In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, Bumblefoot responded to Guns N’ Roses changing his parts for Slash.
“I wrote my own guitar parts, but I didn’t write the actual songs,” the guitarist replied when asked if he helped write any songs for ‘Chinese Democracy’ that weren’t released. “The songs were already there, and then I just tried to come up with something like, for the title track, in the verses, I came up with sliding, growling, fretless stuff.”
He continued, “Where before, it was just empty space and just some atmospheric sounds. So, things like that. I would just try and come up with my own parts to songs that structurally and recording-wise were pretty much there, pretty much done.”
“We did a lot of songs, things that came out after I was gone, that they took me off and Slash is on there, and just reworked them for the current band. Which, as they should.”
Bumblefoot previously defended Axl Rose in a chat with Scott Itter of Dr. Music in 2023. The rocker said the long production for ‘Chinese Democracy’ wasn’t due to neglect or lack of focus. He shared, “The music was so close to finished, and it was so full, and there was so much going on there; I was just trying to find the thing that would fit best.”
“That’s where producer Caram Costanzo was, and he would guide me, and he really made it happen so that I was able to contribute something to it. So, it was the two of us in the studio, just going at it,” Bumblefoot noted.
He said, “And then he and Axl would just go through the stuff and decide what works, what doesn’t, and what they wanna keep and what will be in the background and what will be in the front.”
“I’m glad I could be part of that history. It was a deep album with a lot of layers,” the musician stated about working with GNR. “You can listen to it a few times and hear more, even things you didn’t notice. Like a great movie, when you watch it a third time, it’s, like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even notice that.'”
Bumblefoot joined Guns N’ Roses in 2006, replacing Buckethead. He played on ‘Chinese Democracy’ and toured with the band until 2014.
