John 5 is certainly one of the hottest shredders in the world, with an impressive résumé that includes prominent stints with frontmen Marilyn Manson, Rob Halford, and David Lee Roth in addition to his current gig as the right-hand man for Rob Zombie. However, it’s an injustice to label the in-demand axe-man simply as a shredder—he’s a highly original and versatile player who incorporates many unconventional styles into the hard rock genre, including country, bluegrass, and jazz. On top of that, John is also an accomplished songwriter, and he recently completed his first full-length feature soundtrack for Zombie’s film The Lords of Salem.

Earlier this year, John lent us his great talents for some video demos spotlighting the DA-2 Adaptive Distortion, TE-2 Tera Echo, and MO-2 Multi Overtone pedals, and his eclectic playing truly shows off the wide range of expressive tones made possible by BOSS’ innovative Multi-Dimensional Processing. He was really taken by the incredible clarity that the DA-2 delivers, so much so that he’s given it a permanent home alongside other BOSS stomps in his pedalboard.

We visited with John for the inaugural edition of BOSS Tone Video, where he offered insights about his unique style, successful career, and longtime love for BOSS pedals, and the following in an excerpt from that interview. To watch the entire video, John’s MDP pedal demos, and much more, visit the Roland and BOSS YouTube channel.

You’ve enjoyed a really successful music career. How did it all start for you?

I was in Michigan, and I wanted to be a session guitarist. That was my dream, just to live in Los Angeles and be a session guy, and have a happy life playing guitar [and] making music. I left my home, and drove out to Los Angeles with the drummer from Megadeth—his name is Chuck Behler, and he played on the So Far, So Good…So What! album. I stayed in this weird office for a few days; I got all my money stolen, so I was off to a great start. But I never gave up. I got a job and started parking cars and working at Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt, and just slowly started to [take] baby steps moving towards a career.

Your guitar technique is both original and really, really creative. What are your musical influences?

I knew early on, you know, we only have one Eddie Van Halen and one Yngwie Malmsteen. So I just thought to myself I’m going to do something a little different, do some chicken pickin’, some bluegrass, and some Western swing inside of this really heavy music to make myself stand out a little bit. I really enjoy Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins and people like that…Les Paul. The playing like that, I just really enjoy listening to that, and I have my whole life. But I also love all of our great shredders we have today, so I just wanted to meld the two and see how it comes out. I’ve luckily had a lot of people enjoy it, and [it’s influenced] some people. So it’s great—it worked out really well.

You mentioned Van Halen, and you played with David Lee Roth.

Yes. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Eddie Van Halen—I wanted to be married to Valerie Bertinelli and play in Van Halen. Luckily, I got a chance to write some songs for Dave back in ’98. We actually still make music. He’s a great guy and he’s turned out to be a lifelong friend, so it’s worked out really well. I just talked to him a few days ago. It’s really good to meet people that you’ve looked up to your whole life.

Playing with Marilyn Manson was a huge break for your career. Is there any one memory from those days that stands out more than the others?

We were in New York—Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, it was like one of those Ozzfests—and Nick Bowcott over at Marshall was like, “Hey, why don’t you come into the city? Jim Marshall, the founder of Marshall amplifiers, is going to be down at the club with Les Paul.” I said, “I can’t miss that,” so I went down there and I got a chance to say hello to Les Paul, who I’d never met, and just listen to these guys converse about music and old times and things like that. I was a fly on the wall, and it was just a real honor to be there.

So I’m in the audience watching Les Paul play, and just getting the privilege to see this master who I’ve loved my whole life, and he was inviting people from the crowd to come up and play. I was like, “I hope he doesn’t call me up.” He doesn’t know who I am, and there’s no way he’s gonna…yep, he’s calling me up on stage. I get up on stage and my knees are knocking. Of course, what kind of guitar do I have with me? Not a Les Paul, I have a Telecaster, so strike one, you know. So he says, “What do you know?” And I said, “Well, I’ll just chime in wherever.” Strike two. I’m sweating, and [I’m thinking] he’s like, “Who is this freak? He’s got no eyebrows and he’s playing a Telecaster on my stage.” But for some reason, all the stars aligned and everything just came out perfect. I started playing [and] I just zoned out of everything, and it was such a magical moment. Les Paul stopped playing and he said, “Son, I’ve seen a lot of guitar players, but you impressed me.” It was one of the greatest times of my life. That was during the Marilyn Manson days. It was a great moment for me.

This is something that is maybe a smaller-known fact: you’ve also worked as a staff writer for Chrysalis Records. Tell me about that.

It was Chrysalis Publishing, and I would just write for everybody I could, you know, whoever was looking. I got a chance to write with a lot of artists, from Meat Loaf to Scorpions to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Ricky Martin to everybody down the line. It was really great to be a part of these people’s catalogs, you know, very exciting. I’ve listened to all these people my whole life, and [it’s] great to have that on my list of things that I’ve done. I just wrote some music for Rod Stewart and a lot of people that I’ve looked up to my whole life. I never really even imagined I’d be doing what I’m doing today, and I’m so thankful for it.

What does tone mean to you?

Tone, I believe, is pretty much in your hands and in your soul. I think any guitar player will sound like them, even if they pickup an acoustic guitar—you know, Jimi Hendrix will sound like Jimi Hendrix. But it is very important to me to have a great sound, and I think using great gear always helps that. It adds that great sound to your playing ability and to your hands. So I think it’s really important to have great gear with you.

I’ve always used BOSS, ever since I picked up a guitar. The new [DA-2] pedal I’m using, I was talking to you about it recently and how it has helped my tone, because I love clarity; that’s the one thing I really love. If people listen to my records [they know] I love clarity, and this new pedal has really, really helped with that.

Why do you think that so many guitarists use BOSS pedals?

I think a lot of guitar players want to associate themselves with greatness: the great car, the beautiful wife, the big house, and that’s how it is with equipment, really. It sounds silly, but it’s true. And when you go on stage and have those BOSS pedals, you know you have that great tone.

You also use some other BOSS pedals; I believe you use a CH-1 chorus and an NS-2 noise suppressor.

Yes, and the [SD-1] Super Overdrive. I’ve always used those pedals. You know, whenever anyone sees my pedalboard, they’ll always see the white, the blue, and the yellow. But now I’m using the new [DA-2] pedal, it’ll be the white, the blue, and the orange. I tried it out and I loved the clarity of the pedal. I just started rehearsing with it and I love it so much, so it’s going to be the new addition of the family, and a warm welcome.

You recently scored the soundtrack for the new Rob Zombie movie. Tell us about that.

I was on tour with Rob, and I knew he was making The Lords of Salem, and he was writing the script. We were on the bus, and he said, “Hey, what do you think about scoring the movie?” I did some scoring before; I did a little work on Baywatch, and I did some work on a Johnny Depp film called From Hell, you know, little bits and pieces. And I said to myself, “Sure, I can do that.” I’d done it before, but I’d never scored a whole film, a feature film. And I’ll tell you, it was so much work I couldn’t believe it. There was something like 60 cues, and it just came out great. I was doing all sorts of weird stuff. I played the acoustic guitar with a violin bow for the main theme, and we did a lot of orchestral music, and I’m very proud of it.

Speaking of Rob Zombie, you’ve got a tour coming up.

It’s going to be a massive tour, and that’s when the DA-2 will make its live appearance. I never even wanted to be a touring musician; I just wanted to be a recording artist type of session guy. But I really enjoy touring in the states in the summertime. It’s like heavy metal summer camp, you know. All these places I go to, it’s like home. Because I’ve been touring for so long, I know if we’re in a certain town or a certain city, I know my way around, so it’s a lot of fun.

Thank you so much for coming into the studio and talking with us today.

Thank you for having me.