John 5 (guitarist)
John William Lowery, known by the stage name John 5, is an American guitarist. He first took the stage name in 1998 when he left David Lee Roth's solo band and joined Marilyn Manson. Lowery later became the guitarist for Rob Zombie, and in 2022, became the touring guitarist for Mötley Crüe, being promoted to a full member the following year.
He is also a solo artist, and has recorded eleven guitar albums: Vertigo, Songs for Sanity, The Devil Knows My Name, Requiem, The Art of Malice, God Told Me To, Careful With That Axe, Season of the Witch, [|Invasion], Sinner, and Ghost. He also has a remix album, Remixploitation, and live albums It's Alive and Live Invasion. As a staff writer for Chrysalis Records, he has worked with artists such as Avril Lavigne, Rob Halford, k.d. lang, Garbage, Meat Loaf, Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, FeFe Dobson, and Steve Perry. He has written and recorded with Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
His stage name was given to him by Manson, and refers to both the Bible chapter and him being the fifth member of Manson's band.
Early life
Lowery is a native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He first started playing guitar at age seven after watching Buck Owens and Roy Clark's television show Hee Haw with his father. Specifically, Lowery recalls being inspired by seeing a young Jimmy Henley playing banjo.His parents supported his playing as long as it did not interfere with his education. He took guitar lessons from Detroit guitarist Robert Gillespie, who taught him classic blues and rock 'n' roll. His parents accompanied him to the adult bars where he played.
His early musical influences came from the Monkees, Kiss, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, and country music. He chipped a tooth trying to imitate Jimi Hendrix playing "The Star Spangled Banner" on the guitar.
Career
1987–1995: Early career
Lowery started his career as a session guitarist, having moved to Los Angeles from Michigan at age 17. His first band in L.A. was Alligator Soup. This led to an important meeting with Rudy Sarzo from Whitesnake, who recruited Lowery for his band Sun King, giving him his first real exposure. Lowery also met producer Bob Marlette, who has worked with artists including Tracy Chapman, Alice Cooper, Rob Halford and Black Sabbath.Lowery began working on numerous projects with Marlette, including television show soundtracks, movie soundtracks including Speed 2: Cruise Control, and commercials and infomercials. This in turn saw Lowery being picked to play with Lita Ford, opening for Kiss. He started another long friendship with the various Kiss members, including a close friendship with Paul Stanley which resulted in his guesting on Stanley's Live to Win album.
Lowery then worked with Randy Castillo in the short-lived projects Bone Angels and Red Square Black, who issued the Square EP via Zoo/BMG. The band disbanded when Lowery was picked to play with k.d. lang on tour.
1996–1998: 2wo
In 1996, Lowery heard that Marilyn Manson was looking for a guitarist and attempted to cold-call the studio Manson was working with to request an audition. He was hung up on, as the guitarist role had already been given to Zim Zum. Lowery teamed up with former Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, along with Sid Riggs, James Woolley, and Ray Riendeau to work on an industrial metal-inspired album, under the band name of 2wo. The subsequent album was recorded at Trent Reznor's New Orleans studio, and was released on Reznor's Nothing Records label, under the parent company Interscope Records. The album was not a commercial hit, but did produce one video, made by director Chi Chi Larue, for the first single, "I am a Pig". It featured some S&M scenes and so was not widely broadcast, but the video was not banned, as has been rumored. The band embarked on a world tour and were part of the Ozzfest lineup, but the tour was pulled and 2wo disbanded.1998–2003: David Lee Roth
John 5 played lead guitar on former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth's 1998 release DLR Band.Regarding how he came to meet Roth, in Guitarist Magazine, Lowery relates that, "when I was little, my dream was to play with David Lee Roth. One day I was sitting at my friend's house and... I wonder what... Roth is doing now. I'm gonna call up his manager and see if he needs any songs."
John 5 submitted six tracks that he had written to Roth's management. Roth scheduled a meeting and then scheduled a recording session that lasted two weeks and resulted in the fourteen track DLR Band album. "I remember before we started, he said, 'If you can't do it in two takes, you can't do it.'"
In 2003, while still lead guitarist for Marilyn Manson, Lowery was invited by David Lee Roth to write and record the single non-cover song for Roth's 2003 album Diamond Dave.
1998–2004: Marilyn Manson
After the recording of Mechanical Animals, Marilyn Manson was again looking for a guitarist to replace Zim Zum who had left the band during the recording process. Again John went to try out for the band. Following a tour with Rob Halford in Europe, John received a call from Manson's manager asking if he would like to meet Manson for lunch. At the meeting Manson asked John to join the band. Lowery accepted and Manson gave him the name "John 5". As Lowery put it, "right then and there. It was obviously something he'd been thinking about." 5 signed on for the Mechanical Animals tour and to work on the next album. His first live performance for Marilyn Manson came on the MTV Video Music Awards.Lowery has reiterated his pride in being part of Marilyn Manson's band during some of its most formative projects. During the God is in the TV tour promoting Mechanical Animals, Lowery has said that the band became particularly tight as a group, noting that there were no overdubs on The Last Tour on Earth, the first Marilyn Mason project featuring John 5 on guitar:
That album, we were so good as a band. We were just really tight and really good. That album is 100% live, it's completely live. The reason why is we taped all these shows for this live album, and I remember going through these...tapes and picking out the best performances. And it was just me doing it. I would listen to...Manson like drop the mic...and I would make all these notes and that's all. There's not even overdubs on that thing. It's just all live and I'm really proud of that record too. I mean the band was on fire and they were just playing unbelievable.Coming off of the tour, Lowery explained in a 2012 interview how the band worked together collaboratively to create the album Holy Wood, approaching the project as a live band rather than having bassist Twiggy Ramirez do the majority of the songwriting:
"We all collaborated as a band... which was great. It was me and Twiggy and Manson and Ginger and Pogo, everybody, we all collaborated as this group, which was awesome, so... I remember us getting together in the Houdini House, Rick Rubin's place, and we set up as a band in the... living room and we played. Everybody was playing and we were working out ideas, and I remember Ginger, the drummer, saying that's the first time we've ever done anything like that."
2003 Rock Am Ring conflict on stage
During the opening bars of "The Beautiful People" at the 2003 Rock Am Ring festival, Manson was moving across the stage when he hit Lowery's guitar and chest with his boot. Lowery was outraged and threw his guitar while screaming at Manson, which led to much speculation. According to Lowery, the Grotesk Burlesk tour had been a high-pressure endeavor. Just before the incident, his sister died unexpectedly, at a time when Lowery was already anticipating the death of his father, who was seriously ill. Lowery was unable to sleep for days on end before taking the stage at Rock Am Ring, fueling an emotional breakdown. Lowery later commented on his behavior, calling it unprofessional and stating that there was no bad blood between Manson and him.Lowery and Manson split in 2004
In 2004, Lowery and Manson parted company. Confusion was rife as certain press reported that he had been dumped unceremoniously from the band, but in reality the two came to a mutual agreement that they wanted to go their separate ways. "What actually happened was, at the end of the tour, we were just on different roads. It was completely amicable. He just wanted to write with other members of the band, and I wanted to do other things." While working with Manson, Lowery stated that Manson may have harbored resentment toward him since he does not do drugs or drink alcohol, whereas Manson "is not like that." However, Lowery claims Manson never stated this explicitly to him, and remains unclear on why or whether Manson has ill will toward him.In a 2025 interview with Scott Lipps on the Lipps Service podcast, John 5 clarified, "I got fired. I didn't know why, because...all I wanted to do was play perfect, be on time. And I was their biggest cheerleader, you know? But yeah, I got fired." Lowrey reiterated that his departure from Marilyn Manson was still on good terms.
2005–2006: Loser
In 2005, Lowery formed the band Loser. Recruiting vocalist Joe Grah, Charles Lee on bass, and Glendon Crain on drums, they began working on their debut album Just Like You. The band was also partly co-founded by friend and producer Bob Marlette. Vocalist Joe Grah already had a significant amount of success in his home state of Texas, with the band Jibe. Marlette recommended Grah to Lowery, and so Lowery hopped on a plane to Texas to see the band play. Grah flew back to L.A. and was hired on the spot.The name Loser came about as an affirmation to Lowery's past:
"I was from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, which is kind of an upper-class area, and I was always that rock kid," John explained. "I started playing guitar at age 7. I always had a rock shirt on, and I had that tattoo early on. I looked like a loser because everyone around me was wearing Polo and Brooks Brothers. But now if you go into a club wearing Polo, you're called a loser. So I think everyone can relate to that name, and the album title, Just Like You, sums it up."
The band had initial success not long after signing with Island Records, when the track "Disposable Sunshine" became part of the Fantastic Four soundtrack.
During this time, during the recording of the soundtrack, Crain briefly left the band and was replaced by drummer Elias Andra, a friend of Lee's. Andra had some success himself with the band Psycho Plague, his own creation, an industrial metal band, which toured as a headline act with Linkin Park as an opening act at the time. However, Andra soon left after promotional shots had been taken, and Crain returned. Andra went on to become the drummer for Julien-K.
At the same time, Lowery was also working for Rob Zombie and a working conflict occurred. As Zombie was also touring, Lowery tried to find a live replacement for him while Loser were touring on conflicting dates. However, even with promo material for the debut album out and a release date in the bag, Island Records did not like the idea of Loser without John and so dropped the band from the label.
"Being the founding member of Loser, my decision to leave was not an easy one", said John 5 in a press release. "I've been juggling two careers both with Loser and Rob Zombie for over one year now. I found it impossible to be in two places at once."
The album has been put on the backburner, and no word on a release date has ever been issued. The official Loser Myspace page has tracks available for download. The album was never officially released, but promotional copies were distributed to radio stations and music industry insiders, and have become collector's items among fans.