PLAN 5 FROM OUTER SPACE
JOHN 5 MIGHT JUST BE THE MOST subversive artist working in the music business today. Yes, he rocks the corpse-paint vibe and has spent a goodly chunk of his career working with master of controversy Marilyn Manson and his current bandleader, Rob Zombie, so the obvious conclusion is that he’s working the “horror metal” groove to the max. But even the most rudimentary investigation into his solo albums and videos reveals a very different reality. Sure, you’ll uncover some scary monster sounds, serial-killer-inspired titles and sound clips, and an eerie, unsettling sense at work in many of the songs. But what you’ll also find is some of the most sublimely gnarly country-style picking this side of Robert’s Western World in Nashville. To scores of metalheads, country music is something their grandparents might dig. John 5 destroys that tired old preconception with some of the most incendiary shredding that’s ever been performed on a Tele — or any axe, for that matter.
John took time out from his relentless schedule to discuss his new album, Invasion, his career to date and how he’s managed to steer a successful and lucrative course through the difficulties of monetizing a career in a ravaged music industry.
You started out as a session guitarist playing with a wide range of artists, many of whom don’t spring to mind when we think of John 5. Were they the “paying the bills” kind of gigs?
Well, it was partly a love of
