John 5 knew what he was getting into when he signed up for the Mötley Crüe gig. It was not his first rodeo. But then again it was the biggest rock ’n’ roll circus he could have signed up for.
It’s now four year since the guitarist joined the band alongside bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and singer Vince Neil. And it’s the silly little moments that get him.
Speaking to MusicRadar – ostensibly about his recently launched signature Fender Telecaster Collection – he casts his mind back to the last leg of the Crüe’s Carnival of Sins Tour, when the band were all ready to make their way home for a break.
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“This is the most rock ’n’ roll thing,” he says. “We were on the West Coast, and we all had our own buses and all that stuff, but with the longer trips we were taking planes, just to get there in time, not be too tired.
“Anyhoo, so me and Tommy are on a plane. Then Nikki has a plane because he’s going back to see his family on days off. And then Vince has a plane, because he’s leaving at different times.
“So at this private airport, there’s three airplanes in a line, and it’s me and Tommy, Nikki, and Vince, and we’re all going to the same destination! And I just thought that was so rock and roll.”
But this being Mötley Crüe, some people wondered if these travel arrangements were a precautionary measure to reduce internal tension.
John smiles: “People are like, ‘Oh, do you guys not get along?’ And I’m like, ‘No, we get along great! It’s just everyone goes to different places on their day off.’”
And he’s serious about this – Mötley Crüe is a fun job.
“Oh my gosh!” he says. “It’s ridiculous. You have no idea. We have so much fun. All of us. We have so much fun, all of us together.
“When I was a kid, and I would look in the rock magazines, and I’d see everybody hanging out and having fun, and having a good time on stage, that just made me feel… good, you know? And that’s how it is with Mötley. We just all have such a great time together.”
We have absolutely no reason to doubt John 5. He is a reliable witness. You can hear it in his voice. But if it’s so much fun playing in Mötley Crüe, it begs the question: will they make a new record together?
John says they have never sounded better. They are getting along. So why not? They got into the studio in 2023, reunited with Bob Rock, the über-producer behind Crüe’s most commercially successful album, Dr Feelgood, and made the three-song Cancelled EP.
There were two original tracks, Cancelled and Dogs Of War, and a cover of the Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right, and it landed in October 2024. It was the first original material they recorded since John replaced Mick Mars on guitar.
Well, the bad news is there are no plans to record an album. The good news is that this doesn’t mean anything. This is just how the band operates. It’s how bassist Nikki Sixx runs the show, and it works.
John explains: “Well, with Nikki, it’s funny, because he’ll say, ‘Oh, nothing in the future.’ Y’know? ‘We don’t have any things booked.’ And then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe we’ll do this, we’ll do that.’ Which is great. ‘Oh, we’re not gonna do any more new music or anything like that, but Nikki calls and he goes, ‘I have this great song.’ And so, I’m like, ‘Okay, great.’ So, you never know.”
You never know?
“You never know. But I don’t know. I’m super excited for Mötley’s future. We have a show booked in Europe right now, but there’s probably more to follow, so I’m excited.”
You could be like Jim Carrey in Dumb And Dumber – ‘So you’re telling me there’s a chance?’ – and read too much into this. But really John 5 is saying he’s like any other Crüe fan. He’s waiting on the call. The only difference is that he’ll be the one who has to pick up the electric guitar and get to work when that call comes in. But you can’t second-guess Nikki Sixx.
“I don’t know. Nikki knows exactly what he’s doing,” says John 5. “He has been keeping this train going for 45 years, so to second-guess anything he’s doing is something I would never do, because he knows exactly what he’s doing and what’s best for Mötley Crüe. That’s for sure.”
What’s also for sure is that John 5 released some new material. The track is called Phantom, it’s named for his new signature Tele, and you can check it out above. You can read more about how Fender and John 5 reinvented the Telecaster here, and why John 5 takes accusations that Mötley Crüe are playing to backing tracks as a compliment.
