John 5 was born John Lowery in Grosse Point, Michigan, on July 311971. His stage name was bestowed upon him back in 1998 when he joined shock rock troupe Marilyn Manson as their guitarist taking over from Zim Zum (Mike Linton).
"...he asked me to join the band - right there".
He is the permanent guitarist for horror rock maestro/musician/cult film director Rob Zombie.
He is also a solo artist having recorded three critically acclaimed guitar albums - "Vertigo (2004)", "Songs For Sanity (2005)" and "The Devil Knows My Name (2007)". He also works as a staff writer for Crysallis Records, working with artists such as Avril Lavigne, Garbage and FeFe Dobson.
Childhood
John had a privledged upbringing, his parents being well off. He had a maid and other servants. John first started playing guitar at the age of seven after watching Saturday morning kids show Hee Haw with his Dad:
"I didn't know any...musical genres. I was just in awe of the players".
His parents supported his playing as long as it never interfered with his education. They even went so far to accompany him at the adult bars he would play during the evening.
However John knew that to pursue his career he would have to move away from Michigan and so set off to LA in a car his Dad bought him.
Early career
John 5 started his career as a session guitarist having moved to LA from Michigan at the age of 18. His first band in LA was Alligator Soup, which saw him chance meeting Rudy Sarzo from Whitesnake.
John began working on numerous projects with Marlette including TV show soundtracks, movie soundtracks including Speed 2, and commercials and infomercials.
This in turn saw John being picked to play with Lita Ford, opening up for heroes Kiss. He started another long time friendship with the various Kiss members, including a close friendship with Paul Stanley which in 2006 he repaid by guesting on Paul's Live to Win album.
John's next role saw him working with the late Randy Castillo, in a shortlived project called Red Square Black. They produced a self titled EP, but the band disbanded when John was picked from 2000 guitarists to play with KD Lang on tour.
2wo (Two)
In 1996 John went for his first audition with Marilyn Manson but narrowly missed out (he was late to the auditions) and the guitarist role at that time was taken by Mike (Timothy) Linton, who became known as Zim Zum.
Other members of the band included Sid Riggs on drums and James Wooley on bass.
The album itself was not a commercial hit but did produce one video, made by gay porn director Chi Chi Laruefor the first single I'm a Pig.:[1].It featured some s&m scenes and so was not widely broadcast but was not banned as has been previously rumoured.
The band embarked on a world tour, and were part of the Ozzfest line-up but the tour was pulled and 2wo disbanded.
David Lee Roth
John's next piece of work came when he played on David Lee Roth's (Van Halen) solo project album: The DLR Band.
"When I was little my dream was to play with David Lee Roth. One day I was sitting at my friends house and...I wonder what...Roth is doing now. I’m gonna call up his manager and see if he needs any songs."
John was already a fan of the band and was familiar with the playing style. So he submitted six tracks he had written to Roth's management. Finding they suited, John submitted further tracks to Roth’s management. Eventually David and John met and recorded "The DLR Band" album in two weeks.
"I remember before we started he said, If you can’t do it in two takes, you can’t do it."
In 2003, whilst still in Marilyn Manson, John was invited by David to write with him again and on the 2003 album Diamond Dave, wrote the track Thug Pop.
Marilyn Manson
After the recording of "Mechanical Animals", Marilyn Manson was again looking for a guitarist to replace Zim Zum who left the band in pursuit of a solo career. Again John went to try out for the band, of which he was already a huge fan.
"When I got home from the tour (touring with Rob Halford in Europe) Manson’s manager called and asked if I would like to meet Manson for lunch...Then he asked me to join the band – right there."
Taking the moniker, John 5, he signed on for the Mechanical Animals tour and to work on the next album. John’s first live performance for Marilyn Manson came on the MTV Video Music Awards.
While working with Manson, John5 has stated he didn't do drugs, and he doesn't drink.
Solo
In 2004 John and Manson parted company. Confusion was rife as certain press reported that John had been dumped unceremoniously from the band, but in reality the two came to a mutual agreement that they wanted to go their separate ways.
"What actually happened was, at the end of the tour, we were just on different roads. It was completely amicable. He just wanted to write with other members of the band, and I wanted to do other things."
After John left Marilyn Manson he went straight into his solo work, but also began working on a radio friendly rock group in the vein of Queens of the Stoneage and Foo Fighters. So in 2004 he formed the band Loser.
Recruiting vocalist Joe Grah from Texas, Charles Lee on bass (also from Texas) and Glendon Crain on drums, the boys began working on their debut album Just Like You.
"It's good to have a little bit more variety, like eating different foods. And even if they're surprised, I hope people will like the band and recognize that hey, it's not metal, but these are really good songs."
The band was also partly co-founded by friend and producer Bob Marlette, continuing a solid working partnership and friendship.
Vocalist Joe Grah already had a significant amount of success in his home state of Texas, with the band Jibe. Marlette recommended Grah to John and so John hopped on a plane to Texas to see the band play. Grah flew back to LA and was hired on the spot.
The name Loser came about as an affirmation to John's past:
"I was from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, which is kind of an upper-class area, and I was always that rock kid," John explained. "I started playing guitar at age 7. I always had a rock shirt on, and I had that tattoo early on. I looked like a loser because everyone around me was wearing Polo and Brooks Brothers. But now if you go into a club wearing Polo, you're called a loser. So I think everyone can relate to that name, and the album title, Just Like You, sums it up."
The band has initial success not long after signing with Island Records, when the track Disposable Sunshine became part of the Fantastic Four film soundtrack.
During this time, during the recording of the soundtrack, Glendon briefly left the band and was replaced by drummer Elias Andra, a friend of Lee's. Elias had some success himself with the band Psycho Plague, his own creation, an industrial metal band, which toured as a headline act, with Linkin Park as an opening act at the time.
However, no sooner had promotional shots been taken when Elias left and Glendon returned. Elias went on to play for first Shocknina and is now the drummer for Julien K.
The band did alot of circuit shows in LA to promote themselves and eventually found themselves on tour with Stain'd in February 2006.
However, at the same time John was also working for Rob Zombie and a working conflict occurred. As Zombie was also touring, John tried to find a live replacement for him whilst Loser were touring on conflicting dates. However, even with promo material for the debut album out and a release date in the bag, Island Record didn't like the idea of Loser without John and so dropped the band from the label.
"Being the founding member of LOSER, my decision to leave was not an easy one," said John 5 in a press release. "I've been juggling two careers both with LOSER and ROB ZOMBIE for over one year now. I found it impossible to be in two places at once."
The album has been put on the backburner and no word on a release date has ever been issued. However the official Loser my space page has begun putting tracks up for download. :[9]
The other band members went their own way. Glendon is now the drummmer for Godhead (band).
Rob Zombie
Whilst John was working on radio rock band Loser, he also began to work with cult rock artist and movie director, Rob Zombie. Meeting at the Camp Freddy benefit gig, John and Zombie hit off immediately and Rob asked John to play for him for Ozzfest 2005.
"I'm totally ecstatic about having the opportunity to play with Rob on Ozzfest! He has been one of my favourite artists for the longest time. I had the opportunity to play with him a few weeks back, and never thought that I would have the chance to share the stage with him playing the Zombie songs we all know and love!"
It was reported that Zombie was looking to quit the music industry to concentrate on his movie career until he began to work with John 5.
"I’m totally stoked about this because John is a fucking shredder"
Rob Zombie explains how he and John hooked up:
"CAMP FREDDY asked me to do this benefit, just to play one song, at the Arrowhead Pond (in Anaheim, California) for this tsunami relief thing. And John was there, and we played one song, 'Thunderkiss', and it kicked ass and he's a supercool guy and I was like, 'This is perfect.' John said, 'Do you need a guitar player for Ozzfest?' I said, 'Yes,' he said, 'I wanna do it,' I said, 'Perfect, done.'"
John worked on Rob Zombie's 2006 album Educated Horses, writing eight out of eleven tracks.
When he left Loser, John 5 took up the role of Rob Zombie guitarist as a permanent gig.
" Rob is the best I have worked with. He is great. We have a great time on stage together. It has been the single greatest experience I have had working with someone, hands down."
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:[13]
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. The prototype model has a standard Telecaster headstock, but was otherwise originally equipped with the same hardware as the production model. Later, however, John took the prototype back to the custom shop to have it fitted with a humbucker in the neck position. Fender produces two models based on this prototype; 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.
Since the initial work with Fender, John has co-designed two other guitars including an electro acoustic and a Triple Tele® Deluxe. :[14]
J5 Telecaster®
This unusual Telecaster guitar was co-designed by talented shred-meister John 5 himself. Its aggressive Fender Enforcer™ humbucking pickup at the bridge position and Custom Shop Twisted Tele™ pickup at the neck will melt even the heaviest metals. Other features include a three-way pickup selector switch, chrome hardware and a radically distinctive headstock design.
A new-millennial update of a timeless classic. Inspired by one of our favorite uber-shredders, John 5, the new J5 Triple Tele® Deluxe puts a fiendishly ferocious spin on the always-popular ’70s-era Tele Deluxe design.
A study in black and chrome, the J5 put three screaming hot high-output Enforcer™ humbucking pickups in a sleek black double-bound body adorned with a vintage tremolo bridge and a flash chrome pickguard guaranteed to blind ’em all the way in the back row. Yikes …
The instantly recognizable John 5 is of course an in-demand metallurgist/shredder of the first order. Actually, though, he’s a truly fine guitarist in just about any genre—especially country chicken pickin’—and he’s just as blazing on acoustic as he is on electric.
Hence, our J5 Signature Acoustic was designed in conjunction with J5 himself to provide fantastic tone, light-speed playability and terrific stage appearance. Features include a gloss Black body with chrome pickguard, solid spruce top, mahogany neck, back and sides, chrome die-cast tuners, a Florentine (sharp) cutaway, John 5 Telecaster® headstock and Fishman® Classic IV T electronics with built-in tuner.
Lest We Forget, (best of album released after John 5's departure, 2004. John is thanked along with former bassist Twiggy Ramirez in the album credits.)
DVD & VHS
God Is In The TV (1999)
Guns, God and Government (2002)
The Golden Age Of Grotesque Limited Edition DVD (2003)
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
Marilyn Manson (band) - 1998-2004 - Guitarist, where he got the nickname "John 5" after the bible section. "Tele addict". Guitarist (May 2007). Future. Manson has claimed the name derives from Lowerys first name with the number 5 added since he was the bands fifth guitarist (unlike the Pin-up + serial killer name the members usually take).
Garbage - 2003 - Additional guitar on "Never Be Free" b-side, possibly co-written by him as well :[19][20]
Loser - 2005-2006 - Guitarist and founder member of Loser. The band had a song on the Fantastic Four soundtrack (Disposable Sunshine) and had recorded their debut album Just Like You, but due to conflicting schedules with Rob Zombie, John left the band and Island Records:[21] :[22]
