TH: I know a lot of people at Hammerstein, myself included, we were a little bit familiar with you from previous rumors, and I think, you can tell me if I'm wrong, it seemed like they were really welcoming to you as far as you joining the band.

RT: I guess, it's hard to say. It's a change, it's like suddenly someone brings home to the fans, "Hey here's your new baby brother" and they're like, "What, I didn't even know you were pregnant, what the hell is this? Who's that?" So there's going to be a lot of skepticism, no matter who it was, there would be skepticism, there would be resistance and resentment. It's like "Hey, this wasn't my choice, and this is my band, I'm a fan. Where's my say in this?" So I think that some people were just happy, "Oh good, they got a new guitarist and they're going to be active again." Other people would be like "No, we don't want any more change. Go back to whatever time period I deem I like the most." So there's a lot of "You need to die, Slash needs to come back,", or "Bring back Bucket."

Fighting the past is a big waste of time. There's nothing you can do to change the past, it's not possible. It's just a waste of energy. It's like, ok, I'm here now and I have a show to do, so here we go. And that's it you know, no crime, I'm just trying to fucking keep shit going. That's it.

TH: Of course, DJ Ashba just replaced Robin Finck recently, do you think the fans have been more receptive with that? Or do you think he's kind of going through the same thing?

RT: At first he got a lot of that until we started playing shows and they saw how much we had prepared and made sure he was ready to be out there. And he put on a great show and the band was tight and people couldn't deny that he was doing a great job. So at that point I think that his period of people fighting it wasn't as long as mine. We got to rehearse with him for a good year and work out gear and work out parts. I had two weeks, and they wouldn't even give me a fucking microphone. They said there was no room in the mixing board to include me. So that was my fucking experience coming into this.

TH: You mentioned that playing was about the same with your solo work as well as with Guns N' Roses, as far as being up on the stage, but as someone who has always been very interactive with their fans, has that changed at all? Is that harder now with how big Guns N' Roses is?

RT: The only thing that's hard with it is that I want to do more and I have the potential to do more, but it's made very difficult for me to do because with GN'R everything happens at the last moment. I can't make plans for things if we're going to suddenly be staying in a different city and I find out hours before. It fucks everything up. I dealt with that the last tour where I made all these meet and greets and in order to keep them going it was really difficult because suddenly our itinerary changes, and it changed in a way where I would have had to cancel them. And I wouldn't, so I always wound up staying in different cities than the rest of the band and traveling at different times and it was really tough.

With this next tour I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do anything because I'm at a loss. I want to, but I can't if I don't know where I'm going to be. And it sucks, because to me you have that opportunity finally. We're going to be in this city, and there are all these fans there, and the ones who really give a shit, the ones who would come out to a meet and greet to say hi, the ones that are going to be in the front row and singing every word. It'd be great to meet these people and to get some personal time together where we could just hang out, shake hands, take pictures, and whatever. I like doing that and then seeing them at the show and waving to a face that I know, and that I just met. It's just a personal connection.

TH: If there was one thing you could change about the current music scene what would it be?

RT: I could go on for hours about the music business, but as far as the music scene, if I could change one thing: lower the fucking ticket prices. Whatever it takes, find a way. Stop gouging people. I won't go to a fucking concert, it's too expensive. Almost on principle, this is fucking ridiculous. Three hundred dollars? Fuck that. I remember when they were fifteen bucks, call me old, I don't give a fuck. To me, once you're getting into triple digits for a ticket, unless that show comes with a "happy ending," I don't know. That's the one thing I'd change in the music scene, find a way to lower the fucking ticket prices.

TH: Going back to you guys in Guns N' Roses, do you guys have any nicknames for each other? Obviously you have your nickname, Bumblefoot, but do they have any other ones for you, or do you have any for them?

RT: They usually call me Bumbles. Let me think, nicknames I can say out loud, nicknames that I can reveal.

TH: We don't want to get you in trouble here.

RT: Exactly, which I tend to do often. Nah man, I don't think we have any nicknames. I started to think of a bunch, like Frank could be Frizzy because he's bald and the FR is in Frank. At one point Axl was calling me Shank.

TH: Really? Where'd that come from?

RT: Because I tried to stab three people on stage at a show in 2006.

TH: How'd that come about?

RT: How do things like that happen? They just happen.

TH: Do you ever stay in contact with the former members of Guns N' Roses? Is (Brain) Mantia still in the band?

RT: Brain, I might have e-mailed him once or twice. Robin, once in a while we get in touch with each other. Let me think, who else is not in the band anymore. Am I still in? And for how long? (joking)

If anything, the one that I would be staying in touch with the most would be Robin. Like when he was playing with Nine Inch Nails I went to shows and we hung out afterward. If anything, we probably got along better at that point than we did when we were playing together because we didn't have the stresses of the band stuff on us. That stuff was free and clear and we could just enjoy each other as just two human beings.

TH: If you had never picked up a guitar, what do you think you'd be doing now?

RT: I'd be playing bass.

TH: We end all of our interviews with the word association game, so I say "wombat" and you say...

RT: Tomato (to-MAH-to)... That should be Tommy's nickname, tomato.