Revision as of 05:10, 29 March 2008

John Lowery (born July 31, 1971), better known by his stage name John 5, is a professional musician. He was the guitarist of industrial metal band Marilyn Manson before moving on to Rob Zombie in 2005. His stage name is formed by his first name and the fact that he was the fifth member to join Marilyn Manson. John 5 is also a reference to the bible section.

Biography

John Lowery was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. In 1983 at age 12, Lowery performed in a band called Dirty Trixx, where they performed Van Halen covers in a Michigan bar. He established himself as a more prominent guitarist when he performed with local band Raven Payne at age 16. Over the next 20 years Lowery would be involved in such bands as k.d. lang, David Lee Roth Band, Marilyn Manson, and more currently, Rob Zombie.

Fallout with Marilyn Manson

John 5's reasons for leaving Marilyn Manson were cited as being mutual, despite the mysterious nature of his sudden firing by Manson's manager in 2004.

John was quoted at the time as saying about the incident, "I don't know. . . I was nothing but nice to him," he continued. "I never screwed up onstage — well not really badly — and I did everything I could to get along with him. Maybe, just maybe, it had something to do with the fact that I don't drink or do drugs, and he's not like that at all. Maybe he held that against me. I don't know. He never said." John 5 was notorious among fans as being drug and alcohol free.

Before the incident, Manson had assaulted John on stage, notably, Manson kicked John in the face during a televised performance, leading to a brief confrontation in front of a packed and roaring audience. This was during the intro to "The Beautiful People", when played at the Rock AM Ring 2003.

Also, during the tour John maintains that Manson spoke about matters other than business only once, "It was on my birthday, and he turned to me and said, "Happy birthday, faggot" — then walked away."

Despite this, John maintains he respects Manson, citing his skilled production style and his love for the band's music. John was already a fan of the band before joining in 1998. In response to a question regarding the reason for the split with Manson, John 5 was quoted by Vintage Guitar Magazine as saying, "(laughs) At the end of the last tour, I decided I really wanted to do this solo thing and that I had to devote all my time to it. The split with Manson was totally amicable. It wasn't one of those big breakups. We're friends. I wish there was some good dirt, but there's not (laughs)!"

Rob Zombie

In 2005 John 5 played guitar for Rob Zombie during Ozzfest 2005 and also recorded eight out of eleven tracks on the Educated Horses album which was released on Geffen Records in 2006. Due to conflicting commitments between John's band Loser and Rob Zombie, John moved over to playing for Zombie full time in early 2006. Although John 5 had hoped that Loser would be able to find a temporary guitarist during conflicting tour dates, record company Island Records, decided to drop Loser altogether from their record label.

"Being the founding member of Loser, my decision to leave was not an easy one," states John 5. "I've been juggling two careers both with Loser and Rob Zombie for over 1 year now. I found it impossible to be in two places at once."

Solo Career

John 5 has recorded three solo albums. His solo material is a mixture of hard rock, progressive bluegrass, and country music. His second solo album, Songs For Sanity, features guest appearances by Albert Lee and the award winning Steve Vai. 5 is also close friends with Steve Vai who has been quoted as saying, "John 5 is an underrated guitar giant. It's rare to hear a musician fuse various styles and create a unique blend and brand all of his own. It takes balls, but that's what's needed to be truly original."

Following the success of Songs For Sanity (one of Shrapnel Records' top-selling albums) and 2004's Vertigo, John 5 announced he was working on a third solo album, this one entitled The Devil Knows My Name. The album was released on April 3, 2007 by 60 Cycle Hum Records and features collaborations with Joe Satriani, Jim Root of Slipknot and Stone Sour, and Eric Johnson. Also featured are fellow Rob Zombie bandmates Piggy D and Tommy Clufetos. Piggy D is also responsible for the album design.

In 2006 John also worked with KISS frontman Paul Stanley on Stanley's second solo album, Live to Win, and with Meat Loaf and Nikki Sixx on Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell III : The Monster Is Loose.

Signature Guitar

J5 Telecaster

In 2004, Fender introduced the J5 Telecaster guitar. Designed in collaboration with 5 in Scottsdale, Arizona and built at Fender's own manufacturing facility in Ensenada, Mexico. The guitar comes in two models: the standard J5 Telecaster and the upscaled J5 Bigsby Telecaster. In an interview with Vintage Guitar Magazine, John had this to say about the origin of this guitar:

"I was endorsing Ibanez for a while, and playing in all those hard rock bands and you don't really play Telecasters with Halford or David Lee Roth or Manson. I was at a NAMM show, and Ibanez didn't have my picture up with all their other endorsers. I thought, "Hmmm, that's weird." Then I walked by the Fender booth and they had this huge picture of me playing a Telecaster, one of the couple times I played one with Halford, actually up on the wall! So we started talking and they knew my playing style was broader than the Manson stuff, and they said they wanted to give me my own signature line. I was like, absolutely. I was pretty much signing contracts with Fender a week later."

The guitar is based on a standard Telecaster with a high-output humbucker in the bridge position, a "twisted tele" pickup in the neck position, a custom headstock (for behind the nut bends), a black finish, and a chrome pickguard. Fender produces two models; one with a standard fixed bridge, and one with a bigsby vibrato. He used this guitar on the Grotesk Burlesk tour when he was in Marilyn Manson, and he currently uses it on his tours with Rob Zombie.

Discography

Red Square Black

• Square (EP, 1994)

Ryan Downe

• The Hypocrite Album (1996) — performs on "Japan" and provides guitar effects for the album.

Leah Andreone

• Veiled (1996)
• "I Feel the Earth Move" for the Speed 2 film soundtrack (1997)
• Alchemy (1998)

Marilyn Manson

• Mechanical Animals (1998)
• The Last Tour on Earth (1999)
• Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (2000)
• The Golden Age of Grotesque (2003)
• Lest We Forget (The Best Of) (2004) — Performs on six tracks; John 5 was no longer a member on the band at the time the album was released.

Rob Zombie

• Educated Horses (2006)

Meat Loaf

• Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2007)

Paul Stanley

• Live to Win (2007) — performs on "Where Eagles Dare".

Solo

• Vertigo (2004)
• Songs For Sanity (2005)
• The Devil Knows My Name (2007)
• Requiem (2008)

Filmography

• Live in Sydney (k.d. lang) (1997)
• God Is in the TV (Marilyn Manson) (1999)
• Guns, God and Government World Tour (Marilyn Manson) (2002)
• Doppelherz (Marilyn Manson) (2003)
• Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest 10th Anniversary (2006)
• God Is Closed Vol. 1 (Solo) (2004)

External Links

• The official John 5 website — A lot of the biographical information was gathered from this site.
• The John 5 myspace — The official John 5 myspace.