Categories
Interview

Plug’d In Magazine interviews John 5

Hot of the presses today, Plug’d in Magazine interviews John 5

Hot of the presses today, Plug’d In Magazine interviews John 5.

This Is: John 5 Interview by Vikki Sin

Few guitarists have been lucky enough to land long term gigs with not one, but 2 of their favorite artists, but then not everyone is John 5. Having played extensively with rock powerhouses Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, not to mention collabs with David Lee Roth, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and childhood hero Paul Stanley to name a few, this legend in the making has also kept us entertained with 7 solo albums; the latest of which, “God Told Me To’” is being released this coming May. Looks like his childhood prayers came true, an amusing thing given his heavily horror themed resume. But despite all the makings for a well-deserved rock star attitude, he’s incredibly down to Earth, discussing with me the tribulations of today’s music industry and the favorite of his 500 guitars. Read on for more, and catch John 5 in action on tour with Rob Zombie and Megadeth, kicking off May 11th…V.S.

PI: You’re heading out again with Rob Zombie on tour this summer. Having gone from Manson to Zombie, do you feel the shock rock image lends to your creativity as an artist? Do you like getting dressed up to perform?

J5: You know…that’s a great question. We all had things that we loved that really stuck with you your whole life. You see things; you’re like “oh, I used to love that as a kid”. When I was a kid I loved monsters- Universal monsters- you know, like Frankenstein, Wolfman, the mummies, things like that, and I loved KISS. Part of the reason I loved KISS is they looked like monsters with guitars, so it’s like being a kid. You get to dress up and do all these things, when you get up on stage in front of all those screaming people and I just, I couldn’t ask for anything more. I mean, it’s the greatest thing ever and I was such a fan of Rob Zombie and White Zombie before I even got in the band so I couldn’t be happier and it couldn’t be a better situation because it’s like Halloween every night and it’s so fun, you know. I love it.

PI: Speaking of Manson, most people started really knowing of you during that period. How important do you feel it was for your career to hook up with Manson? He gave you your name. How do you feel that helped define your career?

J5: Well, you know, I’m very up front and honest, and yeah, Manson did put me out into the public eye and he gave me my name, he gave me John 5, and a lot of people were introduced to me from being in Marilyn Manson, which I love and appreciate. I loved being in Marilyn Manson. I was a HUGE fan before I was even in the band, so I owe a lot of that to Manson and it’s just like with KISS, you know, when Ace Frehley left KISS he wasn’t gonna change his name to like, Paul Frehley, you know? People know him as Ace. So that’s why I kept the name.

PI: Tell us a little bit about your upcoming album “God Told Me To”. What was your thought process going into this album?

J5: With the title, “God Told Me To”, when terrible crime happens, serial killers, they always say “Hey, why did you do this?” and they say “Oh, God told me to” or something like that. With this, the title, I really wanted this so bad as a kid, I wanted to be a successful musician and I would go to church like on Christmas, I never went to church, but I did as a kid and I would always pray to be a successful musician and that’s kind of why I have that title. It’s kind of like a play on words, the yin and the yang. It could mean a terrible thing or it could mean a very positive thing. But, it’s a great CD. There’s a DVD with it, an hour long DVD, and it shows me in the studio recording the stuff. It shows like a day in the life on tour. There’s also- this is kind of interesting- there’s a horror host that hosts the DVD. A horror host is like back in the day you would have things like Sir Graves or Vampira introducing movies. You might know Elvira or something like that. It’s got something like that. It’s great. I’m really proud of it and I think people are gonna enjoy it.

Read the rest of the interview here: http://www.plugdinmagazine.com/news-and-blog-stuff/this-john-5