{"id":43,"date":"2010-07-30T07:43:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T14:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/?p=43"},"modified":"2011-01-19T08:04:44","modified_gmt":"2011-01-19T15:04:44","slug":"i-heart-guitar-blog-interviews-john-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2010\/07\/30\/i-heart-guitar-blog-interviews-john-5\/","title":{"rendered":"I Heart Guitar Blog interviews John 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iheartguitar<\/a> recently conducted an interview with John 5.\u00a0 Read it here:<\/p>\n

John 5\u2032s resume reads like a who\u2019s who of hard rock and heavy metal frontmen. Having held down jobs with such diverse acts as Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, and now Rob Zombie, John 5 is well versed in the art of playing on other peoples\u2019 records \u2013 check out his killer work on Zombie\u2019s latest CD, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, where he adds all sorts of greasy blues-influenced licks to Zombie\u2019s brand of dark rock. For his own solo work though, John 5 combines his equal loves of metal, rock, shred and even country into a distinctive sound, capped off with the stunning displays of guitar technique that he rarely got to show off in his various high-profile day jobs (well, maybe with DLR). I caught up with John 5 to discuss his fifth CD, The Art Of Malice<\/em>, which is out now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you start with a concept for The Art Of Malice<\/em>? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Well it was my fifth instrumental record, so it was very special for me. It was something that was\u2026 I wanted everything in there. Everything and the kitchen sink. All kinds of music, all bits and pieces going everywhere. Country, heavy rock, metal, acoustic, Spanish flamenco, everything is in there. So I wanted to do it all. <\/p>\n

And also, Steve Vai\u2019s got his whole \u2018seven\u2019 thing, how the seventh track on each of his albums is the big ballad and all that stuff. You\u2019ve managed to beat him by having your number be five!<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Laughs) That\u2019s true!<\/p>\n

One of my favourite things on the album is the title track, where we can hear you flip the pickup switch\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah!<\/p>\n

I love that because usually you\u2019d edit that kind of thing out, but hearing little details like this is just great!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah! I like doing things in one take, not chopping them all up but just doing certain things and not overdubbing.<\/p>\n

What can you tell us about that track?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The true story is, I was doing a clean guitar part for the song The Nightmare Unravels<\/em>, and I was testing the clean sound and I was playing around with some licks and stuff like that, and we were recording it to see how the clean sound was, and so I could listen back to it, and it sounded so good the engineer was like, \u2018We should make this a little track.\u2019 I kept working on it and doing a couple of different things to make it a little longer, but I think it came out really good. So it was kind of an improv thing, a spontaneous piece of music that really came out really nice.<\/p>\n

How much of your work is improvised?<\/strong><\/p>\n

None! (Laughs) None! Really, it\u2019s all, everything is planned out and everything is thought out and tried and turned around, and things like that. WIth this kind of stuff it\u2019s very difficult to do so I don\u2019t improvise at all!<\/p>\n

Where did you record the album? <\/strong><\/p>\n

What I did was I would write at home, then I would rehearse, rehearse, rehearse at home. I would just get it all down, then I would go into a studio, and usually the track would get done in somewhere close to an hour because I was so rehearsed. I knew what I was doing, so it was mostly getting it down at home.<\/p>\n

I hate being one of those journalists who is like \u2018Well I read on Wikipedia,\u2019 but\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Laughs) No, that\u2019s fine!<\/p>\n

But I read that with David Lee Roth, when you recorded the DLR Band album, that was only two weeks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah! We recorded and mixed it and everything in two weeks. And it was all done at like 6 o\u2019clock in the morning, too! I was playing with Rob Halford too, so we would rehearse at noon, and Dave would want be before Rob Halford, so we would rehearse at six in the morning. True story!<\/p>\n

Speaking of DLR, your track Ya Dig<\/em>, with Billy Sheehan, has a bit of the same vibe as Slam Dunk<\/em> from the DLR Band album.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah! And the reason it\u2019s called Ya Dig is because Dave\u2019s a good friend of mine, and when he talks, when people say \u2018y\u2019know,\u2019 they say \u2018y\u2019know\u2019. But what Dave says is \u2018ya dig?\u2019 like \u2018Maybe we should go to the beach, ya dig? They have this great food there, ya dig?\u2019 And there is nobody but Billy Sheehan who does the Billy Sheehan bass playin\u2019. It was incredible. Incredible<\/em>. Oh man, he\u2019s the best.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of slide on the album. When did you get into slide?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love slide. I\u2019ve always been into slide. I love Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, but everyone always looks at me as this crazy shredder and stuff like that. But I really wanted to show people that I love music, and I love guitar playing, and I love guitars. Can I Live Again<\/em>, with that nice melody and all that, that\u2019s one of the most popular songs on the album. It\u2019s really cool because I\u2019m reaching everybody. There\u2019s everything on there for everybody.<\/p>\n

I love the little honky midrange tone at the start of Steel Guitar Rag<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m using my Fender Broadcaster on that. We just took a lot of the lows out in the studio, and then it kicks in with that nice steel guitar rag, and it\u2019s one of my favourite tracks on the record. It\u2019s hard to play with a clean tone but it\u2019s one of my favourite things to do. When I\u2019m on tour I always have a guitar in my hand, and I have a little battery powered amp, and it doesn\u2019t get a lot of distortion, so it\u2019s always clean.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a cool cover of Ace Frehley\u2019s Fractured Mirror<\/em>\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved KISS when I was a kid, and that was my introduction to instrumental music. It\u2019s my tribute, saying thank you to Ace.<\/p>\n

And Last Page Turned<\/em> sounds like a tribute to Jimmy Page?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. My favourite stuff was always his acoustic work on Physical Graffiti and Led Zeppelin 3. That\u2019s where I got it. He\u2019s amazing. I love him.<\/p>\n

Now: guitar talk! The Fender J5 Triple Tele Deluxe is awesome!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks! Everybody knows I love my Telecasters. It was the first solidbody electric guitar in 1950, and I just started playing Teles early on in my life, but no-one really played them in rock and metal that much, so I kinda wanted to design them so more people were able to enjoy this incredible instrument. So that\u2019s why I designed the Triple Tele. It\u2019s kind of like the Black Beauty Les Paul. And there\u2019s a lot of chrome on it and it looks amazing and it sounds incredible. But I just put out a Squier version of my main model, and it\u2019s priced to sell. Everyone can afford one of those, and they\u2019re great guitars. You\u2019ll have those forever. I have one with me in the studio. All the guitars Fender produces for me are unbelievable.<\/p>\n

Yeah, the quality of Squiers is so much better than the stuff I started out with!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely, of course! They\u2019re great, great guitars, and they\u2019re very inexpensive so everybody can afford them, but they\u2019re fabulous guitars. I\u2019m online playing them, and I love it. I love it.<\/p>\n

And the Telecaster in general is such an immediate-sounding instrument. Why do you think they\u2019re not so much associated with rock?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think because when it came out in the early 50s, rock n\u2019roll wasn\u2019t even around yet \u2013 y\u2019know, rock n\u2019roll didn\u2019t really come in until 1955 \u2013 and everybody played Teles and they just played country music. So I think they got pigeonholed really quickly as being a country guitar. But y\u2019know, in the 60s and 70s, Steely Dan played a Tele\u2026 the Stones of course, the Beatles, Jimmy Page. I started playing it in Manson, and Jim Root plays one in Slipknot and Stone Sour, so it\u2019s my favourite guitar. It\u2019s the best in the world.<\/p>\n

The J5 Bigsby Telecaster is very cool.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I just play with the Bigsby a little bit for vibrato and things like that, and at the ends of songs you\u2019ll hear me shake it and things like that. But I love the Bigsby, y\u2019know? I really love it. I think it looks rad and I think it sounds rad, y\u2019know?<\/p>\n

And I believe you\u2019re using DiMarzio D Activator pickups?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah. To be completely honest, I\u2019m not a huge tone chaser. I love guitars, but I\u2019m not a huge amp guy. But pickups \u2026Larry DiMarzio\u2019s a friend of mine and he\u2019s always like, \u2018Oh you\u2019ve got to check these out.\u2019 And they just sounded so good. That\u2019s how I am in the studio: if it sounds good, \u2018alright, cool!\u2019 Some people will fiddle with sounds for hours and hours but I just don\u2019t think I have the patience for it, for just trying to find that perfect sound. But I think that\u2019s why I have great engineers to do it for me. Because I\u2019ll plug into a little battery-powered amp and play, just as long as I can play. Your fingers will get that tone for you. Eddie Van Halen says \u2018I can pick up any guitar and I sound like Eddie Van Halen,\u2019 because it\u2019s in his fingers.<\/p>\n

Any guitars on your wish list that you don\u2019t have yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes! A Fender Nocaster. What the Nocaster was is, Fender came out with their first guitar in 1950, which was the Broadcaster, and they got sued by Gretsch, who had the Broadcaster drum set. So Fender had to take the Broadcaster part off of the headstock. So the collectors call them Nocasters. This was in 1951. So that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for!<\/p>\n

Do you have any plans to come down to Australia any time soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually yes! We might come down there with Zombie in February. I\u2019m hoping, because it\u2019s one of my favourite places in the world, but that plane ride\u2019s a son of a bitch! It\u2019s a long one.<\/p>\n

The Art Of Malice is out now via Riot Entertainment<\/a>. Rob Zombie\u2019s Hellbilly Deluxe 2 is out now on Roadrunner<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 5\u2032s resume reads like a who\u2019s who of hard rock and heavy metal frontmen. Having held down jobs with such diverse acts as Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, and now Rob Zombie, John 5 is well versed in the art of playing on other peoples\u2019 records \u2013 check out his killer work on Zombie\u2019s latest CD, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, where he adds all sorts of greasy blues-influenced licks to Zombie\u2019s brand of dark rock. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tw-post-no-content"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1qFj4-H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":599812,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2019\/08\/19\/john-5-speaks-to-guitar-player-mag-about-making-2019s-most-shred-worthy-album\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":0},"title":"John 5 speaks to Guitar Player Mag about making 2019’s most shred worthy album!","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"August 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Guitar Player interviews John 5 following the release of his album Invasion.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John 5 Guitar Player Magazine 2019","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/john-5-guitar-player-mag.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/john-5-guitar-player-mag.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/john-5-guitar-player-mag.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2176,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2012\/05\/08\/target-audience-magazine-reviews-god-told-me-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":1},"title":"Target Audience Magazine reviews God Told Me To","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"May 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"John5\u2032s new CD God Told Me To is an exciting, scary, sexy, and twisted shred masterpiece. - Read more of this review from Target Audience Magazine","rel":"","context":"In "Review"","block_context":{"text":"Review","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/god-told-me-to-cover-john-5-290px-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":483543,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2019\/02\/28\/john-5-speaks-to-consequences-of-sound-the-guitar-is-strong-and-powerful-and-will-never-die\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":2},"title":"John 5 speaks to Consequences of Sound: “the guitar is strong and powerful and will never die”","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"February 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"John 5 speaks to Consequences of Sound about touring, social media, recording with Rob Zombie, the state of heavy metal music plus MUCH more in this wide-ranging interview.","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John 5 Consequences of Sound","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/consequences-of-sound-john-5.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/consequences-of-sound-john-5.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/consequences-of-sound-john-5.jpg?fit=550%2C307&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3188,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/02\/22\/john-5-talks-scoring-the-lords-of-salem-and-new-zombie-album\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":3},"title":"John 5 talks scoring Lords of Salem and new Zombie album","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"February 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Blabbermouth has reported on a new interview John 5 has made where he speaks about working on his first full film score - Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem (out April 19 2013). and the forthcoming Rob Zombie studio album Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor (out April 23, 2013)","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"john-5-score-tlos","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/john-5-score-tlos.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/john-5-score-tlos.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/john-5-score-tlos.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4354,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2014\/07\/22\/we-need-to-have-a-talk-about-john-alternative-revolt-interviews-john-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":4},"title":"‘We Need To Have A Talk About John’ – Alternative Revolt interviews John 5","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"July 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Alternative Revolt sat down with John 5, before Rob Zombie's recent show at at Austin's Fuel Arena to talk Zombie's latest album release \"Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor\", their live DVD - \"The Zombie Horror Picture Show\" - and John 5's upcoming solo release; \"Careful With That Axe\".","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John 5 Doghouse Studios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/john-5-doghouse-studios.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/john-5-doghouse-studios.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/john-5-doghouse-studios.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3769,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/07\/29\/john-5-speaks-to-chicago-now-we-love-coming-to-chicago-because-we-always-do-our-shopping-at-the-alley\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":5},"title":"John 5 speaks to Chicago Now: ‘We love coming to Chicago because we always do our shopping at The Alley.’","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"July 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This past weekend the Mayhem 2013 spectacular set up in Chicago for a kick-ass show. Before John 5 took his place as right hand man of headline act Rob Zombie, he spoke with Chicago Now about the influences that helped him, family, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor and why the band\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interview"","block_context":{"text":"Interview","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/interview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"john-5-interview-bandw","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/john-5-interview-bandw.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/john-5-interview-bandw.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/john-5-interview-bandw.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","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=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}