It's fair to say that ultra-shredder John 5 is a Telecaster mega-fan. He owns a staggering amount of Telecasters, including a model from each year of production between 1950 and 1983.
Some other standout picks from his collection include one gifted to him by Eddie Van Halen and a gilded axe he played so much that Fender feared for his health. But the player who kick-started his love affair with the Fender classic is a little surprising.
Having played Teles in a variety of bands – from David Lee Roth to Rob Zombie and Mötley Crüe – the guitarist has proven just how versatile his weapon of choice can be. But, speaking on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, he reveals his discovery of the electric guitar came from an unlikely source.
“It's totally Don Rich's fault,” he says of the Tele's appeal. “Something in my brain went, 'Boing.' I loved it.”
As Corgan says in the interview, finding live music on television in the 1970s was like finding ice in a volcano: “You took whatever you could get,” he laughs.
For John 5, Hee Haw – a country music-centric variety show – was his Holy Grail, and he'd watch it religiously with his father. Seeing a youthful Jimmy Henley “killing it” on the banjo was a pivotal moment for him. But it was Rich who turned him onto the Tele and the instrument that would come to define his life.
“All of them were incredible, but I was so drawn to Don Rich. Oh my god, he could play,” John 5 purrs. “I just couldn't take my eyes off his guitar; from age six, I knew I wanted to play an electric guitar. I didn't even know they came in any other shape. I was mesmerized by it. It really was an epiphany for me.
“My first real guitar was a Stratocaster, but I didn't love it,” he adds. “I was waiting for my Tele.”
John 5’s country influence runs through his career, with chicken pickin’ licks a major part of his vocabulary. Even though Van Halen, Kiss, and Crüe – who he joined in 2022 – were his obsessions, the echoes of his formative years are still present.
His latest signature guitar – a Tele, of course – arrived in 2023, which later inspired an instrumental song in which he throws in the “kitchen sink” of ridiculous techniques, transcending heavy metal and country borderlines.
“The guitar is, to me, the perfect guitar,” he says of The Ghost, his signature. “It has everything; looks, durability, amazing sound, so the only thing I could do is create a song that shows all of its glory.”
Looking back on his Tele affinity, he once recalled he lost a tooth playing Star Spangled Banner on one, and that he'd skip school to practice when a part was getting the better of him.
