JOHN 5 On Working With DAVID LEE ROTH: 'It Was Really Exciting'

In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, John 5 spoke about the experience of working with David Lee Roth in the VAN HALEN singer's solo band more than two and a half decades ago. The 54-year-old axeman, who got his first big break playing on Roth's solo album, "DLR Band", before securing stints with Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and MÖTLEY CRÜE, said: "Well, of course, he's David Lee Roth and one of our heroes. And it was really exciting. It was nerve wracking because you wanted to do a great job for him. We could write together really well. Everything went really well together. And I really enjoyed being in the studio, 'cause it was just that thing. We clicked with each other with ideas and things like that, and it all came together really fast. So, I've had nothing but a great experience with writing with Dave and working with Dave."

John 5 also touched upon the yet-unreleased album that he recorded with Roth in 2007, several songs from which have been made available online in recent years. He said: "We did this song, 'Nothing Could Have Stopped Us Back Then [Anyway...]'. It's about VAN HALEN, and it is such a wonderful song. So you can see that on YouTube. And that's one of the songs I'm most proud of because it's such a tribute to VAN HALEN, but with David Lee Roth. And it's just such a weird thing that, if I knew that as a kid, that me and Dave would be writing a song that is a tribute to VAN HALEN — it's even strange to say. So it's a song I'm very proud of. And he's a wonderful, wonderful guy."

In 2020, Roth included five previously unreleased songs in The Roth Project, an online comic narrated by the legendary VAN HALEN singer, with music from John 5 on guitar and bass, Gregg Bissonette on drums, Brett Tuggle on keyboards, and Luis Conte on percussion. "Manda Bala", "Giddy-Up!", "Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar And Grill", "Alligator Pants" and "Lo-Rez Sunset" were recorded at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

John 5 previously spoke about the recording sessions for the unreleased Roth record in an interview with the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz", saying: "We had a great time. We had a blast — a lot of laughs, a lot of fun. I'm just so happy that I had that cool working vibe with Dave that we can just jump into the studio anytime and knock out some songs. And I'm very lucky 'cause not a lot of people get a chance to do that with Dave.

He added: "We were all in there together — I remember we were just all in there together. And that's how it was. We were all just doing it together — kind of like the old days, and he wanted to do it like that. And it really was a lot of fun. We had so much fun doing it. And it's one of my fondest memories."

In August 2021, John 5 told AL.com that the rest of the unreleased Roth record is in the same vein as the songs that have come out, which have a singer/songwriter sound. "[Dave] wanted to do this kind of a more California sessions type of thing," the guitarist explained. "And he's such an artist, I was, like, 'Whatever you want to do, I'm there for you.' So it is that kind of vibe. But there's a lot of multi tracks and different acoustic parts that all work together. It's kind of orchestrated, if you will."

Five years ago, Roth was asked by Meltdown of the Detroit radio station WRIF if his LP with John 5 will be made available at some point. He responded: "It will. There's been a revision of things, and I can start making real plans and start marching into the future. And, of course, you'll start hearing that material. This is material that we wrote variously for me solo and for VAN HALEN, and it's quite a bank of stuff."

Back in 2015, John 5 told Guitar Player magazine that the sessions for his unreleased Roth album 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, 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. "You know, just great, great songs."