John Lowery, more commonly known as John 5, famous for his work as guitarist for Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth Band and Rob Zombie is not only a blessed guitar player, but also an avid guitar collector, with an obsession for Fender guitars, and especially Telecasters.
Already falling in love with guitars at the tender age of 7, John 5’s career began in earnest when he was 17 years, when he became member of the band Alligator Soup, and not long after that he joined the group Sun King, recruited by Rudy Sarzo of Whitesnake fame. A few years later on John 5 began his real breakthrough when he became the next guitarist to join the David Lee Roth Band. Like most other guitarists that have been part of David Lee Roth Band, John 5 experiences great publicity and fame, earning a reputation as a true guitar virtuoso. During the same period of time John 5 also played with Marilyn Manson. During the mid 2000s John 5 left Marilyn Manson on good terms and put a temporary hold on his collaborations with David Lee Roth, and began a more focused work on his solo career as well as forming the group Loser all the while he also joined as guitarist for Rob Zombie. Though Loser quickly disbanded John 5 have had quite some success with his solo career and even more as part of Rob Zombies line-up. Known for his mixture of country picking and wild guitar shredding, his solo albums features a variety of styles, yet all show his talent in equal measure.
When it comes to guitars John 5 have been collecting them for many years, beginning as early as in his teens, and made his first real venture into collecting guitars when he sold his large collection of KISS posters in order to fund his guitar shopping-needs. Having always been a fan of the Fender Telecasters, his collection soon became a reflection of this fascination, and most of his collection is now composed by various Fender models. Though for most people the collection might seem abnormally large while at the same time quite narrow, it seems it is John 5’s dream to have a copy of every Fender model ever released. Though it might be an almost be a bit too much it appears that John 5 is well on the way to reach that goal. Though he for a period of time he played Ibanez models instead when turing with Marilyn Manson, the Fender guitars have always been his favourite and as shown in the video above most of the time his touring rig consists almost exclusively of Fenders. While for some it seems strange when musicians play their own signature guitars, for a fan as John 5 it makes a lot of sense that the most used guitars on his tour are all signature models from is own series, even the custom made double-neck guitar is a version of his signature series guitars. Sadly though last year John 5 was burglarized and lost 5 very precious guitars from his collection, and as far as we can tell the perpetrators and the guitars have yet to be found. We here at Vintage & Rare hope that this will not stop John 5’s collection adventure, and we are happy that it didn’t put a stop to the production of his newest album Careful With That Axe, which was released last month.
For more John 5 information go to his website here.
For more from Guitar World or Premier guitar, visit their youtube sites here and here.
And last but not least, don’t forget to visit us on all the other social media:
