\n
John 5\u00a0is one of those musicians who you could talk to all day long and never get bored because he is truly in the business because he loves\u00a0music.<\/p>\n
The guitarist has toured with everyone from\u00a0Lita Fordand\u00a0David Lee Roth\u00a0to\u00a0K.D. Lang\u00a0and\u00a0Marilyn Manson.<\/p>\n
As a studio writer, he has written songs with a who’s who of the music business including\u00a0Rob Halford,Lynyrd Skynyrd,\u00a0Garbage,\u00a0Meat Loaf,\u00a0Slash,\u00a0Avril Lavigne\u00a0and\u00a0Ricky Martin.<\/p>\n
In 2005\u00a0John 5\u00a0hooked up with\u00a0Rob Zombie\u00a0and became his lead guitarist and has helped write lyrics on his last three albums including the April release,Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor<\/em>\u00a0which features their current single, a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re An American Band”.<\/p>\nJohn 5\u00a0also helped score some of\u00a0Rob Zombie’srecent movies including 2012’s\u00a0Lords of Salem<\/em>.<\/p>\nIn between, he also finds time to put out powerful solo instrumental albums that show his interest in a wide range of genres.<\/p>\n
Rob Zombie\u00a0and his band spent the summer headlining the\u00a0Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival\u00a0and recently set out with friends\u00a0Korn\u00a0for theNight of the Living Dreads\u00a0<\/em>co-headlining tour.<\/p>\nThe tour made a stop in Grand Rapids on Friday at theDeltaplex\u00a0and before the show\u00a0John 5\u00a0spoke about the tour and how excited he was to be back playing in Michigan since he grew up in Grosse Pointe, “Tonight is going to be awesome. It’s a really, really big show. The tour is going really well and we’re having a blast.”<\/p>\n
When asked what those coming out to the Grand Rapids show and those coming out for the rest of the tour should expect, he had this to say, “Oh my god! It’s going to be a great big party. Tonight is a sold out show and we’re going to have a total, total Zombie party! It’s gonna be crazy!”<\/p>\n
He says they are enjoying being out with\u00a0Korn\u00a0and that they really “feed off of each other” and that every night is something different with bras being thrown up on stage and having a chance to bring up a five-year old on stage with him and putting the guitar on him.<\/p>\n
John 5\u00a0also says that he had a blast working on\u00a0Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor<\/em>, “It was cool. We went to Connecticut and it was in the middle of nowhere so it was really isolated and there were no distractions. It was even hard to watch movies. I couldn’t get anything on my phone and there was no internet so there were no distraction. I just concentrated on doing this record. I would get up and walk around the property and just write my stuff. I just woke up in the morning and would go early to the studio in my pajamas and just work all day. It was great.”<\/p>\nHe says that there is no one song in their current set list that he is enjoying performing the most but that he enjoys performing all of the new ones from “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown” to “We’re An American Band” to “Teenage Nosferatu Pussy”, “I love playing all of those because they are new. It’s like going to a new restaurant you really enjoy. It’s like, oh I love this! Not that the old songs aren’t great but it’s just beefing up the restaurant quite a bit with something new.”<\/p>\n
Rob Zombie\u00a0and his band had a busy Halloween this year playing Halloween night on Jimmy Kimmel Live and performing two nights at\u00a0Rob Zombie’s\u00a0Great American Nightmare\u00a0haunted festival in Los Angeles, which was a three week combined music festival and state of the art haunted attractions.<\/p>\n
When asked about the event\u00a0John 5\u00a0got excited, sharing, “You know Halloween is my favorite time of year and I had such a great Halloween this year. I like to really go all out. I start celebrating October 1st all the way through the end of the month.\u00a0The Great American Nightmare\u00a0was such a success and such an amazing thing. We played the last two nights and it was such a massive stage. It was so much fun. Then the Kimmel show on Halloween. It really was such a great Halloween. I loved it. It was maybe one of my best!”<\/p>\n
He says that he hopes the festival will make a return next year but it all depends on what\u00a0Rob Zombiewants to do but that he can’t see why he wouldn’t want to since it was such a great success.<\/p>\n
As for the upcoming holidays, he will be flying back home to L.A. for Thanksgiving before taking some time to visit\u00a0Rob Zombie\u00a0and finish up their first ever live DVD, “Rob has never done a DVD on his own or with White Zombie so it’s exciting. I think I’m going to go to his place and work on mixing it. He already edited it and so we’re just going to mix it and get it ready. We’ll do that in December and then we head overseas for a bunch of concerts. We’re doing Australia and New Zealand and Mexico. All those places, so we’re very busy. I’ve got to get my passport ready!”<\/p>\n
As if he didn’t have enough going on,\u00a0John 5\u00a0is also working on another solo album.<\/p>\n
“I am working on one and it’s awesome! That’s what it should be called:\u00a0It’s Awesome,”\u00a0<\/em>he enthusiastically shared. “It’s crazy! I’m so proud of this record and people are really going to enjoy it because I enjoy it so much. I have Matt Bissonette playing bass on it and he’s incredible. He’s playing with\u00a0Elton John\u00a0right now. This album is so over the top and I’ve got this drummer Rodger Carter playing drums on it and it’s just total crazy, crazy music. I think everyone is going to enjoy this one a lot.”<\/p>\nAlthough he is not sure exactly when the album is coming out he is thinking possibly sometime in the spring but first he really wants to get into promoting the album beforehand with promo videos that will help introduce the songs to his audience, “I really want to concentrate on marketing this and getting people excited about it so maybe the spring but I do so much traveling that I have to try to take advantage of the time I have to finish it up.”<\/p>\n
With all of the different balls that he is constantly juggling, I asked him which area of music he enjoys the most: being out with a touring band, working on his solo stuff or doing session work for other musicians and he had this to say, “You know I just love being in the studio so I guess my solo stuff would be my favorite thing. Live work with other artists is always a situation where you don’t really know the artist well so it’s always a challenge because you don’t know what they like. It’s like going on a first date, you don’t know what they’re going to be like. It’s uncomfortable until you get to know them.”<\/p>\n
As for an artist he still really would like to work with, he was quick to come up with, “Prince. I think that would be awesome. He’s something else!”<\/p>\n
John 5\u00a0says that the best thing about being in the music business is just having a chance to be in it, “It is a really hard business but I enjoy it so much. I’m just taking it all in and not taking anything for granted. I’m really enjoying myself just making records and touring and I’m like, wow, I have a really cool life. I’m making a living out of playing guitar. What’s so special about it is that I never thought or never wished for what I do right now. It is too beyond even my own dreams. I mean my dream was just to be a session musician so to even think about being a rock star was just so beyond my dreams that to even think about it seemed impossible. I’m really having a great time. I don’t take it for granted, that’s for sure!”<\/p>\n
Finally, after being asked if he could go back and relive one moment in his busy career, he expressed that being able to go back on stage and play a show with his parents there, “That’s a good answer I think. That is something I would really want to relive. Something very special. I remember a show withK.D. Lang\u00a0where I was playing up there and my mother and father were both there and it was very special.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the recent ‘Night of the Living Dreads’ tour, as the Rob Zombie and Korn camps rolled into Grand Rapids for their show at the Deltaplex, John 5 stopped to speak to The Examiner about coming home to Michigan, touring, working on Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare haunted festival and all the different balls he has been juggling this year in terms of work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[620,13,480,14,358,346],"class_list":["post-4002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","category-news","tag-interview","tag-john-5","tag-night-of-the-living-dreads","tag-rob-zombie","tag-the-examiner","tag-venomous-rat-regeneration-vendor","tw-post-no-content"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1qFj4-12y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3993,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/11\/21\/watch-john-5-talks-to-metaltitans\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":0},"title":"[Watch] John 5 talks to MetalTitans","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"November 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Watch this interview with John 5, conducted as Rob Zombie's Great American Nightmare wrapped up earlier this November. MetalTitan's Char Tupper speaks to John about GAN, tattoos, touring smaller venues, working on Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor and a lot more.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Metaltitans John 5","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/metaltitans-j5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/metaltitans-j5.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/metaltitans-j5.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3917,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/09\/24\/zombie-and-korn-team-up-for-night-of-the-living-dreads\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":1},"title":"Zombie and Korn team up for ‘Night of the Living Dreads’","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"September 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Rob Zombie will be joining Korn for Night of the Living Dreads - a co-headlining tour - in the US later this Fall","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"RZ-Korn-NOTLD-Tease","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/RZ-Korn-NOTLD-Tease.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/RZ-Korn-NOTLD-Tease.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/RZ-Korn-NOTLD-Tease.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3687,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/07\/06\/watch-john-5-interviewed-at-mayhem-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":2},"title":"[WATCH] John 5 interviewed at Mayhem 2013","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Examiner sat down with John 5 during a break at the Mayhem Festival and conducted this video interview where they cover subjects such as \"the new album \"Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor\", what John 5 does when he is not playing guitar, and who is more crazy, Rob Zombie or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John 5 interviewed at Mayhem","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/j5-examiner.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/j5-examiner.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/j5-examiner.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3985,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/11\/15\/john-5-speaks-to-943-loudwire-com\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":3},"title":"[Listen] John 5 speaks to 943 loudwire.com","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"November 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before the Night of the Living Dreads tour rolled into Casper Wyoming a few days ago, John 5 chatted with Butch from 943 Loudwire.com about the tour, playing with Korn and a lot more besides.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"john-5-interview","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/john-5-interview2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/john-5-interview2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/john-5-interview2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2842,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/01\/31\/new-zombie-album-venomous-rat-regeneration-vendor-out-april-23\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":4},"title":"NEW ZOMBIE ALBUM \u2018Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor\u2019 OUT APRIL 23","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"January 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The eagerly awaited new ROB ZOMBIE album \u2018Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor\u2019 is OUT APRIL 23 ON ZODIAC SWAN\/T-BOY\/UMe","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rob Zombie Band","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/rob-zombie-band-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/rob-zombie-band-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/rob-zombie-band-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3814,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/08\/17\/watch-on-tour-monthly-chats-with-john-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":4002,"position":5},"title":"[Watch] On Tour Monthly chats with John 5","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"August 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In this video interview taken before Rob Zombies headlining appearance at this years Mayhem Festival in Dallas, TX, On Tour Monthly sits with John 5 to talk about the new Rob Zombie album \u201cVenomous Rat Regeneration Vendor\u201c, Mayhem Festival, his friendship with Rob Zombie and and his favorite Mayhem moment.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"On Tour Monthly interviews John 5","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/john-5-on-tour-with-interview.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/john-5-on-tour-with-interview.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/john-5-on-tour-with-interview.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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