By Kelley Simms
JOHNNY ZOMBIE
John 5
A
stute music fans should already
know that John 5 takes guitar play-
ing to a stratospheric level.
The virtuoso guitarist performs diverse
musical styles including country swing,
jazz, rock and industrial metal on his eighth
solo album, Season Of The Witch. Joining
John 5 on the album is his excellent band,
The Creatures, consisting of bassist Ian Ross
and drummer Rodger Carter.
Aside from his day job as Rob Zombie’s
right hand man, Mr. 5 explores his adven-
turous musical side on Witch.
The music videos 5 has released
throughout 2016 also appear on the album;
a technique Metallica executed successfully
last year as well. With the surge of music
34 illinoisentertainer.com april 2017
videos breaking singles online, 5's plan was
to get his music on the screens of the fans
before the album dropped.
Mosh: What do you like about this current
video age where music is so visual?
John 5: You, the individual are now your
own TV station. Meaning, you can watch
whatever you want whenever you want.
With the MTV days, you don’t have to sit in
front of your TV for six hours waiting for
the new Van Halen video to come on MTV.
You can just [watch] it whenever you want,
so you’re your own TV station now. The
same goes for Instagram. You’re now your
own television, or your own advertising.
You can advertise your shows or new video
with Facebook or anything or talk about
what’s on your mind. You are the new
media for yourself and other individuals.
Mosh: The Planet of the Apes theme for the
“Here’s To The Crazy Ones” video is fantas-
tic. How did you or the director come up
with this idea?
John 5: These are things I love and enjoy. I
think it’s very smart. I think the makeup
was great and I think the stories were great,
and it was so revolutionary. “Here’s to the
Crazy Ones” is, meaning anyone who was
revolutionary, who had a great idea. The
quote came from Steve Jobs, he wrote a let-
ter and it said, ‘Here’s to the crazy ones.’
Anything that was revolutionary. I love the
Planet of the Apes and I thought what a trip-
py thing, if these apes were awesome musi-
cians. I just thought it was a lot of fun.
Mosh: You’ve always been about diversity
in your solo stuff, and these 13 tracks cer-
tainly have that. What did you set out to
achieve with this album?
John 5: I wanted a record that I wanted to
listen to. If you’re listening to a record and
there’s 13 tracks and all of the songs are
exactly the same, it can get monotonous.
With this, you never know what you’re
going to get back. There’s so many different
roads and different avenues that you can
take listening to this music. It’s kind of a
journey and I’m pushing the limits of
myself with the playing and the production,
because it’s all done live. And when you see
the show live, it will sound exactly like the
record. Because it is so live. I would just
rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and then go in
and record it in like two hours.
Mosh: The way you yolk many different
styles of music together seamlessly in the
songs makes them very intriguing. “Black
Grass Plague” really stands out.
John 5: Everything is an inspiration to me. I
saw a great artist on YouTube and the song
is called “Pickin’ and a Singin,’” and he’s
switching all these instruments. So at the
end of the song, or if you see the video,
there’s one part where I’m playing an elec-
tric mandolin and then there’s another part
where I’m playing a banjo. It’s just some-
thing that’s different and fun. People get a
kick out of it live, too. It’s just those kinds of
things that makes the song, the video and
the live experience interesting. And it’s all
inspiration.
Mosh: Out of your entire solo catalog,
you’ve stated in other interviews that this
album is your favorite. Why?
John 5: I think the way it was all put togeth-
er with the videos and the singles and just
the blood, sweat and tears of putting it all
together. It was a lot of hard work, but it
paid off. I’m so proud of it and it’s so
rewarding to hold something in your hands
after all of the work. I did take my time,
because luckily there wasn’t a record com-
pany saying, ‘We need this record.’ But
remember back in the day when a band
came out and you bought the record and
you listened to every song and you just
worshipped that record. You knew every
lick, every lyric and everything. And that’s
how I wanted it to be with this one. And the
only way I could do that was giving a song
a slow pace, so when they get the album,
they’re going to know pretty much every
song on the record; which is a rarity nowa-
days.
Mosh: The track “Triple D” has a great neo-
classical vibe to it.
John 5: I’m glad you asked me about this.
There’s six strings on the guitar. So my low
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