Watching John 5 operate is like witnessing a high-speed collision between a classical conservatory and a backwoods barn dance. He sits in his "KISS room" surrounded by enough vintage memorabilia to make Gene Simmons blush, but his focus remains entirely on the six strings in his lap. The guy is a freak of nature. He’s the Grosse Pointe, Michigan, kid who actually made it, and his latest track and video, "A Hollywood Story," serves as a glossy, frantic autobiography of a career that shouldn't technically exist.
But it does. And it’s thriving. Most guitarists of his calibre end up as session ghosts or embittered instructors. John 5, however, has managed to turn technical obsession into a brand. He’s not just a player; he’s a student who refuses to graduate.
"I play as much as I can throughout the day, and I don't do anything else but play. It's such a wonderful life to be able to do what you love. I love to learn and I love to try to reach for perfection and beyond perfection, as Steely Dan would say," John says.
That mention of Steely Dan isn’t accidental. It’s a window into his psyche. Most rock stars want to talk about the parties or the pyro. John 5 wants to talk about the mix and the meticulousness. In an era where every social media "guitarist" is hiding behind heavy compression, quantized edits and digital trickery, John’s online presence feels almost offensively honest. You see the callouses. You hear the gear breathing.
"When I do my Instagram things, you can hear the hum of the amp. There's no backing track or anything. It's just me playing to a metronome and I think that is what makes it so pure and so primitive and honest," he says.
It’s a gutsy move. Most of his peers wouldn’t dream of posting a clip without a polished backing track to hide the occasional fret buzz. But John 5’s foundation wasn’t built on hair metal or grunge. It was built on the rapid-fire, "chicken pickin'" chaos of *Hee Haw*. Imagine a child in suburban Michigan being radicalized by Roy Clark. That’s the origin story.
"He was wonderful. I just loved Hee Haw and I still watch it today. I was so little and it was so fun. I loved the jokes and the music and everything about it. I just had so much fun with it. But they had the best pickers in the world on that show so it was such a massive influence for me," he says.
If you watch his hands closely, you’ll notice a strange phenomenon. His fingers don’t seem to press the strings so much as they haunt them. There is no visible tension, no white-knuckled struggling. It’s a visual lie. The music is incredibly dense, yet he looks like he’s daydreaming while his hands do the heavy lifting.
"That comes from watching classical musicians. I watch these classical competitions and there's a category where it has to have a certain elegance and flow to it. If you're playing something fast, it shouldn't even sound difficult, but it is very difficult. There's an art of having that gracefulness, and hearing just these flow of notes and I think that's really important," John says.
His resume is a bizarre fever dream of genres. He’s the only human on earth who can claim employment by David Lee Roth, K.D. Lang, Ricky Martin, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Dolly Parton. It’s a list that makes no sense on paper, yet he’s the common thread that holds these disparate worlds together.
"I absolutely pinch myself every day and I'm so fortunate and so lucky. I just got a gold record in the mail on July 31 from Dolly Parton. When we were kids, we would dream of what we were going to do and I never dreamt this at all. My dreams didn't go this far. I am so appreciative and so lucky and so happy. We're here for a short time and I guess it's hard work and being a good person and just trying to do the right thing and keep your head on straight," he says.
But staying at the top of the call list requires a level of mental discipline that would break most touring musicians. When he’s playing his own instrumental material, the margin for error is zero. There’s no singer to hide behind and no stage antics to distract from a flubbed note.
"I try to play songs how they were written, and with my instrumental work, that is a challenge because there's a gazillion notes. It's really good for your mind to remember all those notes and try to make them as perfect as possible. I've done a lot of instrumental shows and it is such a fun game to see how perfect you can get it, and that's why I never get tired of playing live," he says.
He’s chasing a ghost of perfection that most modern artists have abandoned in favour of "vibe" or "energy." John 5 doesn’t see those things as mutually exclusive. He wants the energy, sure, but he wants it delivered with surgical precision.
"There are certain people who aren't like that at all and don't care. They just want to have a great time and do a great show. But, like Steely Dan, they would have a level of perfection that was beyond the pinnacle, and I have that same kind of mindset," he says.
This obsession with the "perfect take" was tested during his tenure with David Lee Roth. Roth is the antithesis of the over-thinker. He’s a creature of instinct and bravado. Recording with him wasn’t about the "gazillion notes"; it was about the moment.
I'm so proud to be up on that stage with them and in the studio and in pictures and videos with them. It's wonderful because we're all really close. We were already great friends, and now to be in a band with your great friends and it being Mötley Crüe is crazy ridiculous.
"I think it wasn't about the perfection with Dave. I think he just wanted to get it in the first two takes to make it sound as live as possible. He didn't want to do a bunch of takes. I think he just wanted to do a couple of takes and then, move on, which I thought was really cool because he was like, 'If you can't do it in two takes you can't do it.' It was such a fun attitude, you know, to have in the studio," John says.
The sessions took place at the legendary Henson Studios, formerly the A&M lot and originally Charlie Chaplin’s private studio. The history of the place is thick, but Roth ensured the atmosphere stayed weird and loose.
"We'd be in A&M Studios, which is called Henson Studios now, which was originally Charlie Chaplin studio. He'd have palm trees in the studio and a huge catering table and beach stuff in the live room just to make it a really fun atmosphere. There's some downtime in the studio where you're just hanging out and doing whatever and he was an EMT and he knows how to save lives," John says.
And because it’s David Lee Roth, the studio time often devolved into impromptu survivalist training.
"This one time he said, 'Let me show you how to pull someone out of a burning building.' So, he had this strap and he told my guitar tech to lay down on the floor and he put this strap thing around him and pulled him around with not a lot of effort. It was so interesting, cool things like that, which stick in your brain about recording with him," John says.
Despite his proximity to the gods of rock, John 5 remains a fanboy at his core. He speaks about other musicians with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of a teenager. Take Les Claypool, for instance. You’d think two titans of their respective instruments would have crossed paths in a studio by now, but John is still just watching from the wings.
"No we haven't but I'm such a massive Les Claypool fan. I loved when he did that Primus and the Chocolate Factory tour. Ohh My God, I was blown away! I'm always so excited to see Les play, it's just such a pleasure with his solo thing or the Rush or Primus or anything. I'm always there. But when he did this Primus and the Chocolate Factory thing, I couldn't believe it. I just absolutely loved it. I'll still watch it on YouTube just for something to watch," he says.
It is also genuinely baffling that John 5 hasn’t been tapped for a G3 tour. He fits the Joe Satriani and Steve Vai mould perfectly, yet the invite remains lost in the mail. It’s a glaring omission in the guitar world's annual celebration of shred.
"You know what's weird is I know Joe and I know Steve so well, but they've never asked me, and I would love to do it, but they've never asked me. It's so strange," John says.
But he doesn’t sound bitter. He sounds like a student who still worships the masters.
"They were my biggest influences. I love Joe. I love Steve, I love Yngwie. I love Paul Gilbert. I love Eric Johnson. I just really love guitar players and it's because you can get this beautiful inspiration from all these different guitar players," he says.
The biggest shift in his narrative came recently when he exited Rob Zombie’s camp—a nearly two-decade stint—to step into the Mötley Crüe circus. Filling the void left by Mick Mars is a thankless task. Mars is the DNA of that band’s sound. But John 5 isn't trying to rewrite history; he’s trying to preserve it.
"Well. Technically. I'm not a member, but I am hired to play these shows and all that stuff, but these guys have been doing it since 1981. But I'm so proud to be up on that stage with them and in the studio and in pictures and videos with them. It's wonderful because we're all really close. We were already great friends, and now to be in a band with your great friends and it being Mötley Crüe is crazy ridiculous. Before I was in the band, I would forget they were in Mötley Crüe because we talked about music a little bit but not much. You kind of forget all the great things they did, but now being in the band with them and playing this great music is beyond a pleasure and an honor," he says.
There’s a specific kind of pressure that comes with playing "Kickstart My Heart" or "Dr. Feelgood." These aren’t just songs; they are cultural landmarks. John 5 knows that the audience isn’t looking for his "reinterpretation" of the riffs.
"I said to the guys, 'Listen, I'm going to play the songs how they were written and how they were recorded because people have heard those songs a zillion times, and speaking for myself, when I go see a concert, I want to see the band play those songs how they were written and recorded, and I think that goes with the audience too. So when I approached it, I think it would be disrespectful to change those songs, because I have such a fondness for them. Then they said go crazy during your solo and that's what I do,'" John says.
And despite the notorious reputation of the Crüe, John insists the backstage reality is far more wholesome than the tabloids would suggest.
"You see these bands and wonder if they're as good as friends as they look in pictures and videos, and we really are. If I wasn't in the band, we'd still be such good friends. It is a rare thing, I think for bands to be so close. When I was with Rob, Rob and I were very close and we were super good friends with the other guys as well," he says.
Still, walking away from Rob Zombie wasn’t a decision made lightly. It was a choice between comfort and the unknown. For a guy who spends his life trying to reach "beyond perfection," the lure of a new challenge was too strong to ignore.
"It was absolutely difficult. Life is short and I'm so hungry. I just want to do and experience as much as I can. It's like a different chapter, if you will. And nothing against Rob. I love the guy and everything, but I just wanted to see more, do more," John says.
The industry is full of stories about guitarists jumping ship for a bigger paycheck, but for John, it seems more like a creative restlessness. He’s always been in demand, but the Crüe gig was the one he couldn't pass up.
"I got offers all the time when I was in Zombie, all the time, but this one I just was like, I want to experience this. I even told Rob I could do both," he says.
When he isn’t on a stadium stage, he’s curated his own private sanctuary. His KISS collection isn’t just a few lunchboxes and a poster; it’s a museum-grade archive. It’s the physical manifestation of his obsession.
"That's exactly what happens, and it's great because I have this Instagram and anybody can DM me and say 'I have this' or 'I have that', and it's wonderful because all this stuff one day will be put up for auction. Who knows when, not for many decades, but I love doing this. It's a great hobby and it's a lot of fun. I'm going to have a museum showing the 1st of next year and people will be able to come six people at a time for two hours at a time," John says.
This isn’t just for show. He’s inviting the public into his inner sanctum, allowing them to touch the history of the band that started it all for him.
"They can touch the outfits and play the pinball machines. They can thumb through the records and look at the merchandise. Everything is from 73 to 83 and it's something special because everybody has gotten to enjoy a Kiss concert, but now you're going to be able to touch Gene's outfit from 1974. You're going to be able to look at all this merchandise they had from all over the world and I'm gonna be here and talk to everybody about it. It's gonna be a very limited golden ticket type of thing," he says.
But before the museum opens, there’s the matter of the road. John 5 is taking his Strung Out Tour across the border and through his old stomping grounds. He’ll be hitting Toronto on Sept. 6, followed by Cadillac, MI on Sept. 7 and Westland, MI on Sept. 8. He’s bringing Strutter—a KISS tribute band—and Turning Jane along for the ride. It’s a full-circle moment for the kid from Grosse Pointe.
"We're going to play new songs and we're going to film the show. And then we're going to also have that great Kiss tribute band. I'm super excited!" John says.
He should be. In a world of fakes, John 5 is the real deal—humming amp and all.
