“Marilyn Manson gave me my name John 5”
— John 5

CALIFORNIA — In the latest episode on the ‘Get On The Bus‘ channel, the guest is none other than Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5.

The interview with 5 starts with him talking about humble beginnings dropping out of High School to move to Los Angeles.

5, real name John Lowery is a native of Grosse Pointe Michigan which has roughly 5,000 residents as of a 2010 census.

To put that into perspective, during one of the various Arena, Festival or Stadium shows 5 has performed at, the fans in the crowd are roughly 5 to 10 times greater than the entire population of the town he grew up in.

Since relocating to Los Angeles (population 18.6 million including the greater metro area) in the late 80’s, 5 has found himself in the company of several greats over his career.

The player extraordinaire talks about his time as a staff song-writer for a publisher crafting songs for artists like; Rod Stewart, Avril Lavigne, Ricky Martin, Scorpions, Lynyrd Skynryd and Desmond Child.

The guitar guru also shares with listeners how he went from John Lowery to John 5: “Marilyn Manson (actually) gave me my name John 5. And… right after… when I left Marilyn Manson, I was like, ‘Well, I am not going to change my name back to John Lowery‘, because I thought of like, well when Ace (Frehley) left Kiss, he didn’t change his name to Paul Frehley. You know, so I thought, I’ll (just) keep the name.”

The interview covers 5‘s time in Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, in addition to going on the road as a solo artist and playing instrumentals.

“I am very proud of the work I did with Manson and Zombie, I had a blast.” added 5.

Looking forward to 2026, 5 talks about a big solo tour plan where he will do 50 shows, in 50 states, in 50 days… all in a row with no days off and that the idea is to start in Alaska.

Watch the full interview with John 5 on Get On The Bus below.

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