ROB ZOMBIE Guitarist JOHN 5: 'It's Amazing Being In This Band'

AltSounds recently conducted an interview with ROB ZOMBIE/ex-MARILYN MANSON guitarist John 5. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

AltSounds: It's been a fair while since Rob Zombie's latest album was released, has your opinion of the work changed now you've had chance to reflect on the material and play through it live a few times?

John 5: Oh God, I love the record so much. We do a lot of songs from the new record, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2", we're doing "Sick Bubblegum", "Mars Needs Women", "Jesus Frankenstein" and we're doing "Werewolf Women Of The SS", so we're doing a bunch of songs. And then, the special edition came out, with the DVD and all the new artwork… it's my favorite Zombie record.

AltSounds: Obviously you've been with him now for about five or six years, how have things changed since you first joined?

John 5: Oh God, y'know, being in this band is such a pleasure. I wouldn't be anywhere else or in any other band. I just love being here, it's like a family. I've been in the band for about six years now, and everything has been so wonderful. We haven't even had one disagreement! In other bands, you have a disagreement every couple of weeks, but this is amazing. It's amazing being in this band and I love it so much. I'd love to be in the band just until Rob doesn't wanna do it anymore! And hopefully that won't be any time soon!

AltSounds: So when you and Rob sit down to write material, what's the typical songwriting process with you guys?

John 5: I'll have a bunch of riffs ready, and I'll show him stuff. If he likes something, he'll just be like, "Yeah, let's work on that!" So it kind of goes that way and then we'll change it around a lot. It's great working with Rob, it's really cool being in the studio with him because he's so hands-on.

AltSounds: For someone that's wanting to get into that and learn to shred in similar ways to yourself, what advice would you offer them?

John 5: I would say to learn what you love. If you love Paul Gilbert, or Yngwie, or Van Halen, then learn songs from them and really get into that style. Just never put the guitar down! If someone's gonna teach you "Happy Birthday" or something, then you're not going to be very motivated to play guitar all the time if you're just playing that.

AltSounds: So, how do you go about writing your solos? Do you improvise them? Or do you sit down and craft them note-by-note?

John 5: I work them all out. I don't like to repeat myself that many times, so I try new licks and things like that. Everything's planned out and it does take a while. I've put out a lot of records, but it's still such a pleasure for me to do it. It's really fun.

AltSounds: When did it hit you that this is what you wanted to do?

John 5: I think it was when I left Manson, I just wanted to show everybody that I could play. I think it was that first album, "Vertigo", after Manson, that really shocked everybody because no one really knew I could play anything other than "The Dope Show" [laughs] It really shocked a lot of people, and the different styles shocked a lot of people. It was an amazing first experience.

AltSounds: You've also been a part of two major bands that you could argue are solo projects of their own — Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, in which the band is named after the frontman. Being involved with these bands, has it ever felt to you that the band is all about the lead vocalist or does it just feel like an "ordinary" band would?

John 5: It feels like a band — especially with Rob Zombie. But Rob's definitely the boss, and that's just how it is. But every situation needs a leader, definitely. Four leaders — it's very difficult.

Read the entire interview from AltSounds.