Guitar virtuoso John 5 joined Mötley Crüe last year replacing the outgoing Mick Mars. Prior to joining the Crüe, John 5 had been a long-serving member of Rob Zombie’s band, and he’s also had a prolific solo career.
In a new interview with Matt Pinfield, the guitarist talked about what it’s been like for him since joining the iconic hard rock act. “Man, I’m telling you, it has been such an incredible experience to do this,” he said. “It’s a different thing. ‘Cause you imagine what it could be like, and then it just goes so far beyond that. It’s so crazy in such a fun, incredible way. And it just feels like life is brand new again. It’s so exciting. It’s like when you get a new girlfriend or something. You’re, like, ‘Wow, this is great. Look at how blue the sky is.’ So it’s been absolutely wonderful — absolutely wonderful.”
He also revealed what Rob Zombie’s reaction was to him exiting the band. “When I was asked to join Mötley Crüe, we didn’t really have any bad things going on (with Rob Zombie) or anything like that. So it was tough. I was doing it for 17 years and I loved it. We were friends and laughed, and everything was still the same. But I thought to myself… ‘Cause I always thought about everybody else: ‘Let me make sure everything sounds good.’ I just wanted to think about myself for a minute and go, ‘I really wanna experience this. Life is short, and I want to experience as much as possible.’ And, of course, I love Mötley Crüe.”
He continued: “I’ve been friends with Nikki Sixx forever — forever. Just really close. And then with Tommy Lee, I’ve always worked with him. So I was really close with these guys — really, really, really close. But I told Rob, and I said, ‘Rob, I just want to experience life and I wanna do this.’ And he understood. He was cool. He wasn’t psyched, but he understood, and that’s what was really, really cool.”
Watch John 5’s full interview below.
