John 5

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John Lowery (born July 31, 1971 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan) is the real name of a performer and guitarist known as John 5, who is an ex-member of rock & roll bands Marilyn Manson(band), David Lee Roth, Life, Sex & Death, Two, country music singer k.d. lang sic and is currently the guitarist for Rob Zombie.

Solo Career

John 5 has recorded two 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. John 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 and 2004's Vertigo (SFS is still one of Shrapnel Records top selling albums), John 5 announced he was working on a third solo album, this one entitled The Devil Knows My Name. The album, due for release April 3rd 2007, will be released with 60 Cycle Hum Records and features collaborations with Joe Satriani, Jim Root (Slipknot and Stone Sour) and Eric Johnson. Also featuring 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, which was released in 2006.

John 5 has also worked with Meat Loaf and Nikki Sixx on Meat Loaf's October 2006 release, Bat out Of Hell III : The Monster's Loose!

Signature Guitar

In 2004, Fender introduced the John 5 Telecaster guitar. Designed in collaboration with John 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 Grotesque Burlesque Tour when he was in Marilyn Manson, and he currently uses it on his tours with Rob Zombie.

John 5 solo recordings

Albums

DVDs

God Is Closed Vol. 1 (Vertigo Japenese Import)

John 5 credits

  • Dirty Trixx - 1983 - Guitarist, playing Van Halen covers in a Michigan bar
  • Raven Payne - 1987 - Guitarist, at 16 years old
  • John Wetton (of Asia) - John's first paid professional session. "It's one of the hardest I've ever done" states John5
  • Robin Zander (Cheap Trick singer) Guitarist, recorded demos
  • Metallica - 1988 - on tour for roughly one month. "My job was I would carry Lars out on my back after their encore."
  • Pepperland - Guitarist, ghost player
  • Wilson Phillips - Guitarist, ghost player
  • Salt-N-Pepa - Live Performances including the Jay Leno Show
  • Rick Springfield - Guitarist, ghost player
  • Ozzy Osbourne - John 5 tried out as bass player. The slot was not given to him. Later in his career, he would form Red Square Black with Ozzy's drummer, Randy Castillo
  • Night Ranger - Guitarist, ghost player
  • Red Square Black - 1994 - 'Square' EP, Lead Guitar
  • Lita Ford - 1994-95 - Guitarist, ghost player
  • Ryan Downe - 1996 - Guitar on track 'Japan' of The Hypocrite Album, plus guitar effects
  • froSTed - 1996 - - Guitarist
  • Leah Andreone - Former Girlfriend, Veiled, Guitar (1996), I Feel The Earth Move, Guitar (1997), Alchemy, Lap Steel Guitar/Guitar (1998), co-wrote ten tracks
  • k.d. lang - Guitarist, World Tour 1996, 1997. Onstage 'Live in Sydney' VHS Tape
  • Various Artists, Speed 2: Cruise Control - 1997 - Guitar and Bass for Soundtrack
  • Two - 1998 - Voyeurs album, guitar and bass.
  • David Lee Roth - 1998 - Guitarist
  • Marilyn Manson - 1998-2004 - Guitarist, where he got the nickname "John 5" after the bible section. It is mistakenly said it was because he was the fifth member to join the band, but already there had been around 9 members previously to have joined.

Rob Zombie - 2005-present - Guitarist, Ozzfest 2005 & new album Educated Horses

  • Meat Loaf - 2006 - Guitarist, song recorded and co-wrote with Nikki Sixx. From Bat out Of Hell III - The Monster's Loose.
  • Paul Stanley – Co-writer and guitarist on "Where Angels Dare," a track from the album Live to Win.

Marilyn Manson appearances

CDs

DVDs

VHS

Music videos

  • The Dope Show
  • Rock is Dead
  • I Don't Like the Drugs, But the Drugs Like Me
  • Coma White
  • The Fight Song
  • The Nobodies
  • Disposable Teens
  • Tainted Love
  • This Is The New Shit
  • mOBSCENE
  • Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes

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."

Albums

  • Educated Horses (2005)

Music Videos

  • Foxy Foxy
  • American Witch

DVDs

  • Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest 10th Anniversary
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