Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal

Bumblefoot
Background information
Birth name	Ron Thal
Born	September 25, 1969 (1969-09-25) (age 40) New York City, U.S.
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter, Music Producer
Instruments	Guitar, Vocals, Bass Guitar
Years active	1995 - present
Labels	Bumblefoot Music LLC, Bald Freak Music
Associated acts	Guns N' Roses, Lita Ford
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Several Vigier custom models

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (born September 25, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City), is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer.

Career

Thal got the name "Bumblefoot" from the bacterial infection, which he learned about while helping his wife review for her veterinary exams.^{[citation needed]} Vigier Guitars later made Thal "The Vigier Bumblefoot Guitar",^[1] a custom guitar shaped like a foot, painted like a bumblebee, and with decorative wings that extend from the body when activated by the tremolo bar. This was presented to Thal in January 1998 at the NAMM convention in Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]} His song "Firebrand" is the opening theme song for MXC, the American adaptation of Takeshi's Castle.

Thal began talking with Guns N' Roses in July 2004 about working together, and officially joined the band in May 2006.^{[citation needed]} He made his live debut with the band at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on May 12, 2006. They have since toured Europe, North and Central America, Oceania, and Japan. Thal appears on every song of the band's new album, Chinese Democracy,^[2] released November 23, 2008.

Thal wrote the theme song for Eddie Trunk's "That Metal Show" which premiered November 15, 2008 on VH1 Classic. He has been a featured guest on the show and also attended the taping of the Rush and Ace Frehley episodes. Thal made the music for the NY Islanders hockey team's promos for the 2008/2009 season. The Bumblefoot CD catalog was released in Europe retail in October 2008, and in North American retail in December 2008. On December 23, 2008 Bumblefoot released an acoustic EP called "Barefoot", where he took songs from his previous albums and made stripped-down acoustic versions of them. Thal had fans pick the final song he would record for the acoustic EP.

In February 2009 Thal produced an instrumental metal guitar compilation disc entitled "Guitars That Ate My Brain". He oversaw writing, recording and mixing for half the album (co- writing, engineering and mixing as well as guitar and bass playing by Jeremy Krull, drums by Dennis Leeflang), contributed his playing to the song "Disengaged" and mastered the album. Other artists on the album include Devin Townsend, Chris Poland, Shane Gibson, Dave Martone, Paul Waggoner, James Murphy and others.

In June 2009, Thal began touring the US and Europe playing guitar alongside Lita Ford in her live band.

TV/film appearances include the show "Wingman" (2009) as a dating/relationship coach, FuseTV's "Talking Metal On Fuse" (2007/2008) performing alongside Zakk Wylde, a cameo appearance in the movie The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll (2008), a music coach on MTV's Made (2004), and a Fox News appearance on Hannity's "Great American Panel" (2009).

Guitars

• Vigier Excalibur Bumblefoot Signature Model
• Vigier Surfreter Fretless Guitar in Gold
• Vigier Swiss-Cheese Guitar (also released as a limited edition)
• Vigier Bumblefoot Guitar
• Gibson Les Paul: Ron used his '59 Reissue Les Paul during the Guns N' Roses 2006 tour.
• Gibson Flying V: He has only used this on the 2007 leg of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy Tour.

Discography

Guest appearances

References

External links

• Bumblefoot's official site
• Bumblefoot's official bio
• Bumblefoot's official MySpace page
• Interview with WickedInfo.com
• Interview on Maximum Threshold 2007
• Guns N' Roses.com