John 5 had a great experience working with David Lee Roth.
“Well, of course, he’s David Lee Roth and one of our heroes. And it was really exciting,” the guitarist recently told Ultimate Guitar. “It was nerve-wracking because you wanted to do a great job for him. We could write together really well.”
He continued, “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’s big break came in 1998 when DLR asked him to play guitar on the ‘DLR Band’ album. He also wrote songs for the album. Later, the guitarist helped with Roth’s ‘Diamond Dave’ record. They had a productive five years working together.
“I learned it is hard work. He works very, very, very hard,” John 5 previously said about what he admired in Diamond Dave. “He is always up super early working, writing lyrics. He’s always writing lyrics.”
The rocker added, “He writes songs all the time and, just his work ethic that a lot of people don’t know about. He is a very, very hard worker, and he’s always keeping busy with the EMT or with his helicopter license or anything like that. He’s learning new languages; his; this is always moving, which I really admire.”
John 5 met Roth in an interesting way. While reading Roth’s autobiography, he found the phone number for Roth’s management company. He called them, asked if they needed any musicians, and was told to send a demo.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ Just that little bit, I was shocked,” the musician recalled in an interview with The Sessions. “I was like, ‘This is insane.’ So I go there. I record with Bob Marlette, and I do my best Van Halen. I do ‘Slam Dunk’ and I do all these songs – of course, no vocals, just my best Van Halen impersonation.”
John 5 recalled the rest of the story, “And I sent it to them, and they said, ‘We like it. Can you send three more?’ I was like, ‘God. This is the most crazy thing ever.’ So, I did three more, and they said, ‘We like these too. Can you do three more?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t have any more money.’ Back then, studios cost a lot of money. Now we can just be in our house and do it. And they said, ‘OK, well, Dave wants to meet you. Go to his house.’”
John 5 also has an unreleased album he recorded with Roth in 2007. Some songs from it have surfaced online in recent years but the full record didn’t arrive.