John 5 is one of the most influential guitarists of our generation. Best known for his time in Marilyn Manson and as the current guitarist for Rob Zombie, John 5 has been a guitar player for some of the biggest headlining rock bands in the world as well as playing session with Paul Stanley, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd and more. Now John 5 is heading to Australia, for his first ever solo shows here, to shred our nation to pieces thanks to Silverback Touring. We caught up with John 5 himself to discuss the shows, his latest album and how he got into music.
Andrew: Thanks for your time, really appreciate it! How’s things?
John 5: Good, everything is really good right now, can’t complain. Just out on the road so if you hear odd noises, that’s why!
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah I hear you are just near the end of your tour in the US right? How has it been going so far?
John 5: Really good. It’s been a super amazing tour, just a lot of fun. Can’t complain, everything has been going really smooth.
Andrew: Awesome well we are definitely looking forward to seeing you in Australia, I believe this will be the first time you are bringing your solo tour our way?
John 5: That’s correct. I’ve been to Australia a bunch of other times but yeah this is the first time coming as a solo artist and I couldn’t be more excited.
Andrew: We are definitely excited too and you have Jared James Nichols as your support act who we are big fans of down here as well and I know you’ve been taking him on the road in the US so what can we expect on this tour? Similar to what you’ve been doing so far or something different?
John 5: Something similar just cause I wanted to bring everything over there and play a good show and I’m making a live record called “Live Invasion” and I’m going to be recording the shows in Australia just to have Australia be a part of the live record which I think will be really cool. So all the shows will be recorded.
Andrew: Oh nice, cool! So what made you decide to not only record a live album but also do it in Australia?
John 5: Well I’m recording all over the world so I just want to have places from all over the world be a part of the record – South America, China, America, Mexico, Australia. So it’s going to be very exciting.
Andrew: Nice! So obviously putting together a setlist for both a live record and a live show with the number of albums you do have must be a difficult process.
John 5: Well not really because of the fact that it’s called Live Invasion so we’re doing a lot of songs from the Invasion record because I wanted to do it that way. So it’s going to be pretty special and I know that there’s going to be a lot of songs that are going to come from all over Australia. We’re super excited, I just love Australia so much and I’ve always been like, ‘We gotta go over there, we gotta go over there’, and sure enough here we go.
Andrew: Well we are glad you are coming here to perform your solo stuff. Your latest album Invasion came out recently and what’s interesting about it is you put out a video for most of if not all the songs right?
John 5: Yes we did put out a video for a lot of the songs and people just watch music nowadays and if I said, ‘Hey check out this band”, you’d probably go to Youtube or something like that and check it out. So I wanted to be able to make people watch the songs and a lot of kids these days just watch music so it’s cool! I love making videos because it’s a new way to go and I do them all myself so I try to make as many as I can.
Andrew: Yeah I guess it’s one thing that, and I guess that a lot of fans who have never seen you live before can expect, is the fact that your shows and your videos especially are very visual oriented. It must be something you put a lot of thought into how you want to present the songs, are the videos really an extension of the songs themselves or are they something you creatively try to differ from the songs themselves?
John 5: I try to make the video fit the song but luckily there’s not a lot of lyrics in my music so it’s a lot easier to create any kind of visual that we would like in a song. So any kind of visual is possible, so if you want it animated or if you wanted girls doing twister, whatever like that, everything is ok.
John 5 and the Creatures live in Anaheim, CA 2019
Andrew: Now Jared James Nichols is the support act as mentioned before, what’s he been like to tour with so far?
John 5: Great, it’s really a great package. People enjoy…it’s a great night out of music, guitar entertainment and it’s going to be the same thing in Australia. It’s going to be a great night out, something you’re not going to want to miss that’s for sure.
Andrew: Have you worked with him before? Why did you decided to go with him as your support act?
John 5: I really like his music and I like his playing and his singing so why not! It works here and it will work over there and he’s someone that I really enjoy his music so it’s wonderful.
Andrew: This tour will be something special for those that have never seen you before but it must be a thrill for you to still be able to perform new songs and still get a positive reaction. Has it been a positive experience so far playing the new songs?
John 5: It’s been super positive! I’m shocked at how positive the reaction has been and I read the review and it’s been super positive so I couldn’t ask for anything more because I just do it for the love of the guitar and the love of music. I’m not doing it for anything else, I just really enjoy doing what I do. It’s from the heart and I think people understand that and they know that, they can sense that. It’s important to me because they really like it and I’m super happy about it.
Andrew: Yeah and I guess it’s an honour and a privilege to enjoy what you do for a living as well. I mean how did you get into all this in the first place? How did you get into music?
John 5: The guitar just kinda chose me, I just was always driven and infatuated with the guitar and when I started playing I just couldn’t put it down. I think that the meaning of life is just do something that you love, I mean you love doing interviews probably and that’s amazing and you’re so lucky to be doing what you’re doing. so I really think that’s the meaning of life, is to do what you love.
Andrew: Yeah I absolutely agree with that. It’s actually a question we ask in a lot of our interviews, the meaning of life and I think it’s exactly that, to do what you enjoy. But was there a particular guitar player or anyone in particular growing up that really pushed you into playing guitar in the first place?
John 5: I think it was a TV show here in America called Hee Haw and I really loved Roy Clark and then Roy Clark went to Jimi Hendrix and Hendrix went to Eddie Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen to Yngwie, then to Paul Gilbert and then Albert Lee. So I’ve always had amalgamations of all these guitar players and I like to get a bit of something from each one.
Andrew: I hear you are a big Kiss fan, that must of been a big influence on you as well.
John 5: Huge influence, massive influence and Kiss was there in 1980 and they had a huge Kiss craze over there in 1980. Do you know anything about that?
Andrew: Yeah they were obviously huge back in the day and at that time.
John 5: Yeah so Australia I collect a lot of the Aussie merchandise, tons of it from 1980 so yeah I really enjoy it.
Andrew: Have you ever met any of those guys or even worked with any of them at all?
John 5: Oh yeah they’re all my friends. Peter just called me just before I picked up the phone with you.
Andrew: Oh nice! That’s an amazing thing to be a part of as well, that whole world. I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that Kiss are coming to the end of the road, any thoughts on that?
John 5: Well they definitely need to be celebrated because they changed the world and I think everybody has to go see them one last time because they really did change the world, they influenced millions of people.
Andrew: So just flipping that to the other side then, I know there have been guitar players that have credited you as being a bit of an influence on them, how does that make you feel?
John 5: That’s what I do it for, I don’t do this for the money or anything like that. I just want to influence a few people along the way, that’s all.
Andrew: And enjoy what you do! We are definitely excited to see you in Australia then, before I let you go do you have any last words for the Aussie fans before you come down here?
John 5: I’m telling the truth and I’m speaking from the heart, I am so excited to get there. I’m actually going to fly in 4 days early and we’re going to run all over the place and I’m so excited. I’m just really looking forward to it, I can’t wait.
John 5 and The Creatures April 2020 Tour Dates:
Thursday 16th April – MELBOURNE, The Prince
Friday 17th April – BRISBANE, The Zoo
Saturday 18th April – SYDNEY, The Manning Bar
Tickets from: https://silverbacktouring.com.au/john5-2019/
