Bumblefoot Rides The Rainbow
There hasn’t been a whole helluva lot of projects that New Brunswick Guitarist-Composer-Vocalist-Producer-Educator-Renaissance Man Bumblefoot has been involved in that we haven’t written about. He was in The Jersey Sound documentary. He covered Bill Withers on a 2025 Yacht Rock album. He teamed up with Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famer Ricky Byrd at a 2022 New York City fantasy camp, with Trixter’s Steve Brown in Femme Fatale and he started Art Of Anarchy in 2024 with Jeff Scott Soto of Yngwie Malmsteen’s band. Before all that, he was in Asia with Steve Howe of Yes (2019), Sons Of Apollo (2017-2021) with Derek Sherinian of Dream Theater and played lead guitar for Guns N’ Roses (2006-2014).
On June 19, he’ll also be heard on an all-star album called Ride The Rainbow: The Ultimate Tribute To Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (Cleopatra Records) with six Rainbow alumni—Bob Daisley, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White, Ronnie Romero—alongside vocalist Candice Night and Vanilla Fudge/Cactus drummer Carmine Appice.
Bumblefoot—born Ron Thal 56 years ago—might have been only six years old when Rainbow launched in 1975 but recalls, “I heard the Rainbow Rising album as a kid and became a lifelong Rainbow fan! It’s a great honor to play on this song and to pay tribute to this historic band.” The song in question is “Long Live Rock’n’Roll,” Rainbow’s longtime battle cry (and can be heard below).