Welcome to the Metal Voice. First time on the show, Ron Bumblefoot-Thall. How's it going? Good. You never forget your first. So thank you for that. It's a first for both of us. Thank you for having me. Great news. New album's coming out. Insanium by the new band Whom Gods Destroy. Great name for a band, by the way, Ron. Great. It's a love it or hate it name. If you're a Star Trek fan, then you're going to like the name. It's the name of a Star Trek episode. Which one was it? Season number three. Yeah. And it was the one way. Remember the green, that sexy green lady dancing around? Are we going classics now? We're going Star Trek classics? Oh, of course. Yeah. There's a few green ladies in the first series. There were, yeah. It wasn't a Marta, I think. But... Is that your favorite of the Star Treks? Is it a classic? When I was a horny teenager, yeah. The green lady. So, what would be my favorite? Next Generation or... It's a boomstay machine. There was... Well, I'm not saying which series. So, Next Generation, The Classics... No, I'm an old school, 67, 69, the original 79 episodes. Okay. All right. All right. All right.  Although, I do like the movies. The moves are good, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I kind of like all the Star Treks. I like this discovery. I like... Geez, what was with Captain Janeway again? What was it called again? I forgot. But it's okay. We'll think about it later. Deep Space Nine? Deep Space Nine. Classics. The Next Generation. Enterprise. There was actually a series that kind of... The backstory of Enterprise. And there was the cartoon in the 70s. There was a cartoon, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could get into a whole thing about Star Trek, but I won't. I could bring out my encyclopedia of Star Trek, but I won't. Oh, do you have your compendium of all that? Yes. All right. So, let's talk about music here. All right. New band. Whom gods destroy? I'm assuming this is like the splinter group of Sons of Apollo, right? Okay, let's just start off right there. I remember Sons of Apollo. Great momentum on the first album. Even better momentum on the second album. Then COVID smacks down and everything completely falls apart. What happened? Well, we were on tour. Shows. We had doubled our tendencies. We just... Everything was going this way. It was going great. Yeah. And we got four shows into a 20 show tour in Europe and we had to pull the plug COVID and all and went back home and then Derek and I were... We wanted to... And Jeff, the singer, we wanted to start working on album number three. It's like we have all this time now to nurture it, but not everybody was on board to do that. Some people had their own plans and things they wanted to do, which they did. And so killed the band. So we just... Derek and I, what happened was it split into two bands. And Jeff and I... Jeff wanted to... He offered to join... Be the singer for this band that I had with old friends of mine called Art of Anarchy. And he knew that we were just... During the pandemic, he's like, yeah, we get together and record songs. And he said, you've had all these problematic singers. You should have just worked with me from the beginning and everything would have been fine. And I was like, I agree. So he offered to be the singer.  And so now I have Art of Anarchy with Jeff. And Derek and I just continued writing as we did with Sons of Apollo, where we just write, we write the music. And we kept doing that. And we realized that with certain members not interested, we couldn't really continue with Sons of Apollo. I mean, Jeff was interested. He would love to do a third one. But we found new band members. So started with Dino on vocals. Yes, from White Snake fame, I guess, or kind of, right? So we got Dino and then we got Yaz on bass, which is kind of funny because he's this incredible guitar player. But then again, Dino is also an incredible, he's amazing keyboard player and songwriter and everything. All the guys in the band are multi-talented. And we got Bruno on drums and it became this. So it really started from the the ashes of Sons of Apollo. We crawled out and and just we continued writing what could have become a third Sons of Apollo album, but it wasn't going to happen. So were these the songs like that? I wouldn't call them leftovers, but ideas that were being worked on for Sons of Apollo. No, they were all fresh, brand new stuff we were writing. Yeah. No leftovers, nothing. I don't mean it in that way. I don't mean it in that way. I don't mean leftovers in the freezer. Like, you know, like impetus, the sort of like the start of new ideas for the third album. That's what it kind of. Yeah, I mean, well, even still, like we could have had, you know, a bunch of unfinished music that we never worked up for Sons of Apollo past albums that we could have brought into this, but we just we were writing fresh and we just started writing and it wasn't long after we started that Dino joined and and it started going in the new direction. Let me like I saw Sons of Apollo in January 2020 in Montreal at the Corona Theater. And that was kind of like right when Corona was actually, and I remember Jeff Scott Soto even said this to me, he goes, use that joke about the Corona at the Corona Theater, right? I don't know if you remember this or not. And that was the beginning of the end, actually. That was the beginning. And it was packed and there was such great momentum. That's what I'm getting at. Is it too difficult? So you have all these skilled artists in the band with so much history and experience. Is it hard to keep a group of guys like that or artists like that and keep it as an ongoing band?  And of course, Derek is it tough to keep it going economically as well as maybe ego wise, perhaps? I don't know. Nothing is easy. It can be easy.  And yeah, if people think about the hive and not just their B self. Yeah, if you have the mentality of of, you know, being a team player and not just a selfish fuck, then a band can easily work and last for decades. Yeah. All right.  Is it easier to get, so Dino is sort of an up and coming singer, right? Is it easier to work sometimes with more of those guys versus the more established players? They're more flexible. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, nobody is like an employee just because they were born later. And I don't mean it like that. I don't mean it like that either.  I'm just saying that in bands, in every band, you're going to have the narcissist. You're going to have usually a drug addict narcissist.  You're going to have the one that is just riddled with depression and thinks that every note is the most important thing that happened. And, and also you have people that forget that if you have four or five people in the band, you should only be getting 25 or 20% of your ideas going through. And if you're hogging it up, you're taking away from everyone else. And it's, you know, not a fair scenario when someone is going to feel like they're left out and not being heard and not feel like an equal. So I always say in a band, in a band of five unemployable dysfunctional dudes, you know, if everybody is, if only one out of five of your ideas makes it through, then everything is fair. And you have to be able to be okay with that. If, yeah, 20% times five, like that's how it should be.  Well, yeah, I mean, because now you've got five to deal with, right? Instead of one, you know, we're another person, right? But maybe it's better to do this. It's have to two experienced guys who know their way around to control things in a good way, right? The management, the money, they know they've been around, they know what to do. Then you have like the up and coming guys who have the talent and they can, they're not, they're easier to deal with. That's what I'm getting.  And I find that very often the older people are the more immature ones and the more petty ones. Yes.  And they're not newbies at all. I mean, our drummer Bruno, how long has it been playing in Angra?  They've done it all. Yeah, I guess the only difference is, you know, I'm at a point in life where I'm jaded, I'm finally getting to the point of being jaded and bitter and then and just ready to stop where they still have that, yeah, let's get out and tour. And I'm like, I just want to go home and pick raspberries in my yard. Yeah, there's always so many decades that you could do something before is like enough already. I've missed too much of life. I've missed too many funerals and too many births and weddings and everything and been an absentee member of my family in my own life. So yeah, it does get to a point, at least for me, you know, it actually may be just for me, because I know people in their 70s that still love touring. But for me, I just want to produce other up and coming artists and help them get out there and do their thing and be at their best and teach and just support the next generations of people that are doing this. I'm done. I'm as good as dead as far as I'm concerned.  I lived it. I don't need to live it anymore.  I won't feel like, oh, but if only I did this or that, no, I'm good. So I'm at a point where I have that piece where it's like, all right, now let me take everything, all the ups and downs that I experienced and pay it forward and use that to help and guide others as they launch themselves. That's what I want to do. That's what my heart is at. But, you know, I'm in two bands and I got to get out and play. Saying that, it's not really the case, but here we go. Describe this. Yeah, it's like... But I know what you're saying. You're kind of like, if it all ended tomorrow, you're happy. That's what you're saying. And I guess what I'm also saying is, I try to get out, but they pull me back in, kind of thing. Yeah, it's like the mafia, right? Tell me about the musical direction for the people who haven't heard the rest of the album compared to the first two singles that were released. How would you describe it? Yeah, it's similar.  And yeah, the proggy stuff is pretty proggy. The solos are crazy. The melodies are melodic. The heaviness is heavier. It's, to me, it's just more intense. And I remember when we were first showing it to the label, they were a little concerned because they were expecting Sons of Apollo 3. And this was described more as it's like a constant pummeling. And it's like, yeah, as it should be.  It does.  It's proggy.  And I love Derek's contribution on keyboards. It really, he's a great keyboardist, just on all levels. Yeah, each person is a very specific key ingredient in the mix that creates the flavor of what it is. And that goes for any band. I can always say, like, I've always said it, like the thing that's great about bands is that every single one is one of a kind in all the history of mankind and the entire universe of everything, whether it's some kids playing in their garage or some band that's been around for 40 years doing it. There's only one grouping of those individual souls that come together that add what they add, that make it what it is. Every band is so special when you really think about it. What's the most important mix? Yeah, I agree. And if Jeff would have been in the band as the singer, it would have brought it back to Sons of Apollo, right? It would have been okay, this is pretty much Sons of Apollo, right? Minus two guys. Right. Is that kind of why he didn't like come with you guys for the ride, for whom God's destroyed? Well, I mean, it's, there was the whole thing of if it's not the five guys of Sons of Apollo, it's not Sons of Apollo. If two members do something together, it's a new band. If three members do something together, it's a band missing two, it's this old band missing two members. And that goes in for both Art of Anarchy with Jeff and Whom God's Destroy with Derek. Yet we have done other things together. There is this band in Indonesia called Dewa 19, like a huge rock band out there. And we did this collaboration with them during the pandemic years. It was a lot of fun where we did songs together where we all played.  And we all work, you know, we're doing what we can in some capacity, one way or another, to keep it going. Yeah.  Because, you know, from that first album to the second album was like, the second album was just, was just monumental at the time. It was just, I'm old enough to remember, it was just, wow, man, Steve Howe. And you're replacing Steve Howe and others, of course, but tell me about that experience. Yeah, it was absolutely wonderful. They're such great, great guys. They're phenomenal players. They're just great to hang with. They're wonderful. And the music is wonderful. So in 2000, well, it started in 2016, where I did this thing with Jeff Towns. It was a sort of like an all-star-ish type thing. And it was Carmine on drums, Jeff on keys, and Phil Narrow, wonderful friend, beautiful person. Sadly, he passed away. He was the singer of Tallis with Billy Sheehan. And, you know, just great dude, and phenomenal singer. So he was the singer. And Rudy Souza was on bass. And I was on guitar along with Gene Cornish from The Rascals. Oh, geez. Yeah. And he's such a great guy. And it was just so much fun playing because we had such different musical backgrounds, although I am a huge Rascals fan. I love young Rascals. One of my favorite memories of their music is when I was just dating my wife. This had to be 33 years ago. And I was taking her on a cruise. And we were in the taxi going to the port in Miami. And in the taxi was the song, How Can I Be Sure, playing on the radio? And I just remember that whole moment.  You remember everything that you saw in it. Just when you think of it, just something takes you right back there. And I remember just sitting in the back of that cab and hearing the song on the radio. Yeah. And when a band has songs that are specific, like they're part of those moments in your life that you remember. The soundtrack of your life, that they always say soundtrack of your life. Yeah. And The Rascals had plenty of those kind of songs for a lot of people. You know, got so did Asia. And Asia as well. So it started with this thing that we did together. And we played in Toronto. And we played in Chicago. We did two shows together of this stuff. And it was a great playing with Jeff. And then the next year, they were going to be touring opening for Journey. And they asked me if I would play guitar. But Sons of Apollo was just getting off the ground that year. And Art of Anarchy was on tour for its second album. And I was just, I had too much going on. I couldn't do it. I told them I can't make it happen. No. And two years later, they had the tour opening for Yes. And they asked again, said, you want to play guitar?  And then someone else was going to be singing. And it turns out he couldn't do it. And they all just said, why not just have Ron sing? He could sing this. So I was like, all right, do you want to be the singer too? Oh, I go, good God. That's too like, I'm not worthy. I'm not qualified. I am not able. And I said yes. So now I am fronting Asia as the guitarist and the vocalist.  Like to me, that was like, out of tribute and respect to all of it, to John Wetton, to his family, to fans, to the band. I had to make sure that when people close their eyes and they listen that it feels that same feeling they get from Asian music, you know, I can't do it. It can't be me. I have to be Asian.  So I pretty much had to relearn how to sing a different way so that I would sound more like him and less like me, because I was just more of like this, you know, high pitch heavy metal, Iron Maiden kind of singer.  And now I needed to have this very straight, airy, resonating in different places, no vibrato voice. And make sure that when I'm staring at thousands of people like this, that my nerves don't just take me to the safe spot of singing how I sang my whole damn life. So I spent a lot of time, I think it was two months, I'm starting to forget if it was one month or two, but I think it was two months where I spent eight hours a day for two months singing, figuring out how to sing more like him and just changing it and doing it so much that it became the new way that I sang and changed my entire way of singing so that when I go up there and adrenaline kicks in and brain stops working and I'm on autopilot, that I'll be that voice doing, I'll sing that sound. And on top of that, the guitar parts, you know, Steve Howe, his parts aren't anchored in with Wetton's vocals, the bass parts are, that's coming from one person. So those parts match. So now, first thing I did in the very beginnings, I started researching, going through old interviews and everything and figuring out what, finding out what Steve Howe used on the albums and what he did live from recent to very first tour. And then taking my Helix pedal and program, trying to get similar sounds and then learning all his parts and learning all the vocals, memorizing the vocals and then coordinating to do both at the same time and changing guitar sounds with my right foot while changing vocal sounds. I had to do vocal sounds with my left foot, adding reverb or adding this and adding that and doubling. So figuring out how to make all of that happen comfortably and seamlessly so that I will do justice and give everything possible to make sure that gets what it deserves. You know, John Wetton, his voice is so underappreciated.  And everything you're saying is like, you're spot on, man. And then Steve Howe, and to your point, he's not playing power chords to the melody of the song. He's just playing solos basically the whole time. He does all these secondary melodies and things. That's a better way to say it, secondary melodies and that's where it could fuse the brain, I guess, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then to do, because we also did Lucky Man from the LP and did video kill the radio star from the boggles. So to do that one now, I had to also sing all those parts and do the the megaphone. So sometimes I had to play a guitar with one hand and do like the little like like that while holding the megaphone and then pull the megaphone away, go to the microphone and just do this, you know, kind of sound and try and imitate all the voices for it.  Now at that point, I throw down the megaphone and hit a megaphone sound on the pedal for my car and then switch back to and then put on the river for the end you and just like so much switching and and making it look as easy as possible like I'm just standing there saying that's the goal. You know what you're saying? You're like the last true artist. Well, there's a few of you. You could use backing tracks, you could mime it, right? You could not play it, but you're going, you're like the rush style of doing things or that hard working ethical. I'm going to try to do it all basically. Yeah. That's being an artist. Yeah. Well, do what you can do. Give it as much as you can give it. And even that like our the sound man, we only had two days of rehearsal before going out and doing this and our front of house guy, he was busy enough with the stuff. I could not ask him to do, you know, throw a big reverb on me for these parts of the song where he has to like be the vocalist at the same time that he has to be the engineer. So it's like, look, I have to make sure that I have this covered and that all he has to do is just make sure people hear it. Yeah. So it was a lot of silent tap dancing and doing everything. And I loved it. It was, it was the biggest challenge of anything I ever did. And as long as and it was, it was tough. There was, you know, some songs where I get kind of emotional. You got the big screen behind me showing all the stuff of John Wetton's life and saying one of the ballads and knowing his family is out there watching and, and yeah, it was, it was something. It was an experience. And it was cool is that in the last four songs, the big hits, Steve Howard come out. Oh, Steve, you joined legend. So now it's, you know, the three surviving members, we got Billy Sherwood on bass, incredible, wonderful guy. And, and during rehearsal, Steve asked me if I would not play guitar while he was out there, because the nature like because he wants it to be legit, you know, it's not just a bunch of guitar players. He was the guitarist and it was a one guitar band. So I'm like, sure. So now I take off my guitar.  And yeah, so that was a new thing also is like, I don't have my security blanket of my guitar. And now I just got a front the thing holding a microphone and be the singer.  You know, this is his band. And I'm just a guy that's just trying to celebrate it.  So so I was going to ask you what's the biggest highlight musically in your career. And I guess this is probably one of them, right?  Yeah. It was definitely up there. Yeah. I guess what motivates you it's not getting the call for guns, it's getting that the opportunity to prove yourself as an artist, right? That's what it sounds like. The challenges, the challenges, the challenges with what drives you a lot of people doesn't drive them challenges. You know, the challenges don't drive them at all. It's maybe it's even with with, you know, our own music with Art of Anarchy and God's Destroy with sons of Apollo with my own Bumblefoot music.  And some of these songs is like, why? I'm going to have to play this live. I can't.  You know, it's interesting on the song Crawl, it has a Mexican radio intro. Like, you know, that sort of a chaotic sort of keyboard at the beginning. Listen to it. That's how Mexican radio, I'm not saying it's, I'm not saying it is Mexican radio, I'm just saying it has that vibe there. I don't know if you would ever get on Mexican radio, but it definitely has, let's see, am I even plugged in? I think it's the keyboard that's doing it, right? It's the keyboard that does it. That's right. But don't play it.  He says, thank you, double this on guitar. Oh, okay, okay. I see where you're going now. This doesn't do that. But then we find a way. So for that one, how did we, yeah. So it sounds like a chaotic, technical. Yeah, so he had that part and then I would double it and I would have to do it on the fret list because of the tuning. It was like, what was it? It's like, it's like this crazy thing and then jumping to, so yeah, that was it. I'm out of practice. There's a lot of crazy stuff in there and in that that so I got to play both necks during the chorus. Doesn't sound like anything when you're listening. Crazy man. I should really tune these things. So Ron, when you're when you're flipping from the double necks from one to the other, there's no switch to switch back and forth. They're both live. Is that what it is? There's a switch. So I have a switch too. Usually I have. So you're playing on the top and you had to flip the switch and go to the other real quick. So this switch right here. Yeah, I see it now. Okay, I see it. Is it easier with a pedal? Maybe it would be easier with a pedal. But what are you just want to go from one quickly switch?  It's about the challenge. It's about the challenge. Yeah, this is a challenge. What else do you want to say about the new album? How's that? We'll go back to the new album again. So what do you want to say about the new album? That should be mentioned. That should be mentioned. Yeah. So who God's destroy? Everyone calls it Insanium. I don't know if it's Insanium or Insanium. I don't know. Insanium like sanitarium or Insanium. I guess Insanium, right? I don't know. Was that another Star Trek episode Insanium? It was. It was just weird. Well, here's the thing. Like the full quote is like those whom God's destroy for those God's destroy, they first make mad. So it's like, all right, well, the band name is the whom God's destroy. So something that references they first make mad. Crazy. So something about crazy. Insanium and insane asylum and insane Insanium. So just give up with that. Insanium. It's going to be released on March 15th worldwide. Inside Out Music. We should mention that. I didn't mention that. Tour. What are the tour plans here? What are you thinking? You're just going to throw it out there, see what happens and then base that on what the offers are like? Or what are you going to do? Well, when it comes to touring, we're at the mercy of promoters. They decide where we're going to play and when and all of that stuff. So right now it's a little, you know, we don't have a tour set up yet. We, of course, we're going to and that's what bands do.  So the says guys in the band that why did I suddenly lose the ability to speak?  Okay, I don't know. All right, here we go. So a couple of guys in the band, they already have some prior obligations that they have to do.  So that makes it a little tricky to have a tour. Also, when a band puts out a debut album and promoters don't know like, all right, let's see how this thing does before we make any offers. Then they first make offers and then you first have to wait six months until all the venues are available. So probably we won't be able to do touring. If it's going to happen this year, a tour end of the year it would be. Will that even happen? Don't know. I'll have to say, but I'm sure next year, you know, we've all ready talked about that is like, you know, we need to make sure that we are free-enabled and that we can put a chunk of time, continuous time, not just like a one-off here or a, you know, festival here or like, but like, get out and play. So this is a band. So this is a band, like it's not a project, it's a band, correct? It's a band. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a, you know, one-timer. I don't know. I just, well, I think, yeah, it doesn't have the intention of being a one-timer. As long as people behave themselves, it won't be a one-timer. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. When we call on you, you show up and you buy the album, then it won't be a one-timer. That's what it comes down to, right? If there's some sort of traction.   And then, you know, lasts for until death to us part. That's the whole thing. That's what kills bands is a band member fucks it up. So as long as we don't do that. And also, what are you going to play during this tour? If you do go on tour, are you going to play the whole album? Are you going to throw in some cover tunes? I remember Sons of Apollo, I think you had a lot of cover tunes when you first went out. You played a lot of... Yeah, because we didn't have enough music to play for two hours.  What would you play if you had a set list? What would you like to do? What would I like to do? Yeah, what would you like to do? See, I'm the wrong guy to ask because I got some weird taste of stuff. The rascals in Asia, you're just going to go all over the place. Yeah, we could do... Mm-hmm.  Exactly. You could do that. What else? I would just want to do a bunch of Iron Maiden. Oh, there you go. Yeah, I would never get my way in a million years. I would want to do Tom Jones, but I do cuts that people don't know.  I would sell produce at the merch stand for them to throw it at us if we had to do the songs that I chose. All right. I don't know. Yeah, I guess we would do things... You have to think about it. You got to think about a set list, right? You got this, would you throw in Sons of Apollo or is that Holy Ground? You can't touch that. I mean, it's a thought. Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't be completely... Off the table? Or just like... Well, I guess you guys could think about it. I don't know how the other guys would feel about that. Like, I'm fine if anybody wants to play Sons of Apollo or shit, the more the merrier. Go ahead. Play it. The songs are out there. They exist. Keep them alive. Yeah. Keep the music going. I don't need to be there. I was there. All right. Next time we have an interview set list, that's what we're talking about. We're just going to have a whole... Figure out the whole brainstorming on the set list. Well, the album itself is close to an hour. I got there. Right? So you could do an hour. Yeah. Yeah. So figure with bullshitting and extended solo parts and all of that stuff, we could easily do an hour. But then, like, if we're going to headline, we need to do at least an hour and a half would be the right thing to do, if not two hours. So what do we do in the other hour? What... You know what we should do? Is we should poll the audience. No, no, never do that. Never do that. Never do that. What do you all want to hear? Anything goes and see what happens. And that's a mess. That's a mess. I've seen that happen and it's a mess.  I did that once for a solo tour. I had a list of, like, I forgot how many songs and I was like, you choose a set list and whatever people chose the most is what we ended up playing. I guess if you did it beforehand with an poll on the website or on Facebook or on social media, then that could work, I guess, right? Yeah, it would have to definitely be something done beforehand. People choose the songs. We see the results. We learn the songs and we go out and we play the songs.  Let's do it from every computer we have. AI virus will come in there and just sort of Spice Girls, Spice Girls, Spice Girls. Yeah, it could work. But it would be fun, too. Wouldn't it be fun also? Tell me what you want, what you really, really want. I mean, you make it... I've done that, too. I've actually done that. In solo tours, I would break into just random, weird songs. That makes no sense. As you should. As you should. All right. On that note, I know times are running out. The new album, Whom God's Destroy, Insanium or Insanium, it's going to be released March 15th, Worldwide, Inside Out Music.  Thank you so much for your time. I hope, give you, wish you all the success and hopefully you'll come around to Munchal or Canada, at least, and play some gigs. Yeah, I hope so. It's been a good minute. Gotta get back up there. Yeah. Back to the corona. All right. Have yourself a good day, all right.