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Just got the June 2012 issue of Guitar World and there's an interview with John 5. In it he says some pretty cool stuff about his work with Dave on DLR Band album. Wish I knew how to scan it. Instead I'll just type in the relevant questions and answers.
GW: You've talked often of Van Halen's influence on you as a musician. Given your love for the band's music, what was it like to have the opportunity to play with David Lee Roth on his 1998 album, DLR Band?
J5: It was amazing. I was actually playing with Rob Halford at the time, but I sought Dave out and sent some songs to him through his management. He liked what I did, and his manager at the time invited me up to his house. And for me, meeting Dave - I may as well have been meeting Superman or Spider-Man or something. He's a childhood hero. I remember driving through the front gate of this massive house in Pasadena, and the first thing I see is the car from the "Panama" video - the red convertible. That blew my mind.
And then Dave came out of the house, and he was just as you would expect. [impersonating Roth] "John! Good to see ya! Great songs! Here's what I wanna do. I wanna go into the studio and I wanna cut this record just like the old Van Halen days - just knock it out." And I said, "That's great, Mr. Roth. Only I'm rehearsing for a tour with Rob Halford." And he said, "No problem. But I wanna have you fresh every day, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna start recording at six am. Then afterward you can go do your other thing." [laughs]
So I would get up at five in the morning and go down to Ocean Studios in Burbank to record with Dave, and from there I'd go rehearse with Halford. And I'll never forget being at Ocean that first day: here I am with one of my idols, and right before we start, Dave gets on the mic and he goes, "If you can't do it in two takes, you can't do it. Hit it, boys!" I was like, Oh my god....But we did it. We cut the whole record in two weeks, including mixing.
GW: Do you still keep in touch with Dave?
J5: Ever since then we've been really good friends. And here's something I don't think really anyone knows: Dave and I have about 12 or 13 songs in the can for a future record. And it's all acoustic. But not strummy, campfire stuff - I'm talking lots of cool, crazy jazz chords, and 50 or 60 overdubbed guitar tracks, with all this harmonizing and other weird stuff going on.
GW: When was this recorded?
J5: We just did this recently! We had Gregg Bissonette on drums and Brett Tuggle on keyboards, who both played with Dave back in the Skyscraper days. And Dave's vocals are incredible. He sings his ass off. Dave obviously has his plate full right now with Van Halen, but hopefully this record will get released one of these days.
GW: You've talked often of Van Halen's influence on you as a musician. Given your love for the band's music, what was it like to have the opportunity to play with David Lee Roth on his 1998 album, DLR Band?
J5: It was amazing. I was actually playing with Rob Halford at the time, but I sought Dave out and sent some songs to him through his management. He liked what I did, and his manager at the time invited me up to his house. And for me, meeting Dave - I may as well have been meeting Superman or Spider-Man or something. He's a childhood hero. I remember driving through the front gate of this massive house in Pasadena, and the first thing I see is the car from the "Panama" video - the red convertible. That blew my mind.
And then Dave came out of the house, and he was just as you would expect. [impersonating Roth] "John! Good to see ya! Great songs! Here's what I wanna do. I wanna go into the studio and I wanna cut this record just like the old Van Halen days - just knock it out." And I said, "That's great, Mr. Roth. Only I'm rehearsing for a tour with Rob Halford." And he said, "No problem. But I wanna have you fresh every day, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna start recording at six am. Then afterward you can go do your other thing." [laughs]
So I would get up at five in the morning and go down to Ocean Studios in Burbank to record with Dave, and from there I'd go rehearse with Halford. And I'll never forget being at Ocean that first day: here I am with one of my idols, and right before we start, Dave gets on the mic and he goes, "If you can't do it in two takes, you can't do it. Hit it, boys!" I was like, Oh my god....But we did it. We cut the whole record in two weeks, including mixing.
GW: Do you still keep in touch with Dave?
J5: Ever since then we've been really good friends. And here's something I don't think really anyone knows: Dave and I have about 12 or 13 songs in the can for a future record. And it's all acoustic. But not strummy, campfire stuff - I'm talking lots of cool, crazy jazz chords, and 50 or 60 overdubbed guitar tracks, with all this harmonizing and other weird stuff going on.
GW: When was this recorded?
J5: We just did this recently! We had Gregg Bissonette on drums and Brett Tuggle on keyboards, who both played with Dave back in the Skyscraper days. And Dave's vocals are incredible. He sings his ass off. Dave obviously has his plate full right now with Van Halen, but hopefully this record will get released one of these days.
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