Event

John 5

After five years in Marilyn Manson, John 5 and Manson decided to part company "I'll never regret working with Manson, it was such a blast, but we both knew it was time to move on". John retained the name he had been honored with by Manson and began working immediately. A meeting with the legendary Les Paul, helped pave the way forward. "I was playing at a club and there was Les Paul. He was in the audience and he said to me, 'son, you have to put out your own music', so I did, I went into the studio. I'd already had some ideas when I was touring about some solo guitar pieces but it was Les Paul that helped me to just say, yeah, make this happen". Vertigo, became a deeply autobiographical album pulled from turbulent personal memories. And it proved to be a surprising hit with fans, as John 5 not only brought his trademark Drop-D tuning shredding to the album but intermixed it with some of the Bluegrass music he had listened to as a child.

John 5's newfound solo career also turned out to not be a flash in the pan. Since 2004 he has released six studio solo albums (Vertigo, Songs For Sanity, The Devil Knows My Name, Requiem, The Art of Malice and God Told Me To) and a remix album (Remixploitation) based on his previous work. The albums have also seen John work with other memorable players, including Albert Lee who called John "one of the nicest guys I've worked with", Steve Vai who called John "underrated", Joe Satriani, Jim Root, Eric Johnson and many more. "I still can't believe how well the music has been received. Solo guitar albums are often seen as only to be listened to by other music aficionados but here I am getting kids, grandparents, moms, rockers, country fans and everyone else in-between telling me how much they like what they hear."