TH: In your opinion, what's the biggest difference between concerts with American crowds and international crowds?

RT: I don't know, it's been a while since we've been in front of an American crowd (laughs). I think that the American crowds can be more demanding from the artist. You'd better be good, you'd better have your shit together and you'd better be closer to on-time or they're going to throw shit. They're less tolerant of bullshit. They want to get what they came there for.

Where I think some other places are a little more lenient and relaxed on that kind of stuff.

TH: It's more about the experience then?

RT: Yeah, it's like if you go on at one o'clock in the morning in South America, they're going to be pissed but they're still going to have a good time. I think if you go on at one o'clock in the morning in America they're just going to be really fucking pissed.

TH: Do you feel that it's been easier to tour, or more relaxing at least, since Chinese Democracy came out?

RT: I think that playing the Chinese songs since the album came out is better. I don't know if touring is any different, but playing those songs in particular you now have everyone singing along. They're more familiar with the music, so that part of it is better. People know the shit now, or some of them do, hopefully they do.

TH: What's the most bizarre thing that you've seen a fan do to try to get your attention?

RT: There's one thing that always come to mind from back in 2006. I think it was in Norway, a fan was crawling through the air ducts in the ceiling and fell through the ceiling into the room, opened the door and was like "hi."

TH: Was that in a hotel room?

RT: At the venue, he was trying to get back stage. I don't know, nothing surprises me anymore.

TH: You've seen it all pretty much?

RT: Maybe not all, but a lot.

TH: The last time we spoke with you you were in the process of making your own line of hot sauce, is that something you're still working on?

RT: I gotta move on that, yeah. That's something that I've been meaning to move forward with. The ideas are there, everything is there, I just need time. It's so much tougher now with the touring. I get back from a tour and I just spend all my time chasing every minute just trying to fucking get everything done that's been waiting to get done along with new shit, and it's just like a huge race that I'm losing against the clock. So it's been really fucking tough.

TH: Does your wife go with you when you travel around the world or does she stay back home?

RT: She travels for a lot of it and she's loving it. She got to see all sorts of parts of South America and Central America, she went to Taiwan, South Korea, all around Japan, and she's been to Australia, all around Europe, a lot of shows in the U.S., she did Puerto Rico, and spots in Canada. She's getting to really do a lot of traveling and see a lot of the world and she's loving it.

She loves to travel and it's a good situation where she gets to pick and choose where she wants to go. We buy a plane ticket and see her there.

TH: Are there plans already in the works for the next Guns N' Roses album?

RT: Right now the only thing we've got going on is looking at touring. There's nothing to be said yet about anything beyond that. I know it sounds cryptic and like I'm holding back or something. It's no secret that there's other music from the Chinese Democracy days, it's just a question of what's going to happen with them. I guess that's up to Axl and what he wants to do with them.

TH: Is the plan currently to tour through 2011?

RT: Hopefully, hopefully we'll keep it going. At this point, shit man, I want to make some fucking music. I'm itchin'. I need to make something that comes from this band, in this decade. I've been telling them for a long time that before every leg of the tour I would love to just go into the studio for a week together and just bust out a song and give it to radio stations, make it available for downloads, and play it live. After a couple of legs we'd have a good batch of music of our own.

TH: Is that something that has happened at all as far as you guys working on your own music, or is it still all from the Chinese Democracy days?

RT: We all can write, but we haven't done that yet.

TH: What was your initial thought when you were asked to join Guns N' Roses?

RT: It was about 6 years ago; I got an e-mail from Joe Satriani saying he recommended me. At the time I had no idea what GN'R was doing. So I was like, "Ahh, they're probably just playing some nice big bars or something." I had no idea so I was like, "Yeah, no problem. Cool, we could do some playing as long as everyone is cool." And it was a year and a half later when we finally got together and started jamming that I saw how big everything was. I was like "damn, that's a lot more than I had thought." That was fine, and at the same time, I was wondering if I was going to feel different on a stage in front of 100,000 people compared to the last gig I did in front of 100. And you know what, it feels the same, because you're still doing what you do. It's still coming from the same part of you. So it didn't really feel that different from anything else I was doing. So when they first offered it to me, I was just like "Yeah, sure, I guess we could do it." We spoke for two months and then we didn't speak for about a year and a half and then they had a tour coming up, so we got together and started jamming for a couple weeks and hit the road.

TH: And your first time playing was right before Hammerstein?

RT: Yeah, Hammerstein that was my first stuff with them. And we just jammed and we'd play about 3 songs a night at a soundstage in New York and that was it. We just went through the stuff, a quick bust-out of it. For the Chinese stuff, I didn't have a copy of it. They wouldn't give me a copy of it, because at that point the leaks were an issue. Stuff had just leaked, so the only way I could learn the stuff was I had a half hour and a piece of paper and a pen. I had to pretty much learn the album in that half hour just by listening.

TH: Luckily you're known for being able to hear music and instantly be able to play it, right?

RT: (laughs) I tried my best. Eventually it was nice to be able to record my own parts on there so at least I have my own idea of what I can play and what I should play. So now I just take on all the tough stuff, I do the Buckethead parts, I do my own parts.

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