Remember John 5 -the guitar player for Marilyn Manson? He was on Mechanical Animals – basically he played with Manson from 1998 – 2004. Whether you like Marilyn Manson or not – you have to acknowledge he was a good guitar player, but pop goth metal style he played for Manson is nothing compared to what he’s capable of. John (William Lowery) is from my neck of the woods, Grosse Point Michigan – but he took off for LA at the age of 17 and one of the first guys he met was Rudy Sarzo from Whitesnake. He worked on many projects, some television and some movie soundtracks (Speed 2), he was picked to play with Lita Ford for a time. I assume what many didn’t know was that he grew up on Buck Owens and country, and was as well versed on that side of music as he was rock and metal – which was why he was picked out of 2000 guitarists to play with K.D. Lang.
In the late 90’s he did an album with Rob Halford’s band 2wo (having missed the first audition for Manson – he was too late), and after 2wo split up he got to audition with Manson again and got the gig. He was with Manson for 6 years, and apparently (during his down time 98-2003) was also with the DLR (David Lee Roth) band. From 2005 until today he’s been with Rob Zombie – which he calls “the best experience, hands down”.
What you may not know (and I didn’t until recently), is that John 5 is one of the greatest unsung virtuoso’s of the electric guitar that you may never have heard. There are probably many of you that know exactly what I’m talking about because you read all the latest guitar rags, admittedly – I haven’t done that in years, so I may have missed the boat on this guy (and apparently I should have known about him years ago). What I’m talking about is that this guy is as good as Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson – he’s an unbelievable country player, metal shredder, and everything in between. As a matter of fact, both Satriani and Eric Johnson both did guest appearances on his last solo album (apparently they admire his talents as well). In his playing it’s like you can hear a combination of everything he grew up on – it’s like a combination of Steve Vai meets Metallica, Van Halen meets Satriani – John 5 is one of the few guitar players I’ve ever seen on video where my mouth flies open and I say, “now THAT motherfucker can play!”. Once you hear him (if you haven’t before) – you’ll want to hear more and more and more of his playing, in one word – unfuckingbelieveable!
Check out these videos and tell me if you don’t think the same thing…the third one is last – because it’s the best and showcase nearly all his talents in 10 minutes. Fuck, I wish I could play like John 5!
I have to say that I didn’t know that much about this guy at first, but that guitar center video was amazing!