JOHN 5 On Playing With DAVID LEE ROTH: 'It's Like Working With Your Hero'

ROB ZOMBIE guitarist John 5 says that collaborating with David Lee Roth was like "working with your hero."

John 5, who got his first big break playing on Roth's solo album, "DLR Band", before landing stints with Marilyn Manson and now Zombie, spoke about his working relationship with the VAN HALEN frontman during a recent interview with Sonic Perspectives.

Asked if it was difficult communicating with Dave during their writing sessions together, John 5 said: "He knows exactly what he wants. And we work really well together. He'll talk to me or say something and explain it, and luckily, I'll know everything he's talking about, and I'm so in tune with everything he's talking about. He'll reference something, and I'll say, 'I know exactly what you're talking about.' So we work really well together. He's a great friend. And I'm such a huge fan of VAN HALEN and David Lee Roth. So it's great to work with him — it really is. It's like working with your hero."

John 5 also talked about the status of the unreleased album he made with Roth several years ago. Asked what may be causing the delay in making the record available to the public, the guitarist said: "I don't know. Dave owns all that stuff, so I'm not sure. But maybe that will come out in the future. It's all positive thinking, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that."

Back in 2015, John 5 told Guitar Player magazine that the sessions for his latest Roth album — which apparently took place at least five years ago — were remarkably relaxed. "I would just go to his house and I'd write these songs with him, and he would say, 'Let's go into the studio,'" John 5 explained. "So he would go to Henson studio and record these songs. They came out… They're so good. They're so good. And we've got Gregg Bissonette playing drums on it, and I played the bass, and they're really great songs."

The guitarist said that Roth's vocals on the album sound "like nothing you've ever heard. It's old VAN HALEN — sounds like 'Could This Be Magic?' or anything like that. It's just that sound, that tone."

In a 2014 interview with "One On One With Mitch Lafon", John 5 described the LP as "11 of the greatest songs you'll ever hear, and it's just me and Dave, and we had Gregg Bissonette play drums on it. And it's unbelievable," he said. "There's a song called 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar & Grill'. And you know, just great, great songs."

John 5 has been playing in Rob Zombie's band since 2005 and has been the longest-running member of the group.

He released his latest solo album, titled "Invasion", in July.