Guns N Roses Guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal On This Year’s JD Rock Awards Nominees

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal at Guns N’ Roses show in Mumbai. Photo: Bobin James

Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal has a pretty clear connection with India at the moment. The Guns N Roses guitarist has taught Mumbai indie rock band The Koniac Net’s frontman David Abraham and visited the country twice with two different bands ”“ Guns N Roses in December 2012 and Dubai hard rock band Point of View in June last year.

This year, Thal is part of the jury for the ninth Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards, where he listened to artists nominated in seven categories, including Best Guitarist and Best Song. Thal particularly liked Sanjeev Thomas’s collaboration with Carnatic rock guitarist Baiju Dharmajan on the album Epic Shit.  In his score sheet for JDARA, Thal commented on Dharmajan’s music saying, “I love the musical theme, the acoustic and electric [guitar] together, the ethnic instrumentation, arrangement and the complimentary tones.”

The guitarist also picked his favorite songs, comparing Mumbai punk rock band The Lightyears Explode’s song “I Am A Disco Dancer” to Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand. Thal also commented on Bengaluru psychedelic rock band The Bicycle Days’s nominated song, “Conundrum.” Says Thal, “There’s a certain feeling of ”˜order-to-the-chaos’ in this song, as all the pieces fit together well. But that aspect might be the most mentionable thing about the song ”“ there’s style, but we need the melodies to haunt us for days after hearing it, in order to top this list.”

Watch Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal talking about being on the jury of ninth Jack Daniel’s Annual Rock Awards