2013.01.DD - MzHollywood - Interview with Bumblefoot at NAMM

Transcript:

MzHollywood: Let's me ask you some weird questions.

Bumblefoot: Weird questions? Great!

MZH: Hey, this is MzHollywood and I'm here with Mr....

BBF: Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.

MZH: Now a question for you: Bumblefoot is like an animal disease, what's the meaning behind the name? Why did you pick that?

BBF: Well bumblefoot, also known as ulcerative pododermatitis, it was over 20 years ago, my girlfriend at the time was studying to be a veterinarian and that is the name of one of the animal diseases, so I wrote a song called 'Bumblefoot' and then years later I had a record deal so the first album I called The Adventures of Bumblefoot and named every song after a different animal disease. After that record deal I started a band, it was this weird band, so the name fit so we called the band Bumblefoot and after years of just making music under the name, Bumblefoot, people started calling me Bumblefoot because I'm writing it, I'm playing lead, I'm singing, I'm doing everything, so you know, not even by choice, it's just that somebody's got to do that stuff so yeah, so somehow I became Bumblefoot. Just, you know, people would think of the band and then they would see me, it's like, "Yeah, Bumblefoot!" and I was like, "All right, I'm Bumblefoot." So that's what happened, so now I'm Bumblefoot.

MZH: What's your favorite animal`

BBF: Favorite animal? I don't know. I kind of love them all. It's ridiculous, there'll be a rat... I'll be walking through Manhattan at 3 in the morning like a rat will be scurry by, I'm walking with the wife, I'm like, "Oh look, how cute!" She's like, "It's a fuckin' rat!" I'm an animal lover, you know.

MZH: You like Shamu [=captive killer whale at SeaWorld) too, right?

BBF: Sure, I would eat Shamu.

[laughter]

MZH: And then when you're on tour-

BBF: It's not that I like animals, I like to eat animals.

MZH: Eat animals? Wait! Wait! How long did it take you to weave this [pointing to Bumble's beard]?

BBF: Eight thousand years to grow it and five days to weave it. No, I do this every morning.

MZH: Every morning?

BBF: Yeah.

MSH: What?

BBF: Well, every other morning.

MZH: You have to teach me how to braid, I suck at braiding.

[Bumblefoot picking up MZH's hair]

Bumblefoot: [fabulous accent] "Look at this, first we have to separate the hair into three pieces concentric pieces, and then," I'll just do it quick. You grab one, pull, you take the right, you put it in the middle, so now the middle is on the right, you take the left, you put it through that one, now the left is in the middle, the right is on the left, the middle is on the right, you put that one in the middle and you keep on going and as you can see it weaves. It's math, people, math!

MZH: Ah, that's why I can't do it!

BBF: It's fuckin' math!

MZH: That's why I suck at it. Alright, as you see, this is the end of the show. So one last thing, anything on tour.. that being in a residency tour and in Vegas, how was that playing with Guns N' Roses?

BBF: That was the most wonderful thing in the world. I wish the history from here on of touring would be residency after residency after residency. The crew, they don't have to break down and reset up between every show, you're not worn out from flying everywhere all the time, and the fans, most of all what was good about it, is that the fans if they want to see five shows in a row it's not like they have to buy five sets of plane tickets and find five hotels and deal with all the travel, they get one set, they get one hotel and they see as many shows as they want, so it's a fantastic thing for everybody.

MZH: Well thank you so much for your time, I'm so happy I got a new hairstyle, now hair fashion-

BBF: And you got a new hair stylist!

MZH: Look at it, a new hairstyle, I'm taking you with me. I rock, you rock, and together we rock!