5 ALARM FIRE

NEW ROB ZOMBIE ALBUM! NEW LIVE ALBUM! NEW DOCUMENTARY! NEW SOLO ALBUM IN THE WORKS! NEW TRACKS WITH ACE FREHLEY, NIKKI SIXX AND TYLA YAWEH! “I’M ALWAYS TRYING TO KEEP AS BUSY WITH MUSIC AS POSSIBLE,” SAYS JOHN 5 — IN THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR

- JON WIEDERHORN

UNLIKE THE NUMEROUS PLAYERS WHO ROSE TO PROMINENCE in Marilyn Manson, guitarist John Lowery (aka John 5) never fell prey to the excesses and indulgences other members of the Manson family thrived on. He’s never had an alcohol problem or done drugs… yet, like many of his peers, he’s most definitely an addict. When he’s out with friends at a restaurant or on vacation with his wife and he doesn’t get his guitar fix, he starts to fidget and becomes as irascible as a 6-year-old denied a visit to an ice cream store at the mall.

“When I’m sitting down at the airport waiting for a flight, I’ll always take out my Telecaster and start playing,” he says from his home studio. “We have a hairless cat that I take for walks. While I’m watching it walk around I’ve got my guitar on. I always have it with me. I just feel like I need it.

John 5 isn’t just hooked on the guitar — he’s addicted to playing on stage, writing songs and recording for himself, his friends and Rob Zombie, which he joined in 2005 after he left Marilyn Manson. Since then, he also has recorded nine solo albums, guested or co-written with more than two dozen artists, including Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, Sebastian Bach, Steven Adler, Halestorm, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Steve Perry.

“Playing guitar in all these different styles is a way of keeping my brain active,” John 5 says. “I know a little bit about a lot of subjects. I love history. I know a little about life and what to do, what not to do and how to be a good person. But with guitar, it’s my passion and career and I try to study and really occupy myself with it completely and learn everything I can about it.”