GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist RON 'BUMBLEFOOT' THAL Says Playing With DUFF MCKAGAN Was 'Cool'

Episode 22 of "One On One With Mitch Lafon" features an interview with GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below.

Asked what it was like sharing the stage with original GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan at five GUNS N' ROSES concerts in South America and the Revolver Golden Gods awards show in Los Angeles in April, Thal said: "It was not my first time playing with Duff. When LOADED came to New York in 2009 when they were touring, I jammed with them. He has joined us [GUNS N' ROSES] on stage a couple of times in the past few years, but we'd never done an entire show together, and we did half a dozen in South America, we did Golden Gods. It's nice. It's cool playing with him. He's rock solid and he's just a sweetheart of a guy and just a good person to play with."

He continued: "Musicians and other musicians… it's, like, you just enjoy playing with different people and you just love the experience, but you don't think of it in the context of, like, as a a fan, saying, 'Wow! I can't believe I'm playing with this person.' You almost think of it at this musical level where you're both musicians and you're just kind of vibing out as musicians and you don't think about that stuff. So, even, what was it, like, half a year ago, I played with Ace [Frehley] and Peter [Criss], and doing 'Hooligan' with Peter, he hadn't played that song in, like, 30 years, and as a KISS fan, I would be peeing in my pants, I'd be, like, 'Oh my God! I can't believe I'm playing with this guy.' But when you're on the stage, it's more like you're just focused on the song and connecting musically and just getting a real kick out of that and having fun with it, and you don't think about the rest."

Thal told Rolling Stone last year that there is music ready to go for GUNS N' ROSES' follow-up to 2008's "Chinese Democracy". He explained, "There's a lot of stuff, it's just a question of all of us organizing. We're still doing shows, and I think once we clear our schedule and focus more on new music, it'll happen. We just have little things on the back burner, just waiting for the right time for us to organize and make something new out of it. Hopefully we can make more music — that's what it's about."

Thal believes that the group's fans want to hear something new from GUNS too, saying, "They want new music, and we can do it. It's not that we're done. I'm not ready for that. We need to keep making music. We have a great band that's ready to do it and can do it well."