Motley Crue Guitarist John 5 on Vince Neil’s Magical Comeback, New Music, Chats With Ozzy Osbourne, And More

I love talking to John 5. This has to be our 5th or 6th conversation for sure.

There were many things I wanted to talk to “5” about, including his new album, The Ghost”, the recent Motley residency in Vegas, and the death of Ozzy Osbourne. We touched on all those topics and more.

He’s about to hit the tour trail with Richie Kotzen, with dates locally at District 142 in Wyandotte, on November 19th, and The Machine Shop in Flint on the 20th.

Kotzen is so good! I had to ask John about his thoughts on him. “But to have a great singer, and he’s got such a phenomenal voice on top of being a great guitar player. It’s like, wow!” Yes, you don’t want to miss these shows.

John’s new album drops on October 5th. It’s called The Ghost, and as he explains, he believes we are surrounded by ghosts. “You know, I always think, I know this sounds crazy, and people are going to roll their eyes, but, you know, I believe that I’m living with ghosts and there’s so many, you know, ghosts around all of us. But, you know, I just feel like it’s that kind of thing.” He went on, “I read, I did a lot of research, like in your dreams. Like if you have dreams about friends or family that have passed and they don’t talk to you, they’re coming to visit you. You know, so there’s no words. You just communicate in a different way. I know it’s hard to explain. And that’s kind of what this record is about. There’s no words, obviously.”

And, yes, there are some heavy hitters on the record, including Kenny Aronoff, Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction, Greg and Matt Bissonette, and Tommy Lee, among others. Get more on the record, click here.

Unfortunately, I didn’t make it out for any of the shows that Motley played, but John told me all about them. He said the thing he was most proud of was how great Vince Neil was. After suffering multiple strokes last year, the frontman was back on stage, killing it, according to 5. “The real magic was Vince Neil. What he went through and his struggles and how he performed and how he sang, I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. He did such a great job. And I was so proud of him because I knew what hell he went through. And I was so happy for the guy.”

While you can imagine that a guy like John would be thrilled to meet the legend, it came at a tough time in his life. It was right after his father had passed. He was in New York, and a friend suggested they see Les at the Iridium. He did, and it was a night he’ll never forget.

After meeting Les, he asked him if he could leave his guitar backstage. He said that other great players would go up and jam, and Les would playfully mock them. Then, he asked 5 to come up. He was nervous but did play….and play well. “I get up there. I’m telling you, I’m being honest with you. I don’t know what happened, but all the stars aligned, and I just played, and it was incredible. And after the song, you know, I got off the stage right away and thanked him, but he said, come back here, come back here. And he goes, “Son, I’ve seen a lot of guitar players and you impress me.
I don’t get impressed a lot, and you impress me. I want you to play my Christmas special.” And it was so emotional. This is a night I’ll never forget. It went from the worst night and turned into the best night. It was an incredible time that happened in my life, insane!’

John had the chance to tour with Ozzy when he was in Rob Zombie’s band. I asked him to talk about the late icon. “I think that’s so different than everybody else’s stories. Everybody else’s stories were this and that and the madness and all this stuff, but we sat down and had such great conversations about music and health and, uh, life and
all that stuff. And it was wonderful.”

He mentioned he was asked about playing the Back To The Beginning show, but in the end, he never got the call back. “I was, um, actually, yeah, I got a call from Tom Morello saying, “Hey, there might be an open spot. You want to do this?” And I said, of course, you know, I’m, I’m there just whatever you need.” He said they didn’t need him, so he watched the broadcast with a tear in his eye. “With Ozzy and that send off, it was, you know, that’s just proof that there is something so much bigger and so great out there that, uh, we can’t even explain because Ozzy, that performance was chilling. It was incredible. He was incredible.”