2010.08.18 - Interview with Bumblefoot - MFN Access

Transcript:

Leah Cevoli: Hey everybody! What's up? I'm your host Leah, this is MFNRocks. We are at Rock N' Rev Fest in South Dakota with Ron from Guns N' Roses. What's up?

Bumblefoot: What the hell is up?

Leah: We are in Monkey Rock (?)

Bumblefoot: We're in...Yes, Sturgis, South Dakota, we're going to be doing this Rock N' Rev festival tonight. We got Alice In Chains, they're about to soundcheck, we'll probably hear them in the background. Which I'm real psyched for.

Leah: I'm excited for them, too.

Bumblefoot: This is our only show in the US as it stands right now for 2010.

Leah: That's pretty amazing.

Bumblefoot: And uh yeah, yeah.

Leah: That's why we're here.

Bumblefoot: Yeah.

Leah: Other than that it was gonna be flying to Australia to interview you.

Bumblefoot: That's why we're here too.

[laughter]

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Bumblefoot: Everybody! This is Ron Thal Bumblefoot from Guns N' Roses. I'm here at Sturgis, you are tuned in to MFNRocks!

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Leah: have you ever been to Sturgis before?

Bumblefoot: Last year I was here.

Leah: Just to hang out?

Bumblefoot: Nah, I played with Lita Ford actually.

Leah: Did you?

Bumeblfoot: I did! It was... yeah, we played right before Toby Keith and it was interesting. I was just telling some people over there, we were talking about it, how... I was washing Toby Keith and then Steven Tyler walked up and we were both watching from the side of the stage and I was talking to him and such a... just a sweet down-to-earth cool guy and it was just very... yeah, he seemed just very healthy and very good. And then next day [gesturing falling down] I was shocked as hell and really bummed but-

Leah: He is doing much better now. I just saw them a few weeks ago in Irvine.

Bumblefoot: He always will kick ass, that guy.

Leah: Absolutely. You know what, I think it is amazing, I mean, I'm standing here with Ron, Ron's down on-

Bumblefoot: You know what's amazing [pointing to someone behind the camera and saying something]

Leah: No, really.

[camera pans to the back where a guy is carrying a vacuum]

Leah: I'm standing here with Ron, you've done quite a bit in your whole musical career. You're out on the road now with Guns N' Roses and hear you are like, you know, "Steven Tyler was next to me and I had to talk to him," no matter what point you get in your career there are people that inspire us.

Bumblefoot: Yeah, like Steven Tyler. I was like, "Oh my god! It's Steven!" And I just was like, "So, how you doing?"

Leah: What keeps you going, what inspires you?

Bumblefoot: Aaah, what inspires me? I don't... I don't know, it's like it's such a constant never-ending thing of just doing musical shit [noise in the background] - that's Alice in Chains - doing just like, you know, one thing after another non-stop for, I don't know how long now, like two decades, that at this point we just gotta find things. I guess the things that inspire me at this point... notice how I'm like swooping in on the mic so you can hear me better. Well we could just raise this up. There we go! Better for the posture. You don't mind if I hold your mic do you? You can hold my mic if you want. Um so [laughing] What the hell we talking about again?
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Leah: Okay, so you guys have been on the road for, since December. You hit Asia, you hit Canada, you hit South America. America gets one little bump, right?

Bumblefoot: Well, a little, little, just a little...yeah.

Leah: So what's next? Do we have a next? Do we know or is Guns N' Roses such a flowing kind of thing that, you know, there could be more dates or next thing we know we could be writing and recording?

Bumblefoot: Next thing we're going to Europe for two months. After that we have a little low which I'm assuming will be filled with something, well, maybe not. You know, maybe that'll just be down time to just spend with our families and everything. And then after that we have a show in Sydney, Australia, and then we have 2011 to consider and see what the hell we're gonna do.

Leah: What is going to happen for Guns N' Roses in 2011!?

Bumblefoot: And this is where I put on my game face and say, "I don't know! What the hell we gonna do? I have no idea!" And even if I do have an idea I ain't gonna tell you cuz it ain't my place, it's up to management to say. You know, when the time is right and things are confirmed, you know... I'm sure it's not gonna end in 2010. I'm sure we'll do something in 2011, but it's GN'R, you know, you never fucking know what's gonna happen.

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Leah: So you were 15, could you have imagined that right now you'd be standing here with me in Monkey Rock?

Bumblefoot: Um, I figured I would be standing with you and something pertaining to monkeys in some way but I had no idea why. And it's great that after all of these years it finally comes together and I know it's like "monkey rock". All right! I mean, you know, I spent like 25 years having this puzzle, yeah, just try to put the pieces together to figure out how you and I and monkeys would come together. And here they are.

Leah: What else can we look for for you as far as your other projects, your side projects, viewers that are watching, where can they find out about that?

Bumblefoot: Let's see. I started doing pre-sales for my very first album that I put out in 1995 and the label that owned the rights to it they are reissuing it so today starts the pre-sale. And I also made a tab book, like a transcription book, 200 pages writing out every single thing, like all the fingers, the picking, the notes, the tablature, everything of the whole album like everything played. So people have been buying it like-

Leah: Is that available with the album or separately?

Bumblefoot: Ah, either or. A bundle or one or the other. So that just started selling on my side and, you know, he woke up today he's like, you know, "You have over a hundred emails!" it's like, "I fucking hate you!" you know, because he's got to go through all these, you know, and then we have to go to all the Japanese orders and translate. So he's happy but he's annoyed because it's gonna be a very difficult week for him.

Leah: That's awesome!

Bumblefoot: It's good, yeah, it's good! So yeah, so there's that. I started putting my shit into [?] [a butterfly flies past] Ewwwwww! A butterfly. Yeah, so pause for the butterfly. There he goes. Flying! So yeah.

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Bumblefoot: Rock Band Network. Started putting my music - Hi, how are you? [someone answering] Good. [someone talking to Bumblefoot] Yeah!

[a woman enters in front of the camera and gets a hug and a kiss from Bumblefoot after she says she loves them]

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Leah: Like a human butterfly when somebody just wanders by and they give you a hug or they say you touched me in whatever way, shape or form... well, maybe not that way, shape or form but you know what I'm saying. It's like a butterfly, we need to notice some butterflies. I was saying to Angel on the way here, I want to notice the rainbows more than the
pitfall [?].

Bumblefoot: I saw a double rainbow on the way here for real! I did! We got out of the airport and it was a double rainbow!

[footage of a double rainbow with Bumblefoot being excited in the background]

Bumblefoot: I too cried. I did. I was like, "Oh my god! What does it mean!?" That's just getting played out now. That's gonna be my last mention of a double rainbow forever.

Leah: [?] something else as well?

Bumblefoot: Yeah, I've to put my shit out on RockBand Network. So I just put out the first song, a song called Guitars Suck and that's out on RockBand Network, it's on on Xbox format, maybe we will get it out on PS3 as well. We'll see about that. I'm going to keep putting out songs on that and we'll see what happens from there but that is the most current thing that's going on. Let me give you your mic back.

Leah: What's the name of your website?

Bumblefoot: bumblefoot dot com.

Leah: So I guess we're gonna wrap things up here, we're gonna let Ron go back, he's got a... he's got to make sure the tornado isn't in effect and that Guns N' Roses is really here on Friday the 13th. Well thanks for stopping by. Thanks for saying hi. [Leah and Bumblefoot hug] You're watching MFN Rocks.

Finished transcribing this.