Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5 sat down with That Fuzzing Rock Show for a new interview and recalled Marilyn Manson’s offer to him. During the interview, the rocker was asked how he got his name.
“Well, I had a meeting with Marilyn Manson and I was in a restaurant,” he started explaining. “It was so weird because I sat down at this restaurant and Manson had these CDs in his car, he had the David Lee Roth CD. I sat down with him and he goes, ‘I want you to join the band and your name’s going to be John 5, and I want to do everything with numbers,’ and like all this stuff. So it was like a whirlwind, I didn’t even audition, and I was like, ‘Okay.'”
Before his solo career and work with Rob Zombie, John 5 played guitar for Manson. During that period, he and Manson had a brief fight onstage at the 2003 Rock Am Ring festival. John 5 threw his guitar down and looked like he wanted to fight Manson. However, there was a reason for his temper.
In an interview with Eddie Trunk, John 5 revealed that he was still in shock from his sister’s recent death and doesn’t even remember going off on Manson. He learned about his sister’s death on that same tour and had barely been sleeping.
“What happened was my sister passed away, my sister died unexpectedly. And I was shocked,” the guitarist revealed. “I was in Europe and I was coming down the stairs, off a stage after a concert, and they told me my sister died. And I was in a state of shock; you just go into a state of shock.”
“So anyways, fast forward to the show. Now, what Manson did, that happened all the time. He didn’t do anything wrong. I just snapped. It was weird. I went nuts. I didn’t even remember. I just snapped. I feel terrible watching it now because it really was my fault,” he added.
In 2005, John 5 started his solo band Loser, but he soon got a chance to play with Rob Zombie. He played in Zombie’s band until 2022 before joining Mötley Crüe.
