Athlone will welcome rock royalty in September! Ex Guns N' Roses guitarist Ron Thal is going to host a guitar camp to raise money for the Athlone IT Student Hardship Fund.

The Bumblefoot Music Camp (September 15th-20th) will host guitar players from all over the world, who will join Thal to learn recording techniques, production, singing and of course, guitar mastery.

The guitarist himself is set to play twice in Athlone, both times at the Prince Of Wales Hotel. The full band performance alongside students of the camp will take place on the 18th of September, and an intimate acoustic show will follow the night after on September 19th.

It's not the first time that Thal hosts a guitar camp. Last year, the first Bumblefoot Music Camp took place in Donegal and was comprised of rockers from 17 different nationalities, all of whom got to rock out on stage with Ron in Buncrana, Donegal.

As to what keeps him coming back to Ireland, he said: "The clown in me wants to say the butter. I always talk about how Ireland has the best butter in the world. We always have a brick of Kerrygold in our fridge at home in the US. The people make a place what it is. I come back to be with the wonderful people here."

Besides playing in Guns N' Roses for eight years (2006-2014), 'Bumblefoot' is currently the lead guitarist of the bands ASIA and Sons of Apollo.