{"id":630373,"date":"2026-10-14T12:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630373\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T12:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:52:11","slug":"john-5-says-its-a-compliment-if-people-think-motley-crue-use-backing-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630373\/","title":{"rendered":"John 5 says it’s a compliment if people think M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce use backing tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, John 5<\/a> took to Instagram to post an explainer on how he was able to play M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce songs without needing his right hand. Guitar players knew what was what. But it was interesting all the same. <\/p>\n

It was in response to online accusations that M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce had been using backing tapes in their performances. This controversy, in and of itself, invites further questioning; who among us is sober enough at a M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce concert to notice such details?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the accusations had clearly stung John 5, a player who is ridiculously gifted to the point where it is hard to imagine any piece giving him difficulty.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n

But nowadays, John 5 takes the opposite view. He sees these accusations as a sign that he and M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce are doing something right. \u201cIt\u2019s a compliment,\u201d he tells MusicRadar. \u201cIt\u2019s such a compliment. Like, it makes me so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In concert, John 5 plays a game with himself that is probably unhealthy but nonetheless keeps him honest; whether performing his solo material or tearing through M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce\u2019s back catalogue, he dares himself to play it as close to perfect as possible.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

He is joining us to talk about the Fender John 5 Telecaster Collection<\/a>, which was launched last week, and how his Custom Shop Phantom is so on-point that the prototype he has been touring with these past few years makes nailing the little nuances in former M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce guitarist Mick Mars\u2019 parts that bit easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Home Sweet Home, the solo, there\u2019s all these pinch harmonics, and they have to be just right,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to be just right. You can go online and watch [this]. Everybody records it! I just hit that pitch harmonic perfectly on that because those guitars are set up so nice and perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

This drive for perfection might be part of the problem, like it\u2019s too good to be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so strange, but I don\u2019t really talk about this,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ll play just a ton of shows, a ton of shows, and people are like, \u2018Oh, don\u2019t you ever get tired of it?\u2019 And I say, \u2018No.\u2019 This is why. I\u2019m such a perfectionist. I always say it\u2019s like Steely Dan. Like when Steely Dan were in the studio, it took them six weeks just to pick out a chair. But that\u2019s how I am live. What I do live is I try to make it so perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone appreciates this. Some people want to hear him mess things up, or to hear something different from the records. But remember when John 5 took the gig. He promised that he was going to play Mick Mars\u2019 solos just as they were recorded, because they were part of the song.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t really like this,\u201d he admits. \u201cThey don\u2019t! Like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s not rock and roll.\u2019 There\u2019s gotta be [mistakes]. But I try to make it so perfect where everything\u2019s on time, in pitch, hit correctly, and that\u2019s what I do with my instrumental shows. And when I got into M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce, same thing. I will see how perfect I can get it, and it\u2019s so much fun. I mean, I love playing shows and playing concerts, but it\u2019s so much fun to see how close you can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

So you know how, not even difficult, impossible it would be to lip-sync if something was behind the beat!? It would be impossible! <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t always work. At M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce\u2019s show in Salt Lake City, Utah, disaster struck, technical difficulties, and John 5 had no idea where he was in the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t forget it. It was in Utah, and it just happened,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were playing Take Me To The Top, and my battery pack died, and these stages are so big. I was way out to the front. Tommy [Lee], our drummer, is way in the back. \u2018Cos there\u2019s like this ego riser. Vince [Neil] and Nikki [Sixx] were all out in front, and my pack died, and when you have those in-ears in, you can\u2019t hear anything when that thing dies. So I was like, \u2018Oh my God!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t alone. They were all out of whack. And John 5 insists the ensuing \u201ctrain wreck\u201d is material evidence that they\u2019re not playing to a tape. There was no safety net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got lost and Vince got lost, and I had to run back to Tommy to get back on, to hear the acoustic of his drums,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd if that doesn\u2019t prove [it\u2019s real]\u2026 Because I got off and it was a train wreck for 10, 15 seconds, 20 seconds!\u201d<\/p>\n

John 5 – The Phantom (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"John<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce frontman Vince Neil has copped some flack online, too. His performances have been put in the dock. But John 5 leapt to his defence, arguing that the vocalist\u2019s delivery would be impossible to sync up with a tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cVince is singing so well now, and it just drives me crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause sometimes he\u2019s behind the beat, or ahead of the beat, but do you know how, not even difficult, impossible it would be to lip-sync if something was behind the beat!? It would be impossible! [Laughs] But, I don\u2019t know. I take it as a compliment when people say, \u2018Oh, they\u2019re playing to a track,\u2019 because we work so hard now to make it sound as amazing as possible. So, it\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, bassist Nikki Sixx admitted that M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce has used backing tracks<\/a> to recreate the sound from the albums, taking the lead from Queen<\/a>, and using the tracks for other instrumentation that the four of them could not replicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we saw Queen<\/a> using some to help during the song Bohemian Rhapsody live, we understood that we could bring in elements that we could not do live like orchestras, saxophones, etc etc and sync them up with what we are playing and we do play 100 per cent live. And it\u2019s better for the fans and we enjoy being able to do what we did in the studio live. It\u2019s a win win for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"John\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Fender)<\/p>\n

Sixx’s point was that they were not miming along to backing tracks of their own performances. When asked why they don\u2019t play 100 per cent live, Sixx replied, \u201cWe do. You were lied to. Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

John 5 marked the release of the Phantom Telecaster with an eponymous new instrumental track featuring Joey Aguirre on drums, a riff that\u2019s kind of Jake E Lee-era Ozzy, and all kinds of blazing arpeggios and lead-guitar fireworks. He can play anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A while back, John 5 took to Instagram to post an explainer on how he was able to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-630373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}