As you can plainly see (or hear) John can cover a lot of ground stylistically, but the cool thing is he really lends a genuine appreciation for all music to the different styles he graces with his talent. This is not someone who is just whipping out second rate imitation pop or rock for a studio paycheck. Even his more “corporate” gigs manage to have some spark to them. Today, however, we are here to talk about something far more stupendous, namely John’s new solo album The Art Of Malice.

Drenched in guitar glory from start to finish, The Art Of Malice is a journey through J5’s influences and beginnings to his present, encompassing everything from fantastic, mind blowing shred to retro groove, old-time guitar aficionado stuff, and even some classical flourish. I talked with J5 about his writing process, the new record, some guy named Billy Sheehan he roped into playing on TAOM, plus J5’s bad ass moonlighting in Lynyrd Skynyrd on their recent God & Guns record!

MORGAN Y. EVANS: You’ve been doing your guitar gig for a while now. It takes things…I can’t say “to the next level”. That’s cliché. You’ve always had a high quality output. I like The Art Of Malice because you have the minimalism and super maxed out stuff! I’m a fan of everything from Christian Death to even some Steve Vai every once in a while, crazy guitar stuff. Your new record has many styles but it all gels.

J5: Y’know, I’m glad you caught on to all the styles. I like when people give me constructive criticism. People say, “Oh, he shreds all the time,” or blah, blah, blah, or that I don’t play with feeling. For this record, I kinda did a little bit for everybody, even doing songs with just slide guitar. Really melodic, nice slide guitar. No shredding at all, like David Gilmour. So I gave a little of that. Of course, there’s a touch of crazy shredding on there. There’s a little Spanish gypsy style flamenco on there. All sorts of everything. This record I wanted to expand my horizons even more. Also, with the cover of Ace Frehley’s “Fractured Mirror”, I put that on there because it changed my life when I was a kid. I think this record has everything. I’m a fan of guitar music and players. I love it.

MYE: There’s the MP3 culture right now, so people might get one song at a time and go, “This is schizophrenic,” when they hear others later. At the same time, with the album format and the way the real record flows, I love the track order to the songs. It really flows and is fluid. It is different styles but it doesn’t distract, you know what I mean?

J5: Yes. Yes. When you listen to an instrumental, just like we were talking about earlier, it gets tiresome. It can be a lot of the same thing. I love instrumental records. I love all the people that make them and I appreciate it, but I wanted a little more variety for the listener so they don’t get tired after a few songs. That’s what I’ve been doing…giving it a bit more variety. It sounds like if you have your iPod on shuffle. Songs come up that you didn’t know were gonna come up. It’s like a surprise every song on this new record.

MYE: Yeah, man. Kind of a two-part attack to this next comment or question. Everyone always talks about how grunge destroyed metal or all that. Now, people are kind of realizing they like what they like regardless of genre for various reasons. That’s better, I think. Even Nirvana had the song “Aero Zeppelin” on Incesticide that referenced those bands with some smirk but also as real fans! Back to you, when you’re writing for yourself as opposed to others, you still have the technique and flash in the playing but you show a fun side. The professional level is there but it’s fun to listen to. The skill is there but it comes across as less pretentious than other virtuoso records.

J5: Yeah. [laughing] It’s all music. Music is intended to be enjoyed and to have fun with. It’s not anything else. That’s what I do. I enjoy playing guitar and hopefully that comes across on the record, my real love for the guitar. I do it for the fans and people that appreciate this kind of music. When I did my first record, that’s what happened, man. I did it for my friends and it just blew up so much. People said, “let’s make another. Let’s make another.” It worked ‘cuz it was so different.

MYE: Right on! I agree. Post-modernism was even a million years ago now. It’s 2010 and you really can do whatever you want! My friend’s band The Arkhams from New York, they play psychobilly but with cooler lyrics, and the guitar player, Bobcat, is almost like an oddball savant. He’s a super cool guy but has this, like, Rain Man fixation for hollow body guitars and he can shred on “Mr.Sandman” and old songs like that! It’s timeless.

J5: [enthused] That’s awesome! I love that.

MYE: I was listening to your song “Steel Guitar Rag” and I wanted to ask you if you dig music like Django Reinhardt and old time shit?

J5: Oh, of course! I love Django! There’s a Django lick on “The Art Of Malice”. I love him and Les Paul and Chet Atkins. All those cats. Don Watson. Roy Clark. I LOVE that stuff. Love it, love it, love it! I’ll listen to it for pleasure. Y’know, it’s great to hear that. Jimmy Bryant. Speedy West. People are unaware of it. There’s SO much good stuff that people are not familiar with and that’s why I’m trying to play some of this stuff to say there’s a world of this style out there. Hopefully someone will do something a little different in rock songs and be inspired. You can fit any of these licks into any style of music and it works.

MYE: People take for granted that music is sociology. Some of these people were original bad asses. It’s not so much the style as how you portray that in your life. I thought it was cool that you work with Rob because, especially in his movies, he’ll draw on weird music that makes Tarantino look like he was sleeping at the wheel, and Quentin is GREAT when he picks music for soundtracks!

J5: Of course, and Rob is great with that. I follow in his footsteps and look at everything he does, because he does so much right. I just wanna be behind that guy. Look at what he’s doing, people can learn from that.

MYE: “The Art Of Malice” and "The Nightmare Unravels" both have atmospheric intros and then heavier stuff or classical in the case of “Malice”. This many solo albums in I was wondering at links between song themes or titles or phrasings. Anything you wanna talk about?

J5: Well, this one is kind of…this is my 5th one and is really special for me. They all are special, but this one I went back to where I was growing up and started from the beginning. "The S. Lot” is a place from my high school and we used to hang out there. “J.W.” is something my dad used to call me ‘cuz my middle name is William. “Fractured Mirror” inspired me to play and start really doing this. There’s a lot of things from childhood and the start, so it is special. “The Art Of Malice” is killing someone with kindness. It’s doing it that way.

MYE: I can relate.

J5: All the song titles mean something. The song “Ya Dig?” is a tribute to Van Halen. They changed my life as a guitar player. The reason I call it that is, when you talk to David Lee Roth…when you talk to someone, they’ll say, “Oh, this new ART OF MALICE is a really cool record, you know?” Well…Dave says, “You dig?” [laughing]

MYE: [laughing]

J5: “Picked up these pants. I got ‘em on sale, ya dig?” It’s kind of a Van Halen type song, and I’m giving my thanks to Dave and Van Halen. I got Billy Sheehan to play bass on it so…it’s cool.

MYE: That’s awesome! I wanted to ask about Billy. It’s cool. Another sort of two-part thing, I feel really lucky…I’ve got a new band, Antidote 8, and we found this hotshot guitarist who is only 26 and can play Van Halen type solos but also loves stuff like Hum and Clutch that I love. Those approaches can work together. Aslo, you, and even back to Ace Frehley or Acey Slade…right now Acey is opening up for Ace on his new solo tour. Those guys and you too are artists where…Ace Frehley is a huge star but can sorta hang with the punks and Van Halen, as technical as they are, they can inspire the whole world. Some people are really stuck up and yet you can smoke a guitar but always portray yourself as down to earth.

J5: Absolutely. I’m the guy on a tour where I hang out with the techs and the fans. I don’t think anyone is better than anyone else. We’re all just regular guys. People are people. Hey man, if you are cool I will hang out. You don’t have to be a celebrity or this or that. If my guitar tech is awesome, I’ll hang out. So many people are stuck up and there’s no reason for that, y’know? It’s limiting. We’re all just people. Let’s have a good time.

MYE: Can you talk about working with Billy a little bit?

J5: Yeah. Billy Sheehan…I was always a fan. When Eat‘Em And Smile came out, that was the first time I heard Billy. Oh my God! It blew my mind. I always would follow what Billy was doing. There’s never been another Billy. There’s one Billy Sheehan and that’s it. It’s him! There’s a bunch of other guitar players, but no one that does his style like he does. I just had to get him. Luckily he accepted and is a nice guy and just schooled it! He got it down in no time at all. He was great. It was a real honor to have him play with me ‘cuz he’s one of a kind. That’s for sure.

MYE: Yeah, man. Being that you’ve got an approachable attitude and it spans genres, it can lead people back to thinking that maybe they should learn tablature and it doesn’t mean you are automatically some kind of asshole for knowing how to play! They see you can smoke it on guitar and still make something kinda “alternative”, too.

J5: Sure. Of course. “Alternative” doesn’t always mean alternative music. It just means something a little different. That’s what it’s all about. Change it up a little bit. Make someone turn their heads. If you are walking through Guitar Center you aren’t gonna notice the same thing, but if you hear, I dunno, some guy playing with his foot or something…you are gonna notice and turn your head! [laughing]

MYE: That’s funny. "Ill Will Or Spite", that song’s fucking amazing. There’s this thrash/insane prog thing going on. I started making up soaring vocal parts to it. It reminds me of playing Rad Racer or some old racing arcade game and taking speed and driving a Corvette like nothing can stop you! [chuckling]

J5: [laughing] That’s great! It’s kind of funny because I have a ’75 Corvette.

MYE: Ohhhh!!!!!!!!

J5: [laughing] Yeah. That’s kind of the vibe I was going for.

MYE: [cracking up] I was with you there, man.

J5: That’s hilarious.

MYE: That’s funny as hell.

J5: That’s exactly how it was meant, except for the jacked up on speed. Everything else was right on the money.

MYE: You don’t need the speed if you can play like you, John. People take speed to try and play like you but then they sound like shit! [laughing]

J5: Good call. [chuckling]

MYE: Let’s talk about Skynyrd, man.

J5: Well, I wrote six songs for the record. It’s called God & Guns and it’s in stores and on iTtunes. I played guitar on some songs and it was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Just to be a part of the Skynyrd history is amazing in itself. It’s AWESOME! It’s a great album and is doing really well.

MYE: [with a trace of noticeable awe] How was it to hang with those dudes, man? I mean, they are legends.

J5: That’s a great question. After you write a bit or take a break you usually sit or chit-chat a bit on a session. Here, I would talk to Gary (Rossington), the other guitar player and I’d try and do a little interview myself. I’d ask what it was like back in the ‘70s for Skynyrd. “What would you guys do”? Like we said before, they are the guys that would just hang with you. It doesn’t matter who you are, they were just so nice. They’ll tell you stories and what great stories! You hear about drugs and girls all the time, blah, blah, blah. These stories were different. It was like, ”We would have to fight motorcycle gangs back in the ‘70s. We wouldn’t back down.” Can you imagine nowadays a big rock band fighting in a big fight?! It wouldn’t happen. Skynyrd was the biggest band and they always had black eyes and stuff like that. They were nuts!

MYE: Yeah, I can’t really see the Jonas Brothers fighting a biker gang without getting gang raped. [laughing]

J5: It’s pretty insane how they would operate back then. Nowadays if you look at someone cross-eyed it’ll be right up on the internet.

MYE: True. Good point, man. On that note, look at Black Flag or The Germs. Those guys would get jumped by cops and some people would think of Skynyrd as the farthest thing from punk, but when it really comes down to it, in heavy times if you are gonna really live for your art you might find yourself in a situation where you’ve gotta put your ass on the line. That’s something people get complacent about and take for granted these hipstery days.

J5: It’s so wild to think about. Gary was telling me how they’d just fight. Some of the biggest bands!

MYE: The whiskey was flowing!

J5: Yeah.

MYE: I loved when I heard you were working with those guys and was very intrigued. You have these alien voicings sometimes and I am a big fan of Voivod and even some Buckethead stuff on Chinese Democracy. I love knowing someone who is hip to that insane avant garde playing would still approach Skynyrd with the right amount of reverence. It’s sad when a classic band sometimes gets a new hotshot onboard and it is like a glorified session player, which I don’t think is the case with you and Skynyrd or when Bucket was with Guns, for example. I knew you wouldn’t approach it like that.

J5: No way. No way. I appreciated and loved Skynyrd too much for that. It was so important to me, y’know?

MYE: How do you deal with that kind of pressure?

J5: It’s a LOT of pressure! I’m telling you. So, it’s tough, but I see it through.

MYE: With stuff like Halestorm and Orianthi happening, how do you feel about cool solos and slick ass guitar playing making an appearance in poppier hard rock?

J5: Well, I have a song…I think I wrote a song on that Halestorm record.

MYE: You did?! That’s awesome. I love that record.

J5: It’s funny. So, yeah…I think it’s cool. [laughing] Me and James Michael from Nikki Sixx’s band wrote a song on that record for her.

MYE: Awesome. I’ll have to go read the booklet credits on that CD. I appreciate the interview and good luck, man.

J5: Thank you, bye bye.

MYE: Peace out.