2010.02.18 - MTV Music Blogs - 5 Songs That Changed Bumblefoot's Life

5 Songs That Changed Bumblefoot's Life

By John "Ostronomy" Ostrosky



Guns N' Roses guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal in the studio with his infamous "pepper turkey"

One of the best events resulting from Talking Metal's "Guns N' Roses Stakeout" podcasts was meeting GN'R guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal. He has since become one of my closest friends, and his "freakishly proficient" level of musicianship continues to inspire me on a daily basis.

Bumblefoot was kind enough to compose a list of the top five songs that changed his life. Enjoy!

5 Songs That Changed My Life

1. 100,000 Years (KISS) - I was 5 years old and heard the Kiss Alive! album for the first time, my friend's older brother had just gotten it. From the minute I heard it, 'I knew'. It's the same 'I knew' that made half the people that heard it join a band and strive to someday give others the same excitement they got from hearing that album. The extended version of the song on the Alive! album, the drum solo, the adlibs, the 'live' version of Ace's solo - this was before videos, VCRs, all the visions from the concert were conjured up in your imagination while listening and looking at the album art. And when the band went on tour, you had to go. You begged your parents, pleaded, never wanted anything more in your life. Took me 4 years of groveling before the neighborhood parents agreed to take a bunch of us to Madison Square Garden. To this day, one of the best concerts I ever saw.

2. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) - 9 years old, started building up by Zep collection. I'll never forget putting on each album, not knowing what to expect. Zeppelin II - starts with the lone guitar, then the bass comes in and together there was this tone about it that still does something that makes my brain feel complete. The first verse, vocals so dry and pure and real. By the time the drums come in for the first chorus you're completely at its mercy. For me there was never a desire to do drugs, music always took me higher and farther than anything else would, and it always leaves ya feeling better after. When you really listen, it'll do that.

3. Strawberry Fields Forever (Beatles) - I'm a huge Beatles fan. I'll add to that, I'm a huge George Martin fan. George Martin was the classical musician/composer that produced the Beatles, he was the cellos and horns that complimented the Beatles' music through the years as they grew. 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Yesterday', 'She's Leaving Home'... things started getting deep. The 'Magical Mystery Tour' album took it to a whole new level - 'I Am the Walrus', 'Strawberry Fields', it was a combination of snowballing intensity while stuck in that slow-motion mental state that you usually only find at times when the 2 seconds of your car hitting a tree feels like 20. For me, George Martin's orchestral composing in the Beatles' songs was a huge inspiration in songwriting, a direction I've turned to many times in my own music in hopes that I could step to that edge where those 2 seconds feel like 20.

4. Mean Street (Van Halen) - I was 12 years old, guitar playing for me was about blues-based Angus Young inspired reckless expression. Then one day a friend asked me if I listened to any 'Van Halen'. Who? He put on the 'Fair Warning' album, and the intro to 'Mean Street' faded in. I never heard a sound like that come out of a guitar, I freaked. 'Oh yeah? Listen to this...!' He puts on 'Eruption'. He might as well have poured house paint on my brain, I was never gonna be the same anyway after hearing this. I put a copy of Eruption on cassette and spent the next months trying to learn it by ear. Once I got it down, I unscrewed the halves of the cassette body and carefully flipped the reels, put it back together and learned the song backwards. I was officially a 'guitar geek'.

5. Shackler's Revenge (GNR) - this was the first song from 'Chinese Democracy' to be released, as part of the 'Rock Band 2' video game in Sept. 2008. It was the first release of recorded GNR music that I was part of. On a personal level, it felt like going from engaged to married. Songs are like children to me - it felt like a first child being born and the start of a family.

Ron Thal (Bumblefoot / GNR)

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