desire to spend less time on the road and focus more on studio projects. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm gonna have to tour with bands that I've worked with. I can't not do it and hold back the band, and I wouldn't want fans to think that I don't wanna be there. But as far as the direction of my own life and what I wanna do with it, I wanna be producing more bands. I love teaching, but definitely a lot more producing and mixing and more of the creative stuff and less of the travel stuff. I've been an absentee husband for decades and it's unfair to my own life and the people in my life. So, I'm trying to travel and tour as little as I can get away with and just live for me before I'm dead."

Thal went on to say that he still gets a lot of enjoyment out of performing and being able to discover new places while on the road.

"It's a whole lot of variables that all come together with it all," he explained. "It's the traveling, experiencing a new place, a new culture, a new food, new this, new that, meeting new people, doing what you love to do. And then there's everything else. There's the stability and everything you have of being at home and waking up at the same time, in the same bed and eating the food that's in your refrigerator and going to your gym at the same time and going to your studio and just… Yeah, I've lacked that stability for a long time and missed a lot of things. So, it's like this bittersweet kind of thing. You have all this wonderful stuff, but you're also missing a lot of normalcy and the wonderful stuff that shouldn't be discounted. It's just as wonderful, and, if anything, more so."

Thal joined GUNS N' ROSES in 2006, replacing Buckethead. He played with the band for eight years and performed on "Chinese Democracy". He has also released nine full-length solo albums over the past 23 years, most recently 2015's "Little Brother Is Watching", which was reissued on CD and vinyl in August 2017 by former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson's EMP Label Group.

SONS OF APOLLO, which also features drummer Mike Portnoy, keyboardist Derek Sherinian and bassist Billy Sheehan, released its second studio album, "MMXX" (pronounced: 20/20),in January 2020 via InsideOut Music/Sony.

Last week, ART OF ANARCHY released a new single, "Vilified". The song is taken from the band's third studio album, "Let There Be Anarchy", which will be released on February 16, 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).