Cross-Media Product: Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal at The Guitar Show

For my BCU Media & Communications degree course, a 'cross-media' product is required. It is as follows:

The chance to meet an admired musician is one that should under no circumstances be missed, and such an opportunity was presented to me by accidental discovery of The Guitar Show, a celebration of the ubiquitous six-stringed instrument (and its surly four-stringed brother), and the realisation that a New Jersey guitar demon would be appearing. But who is this maniac? Call his name to ten people off the street and you will endure blank faces. Yet, to the initiated, he is one of rock’s best kept secrets. Step forward, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal.

Rising to prominence in the 90's with his penchant for dazzling guitar pyrotechnics and a witty, almost cartoonish approach to songwriting, Thal would appear to get his big break when signed up to a modern incarnation of Guns N' Roses in 2005, joining in time for Axl Rose's 2006-07 comeback attempt. Nearly a decade of sporadic touring followed, with Thal gathering more disciples wherever Rose's rock n' roll carnival ventured.

It couldn't go on forever, and rumours of Ron being dissatisfied with the sluggishness towards Guns N' Roses recording fresh music gradually increased. For reasons never officially declared, it seems he has parted ways with Rose and his cohorts.

Whatever is actually happening with Guns N’ Roses, Thal seems to be truly back in the saddle for his solo music, with Little Brother is Watching his first album under the Bumblefoot moniker since 2008’s Abnormal. “It’s just something I needed to do, to put everything else aside and make that happen,” says Thal, who appears relaxed and characteristically sunny. And so he should be, surrounded by guitars, amps and innumerable associated paraphernalia from Marshall and Fender to Birmingham’s own businesses, such as Fair Deal Music, Professional Music Technology and The Little Guitar Shop.

Not only those, but Manson's offerings raised the guitar porn barrier considerably. 

Little Brother is Watching seems to be the best possible album Thal could put out at this juncture in his career. While there may not be the variance in styles and jaw-dropping guitar instrumentals that Abnormal boasted of, Little Brother is Watching seems all the better for it: the album takes on a streamlined feel, full of knockout singalong melodical rock anthems. Plainly put, there is no room for consideration, just Ron’s enviable mastery of the rock song form. In that sense, it is perhaps closer to Normal, his 2005 air-punching bag of hooks and wit.

He will later be found at the D’Addario stand, noodling on a sample guitar. A small crowd slowly appears. “Stop staring at me!” He wails, only half-joking. At the absolute last minute on the event's second day, I apologise my way into getting a few words from him, going for the jugular by asking Ron how it feels to be his own master again.

“For me, being creative is the most important thing. Giving myself the time to produce other people, [and other projects like] Art of Anarchy, the Generation Kill thing with Run-DMC, my own music, it feels great. I just feel very good inside to be back in the studio, creating again." It’s especially interesting to consider this with his Guns N’ Roses tenure in mind, where around a decade of membership hasn't quite resulted in the new music that Thal was rumoured to have been itching to write.

Cynical types painted him as someone desperate to get his name on writing credits, thus securing royalties, while those anxious to see GN’R as a revitalised musical force praised his intentions of creating new Guns material. At the moment, his only recorded input to see the light of day has been overdubbed guitars and reworkings of solos on Chinese Democracy.

With this in mind, Thal seems all the better for almost picking up where he left off – releasing his own music, playing with other bands, producing, teaching, making appearances such as these, and even selling his own line of hot sauces. There is a slightly touching moment when, after the first of his two guitar demonstrations over the weekend, he diligently sets out each sauce on a table and explains the ingredients of each, along with his recommendations on their culinary utilisation.  

After all, if Iron Maiden can flog Trooper Beer (and almost every conceivable item with Eddie’s scowling fizzog plastered on it), why can’t a self-made guitar wizard from New Jersey manifest his love of spicy food and combine it with his own artist-brand?

Back in Hockley, a bemused crowd fidget with their cameras, phones and bits for Ron to sign as he takes them through his range of sauces. Accidentally being the first in the queue, I whip out a CD inlay for Thal’s Hermit album (his second, released 200 years ago and now out-of-print) and get the treasured grunge-shred artefact anointed with Ron's scribble:
 

Charmed by Ron's entrepreneurship,  I plump for a bottle of ‘Normal’ sauce, as it is named after the first Bumblefoot album I ever owned and it might not pack as much of a rectum-ripping punch as, say, ‘Bumblef***ed’ (his hottest) might. I hope to lead by example in supporting Thal’s sideline, and when he appears at the Vigier Guitars stand the next day for the Sunday signing session, his boxes of sauce look noticeably emptier.

Sauce in hand, I and my friend have another wander around the event. I brilliantly fail in finding entry-level left-handed guitars to rehome, and am soothed by having a go on a Fender Telecaster and modified jazz bass, later discovering they are both worth over a thousand pounds. Gulp.

Left-handed guitars, as usual, are rare as hen's teeth. Thankfully, Fender delivered the goods.

Due to the rarity of favourite musicians turning up on my relative doorstep, I make my way back to The Guitar Show the next day. This time I elbow my way to the front of Ron’s guitar masterclass, getting an excellent view and blocking small children. After yesterday’s tragedy I would leapfrog my own nan to get a decent look at Thal, and in particular his frantic-fingered fret-fuckery. 

As with the day before, he plays a selection of his more indulgent guitar pieces from his solo career, kicking off with the epic Guitars Suck, where he just about hits every note on the fretboard, twice.

And it’s a Vigier guitar he plays, embodying a long-time involvement with the luthier Patrice Vigier:  Vigier have built guitars either directly for Thal, or heartily used by him, including his perhaps most visually striking, the Flying Foot. As the name implies, the body is in the form of a foot, with bumblebee stripes, complete with wings that emerge when the guitar's whammy bar is used.

Ron letting rip. Spellbound room of punters just out of shot.

Sadly it's not present here, but Thal nevertheless impresses with a particularly sexy golden double-necked axe. The bottom neck is a conventional six-string, while the top neck is a 'fretless' - allowing Ron the freedom to instantly switch to the limitless landscape of a guitar neck without any fret markers in the way of his fingers.

Enthusing about the guitar in the Q&A session, he chirped: ‘It’s like playing a stick of butter. Cold, shiny butter!’. As with yesterday's showcase, the packed room is entertained with stories from his childhood, experiences in eventual mastery of the guitar, and detailed descriptions of how his double-neck works. He is both illuminating and endearingly self-deprecating, with a seemingly endless enthusiasm for just about everything around him, and diligently signs everything thrust under his nose while grinning brightly for every photograph. 

Ron's flagship composition and technical showcase, 'Guitars SUCK'

Eventually, the whole event draws to a close, with Ron Thal packing up his gear (and his sauce) to travel to Oxford, for the next stop on his string of UK appearances. However humble and low-key these sessions are, his star is in the ascent, and deservedly so.

Listen to some of the chat with Ron here on the BrumRock podcast :




Ron Thal's latest album as Bumblefoot, Little Brother is Watching, is out now.