“I got a writeup in a guitar magazine, and a gentleman from the UK sent me a handwritten letter in the mail saying, ‘Hello, my name is Guthrie’”: Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal on the unifying magic of the guitar instrumental

From his earliest days as the apple of Mike Varney’s eye to stepping in for Slash in Guns N’ Roses, songwriting has always the same for Ron Thal, aka Bumblefoot.

“With every album, the inspiration comes from living life, from whatever you’re feeling in the moment,” he says. “Suddenly a riff pops into your head, and that expression of whatever you’re feeling and experiencing turns into a song. That pretty much sums up my last couple of years of putting wackiness to music.”

Bumblefoot’s “wackiness” has led to lots of friendships, too. An example is Guthrie Govan, who features on Anveshana, track number nine from Bumblefoot’s new instrumental smorgasbord, …Returns!.

“That song goes back to 1989,” Bumblefoot says. “I got a writeup in a guitar magazine, and a gentleman from the UK sent me a handwritten letter in the mail saying, ‘Hello, my name is Guthrie. I’m a guitar player.’ He sent me a cassette demo of songs, and we became penpals. I’ve had the riff for that song since then.”

Elsewhere, …Returns! features Steve Vai on Monstruso and Brian May on Once in Forever. Those iconic players’ styles differ from Bumblefoot’s, but the 14-track guitar gamut works. “Whatever frame of mind I was in was a big part of it,” Bumblefoot says. “It could be random things, what I was going through personally, or the news.”

Bumblefoot feels Govan, Vai and May’s efforts were strong but is especially fond of Funeral March, featuring classical violinist Ben Karas, which Bumblefoot says “came out of all the death happening around us.”

Bumblefoot - Simon In Space [Official Music Video] - YouTube

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Instrumental records allow Bumblefoot space to express himself in ways that vocal-led records don’t. “There’s so much more room,” he says. “There is room for melody, and using the guitar for different sounds, where if it were sung, the guitar would be stuck doing all the crazy noodly stuff.”

As for where he plans to take …Returns!, Bumblefoot says, “I’m sure I’ll play some shows at some point. I want all different ways for people to enjoy the music: they can stream it, download it or have the CD and cassette. And if people want to use their eyes, there will be music videos. So there are many ways for people to enjoy the music with the technology available.”

• Bumblefoot ...Returns! is out now via Deko.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.