Guitar World recently spoke with Rob Zombie guitarist and solo artist John 5. In the career-spanning interview, he discusses his work with David Lee Roth, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, the stylistic shifts in his playing, and his solo work. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

Q: You teamed up with Rob Zombie. Was he somebody you already knew?

John 5: "I was always a big Rob Zombie fan. I listened to him in my car and loved his songs, his music and his lyrics. I was doing a benefit gig and I got a chance to play with him. I said, 'If you ever need a guitar player, let me know.' He called me up and he said that initially he was only gonna be doing a short run of gigs before concentrating on movies, but 15 years later we’re still playing together."

Q: Have you ever considered adding your own vocals to your albums, maybe to broaden the audience for your work, since the instrumental field can sometimes be a bit restrictive in terms of its reach?

John 5: "I have a singer with Rob Zombie. That covers my bases. I love what I do in doing the instrumental work, plus I’m in a huge rock band as well. Everything I do is from the love of music. That’s my only motivation: I only do it for the love of music and the love of the guitar, not for the audience."

Q: There’s a guy on YouTube who has a clip on the 10 easiest riffs to play on guitar, kind of sneering at the likes of "Satisfaction" and "Smoke On The Water". He’s really missed the point; the genius is in creating a great riff, not in how hard it is to play.

John 5: "Oh my god! That guy wishes he wrote those riffs. Can you imagine if you’d written those riffs? Man, you’d be living in a castle, not hosting a YouTube site. I’m influenced by shred and by country and by great music, regardless of how hard it is to play. All of my influence is gonna come out through my music. People get very hung up saying, 'It sounds like this, it sounds like that.' Everybody is a product of their influences.

What I’ve never understood is why people get hung up on something sounding a bit like something else. It’s your influences who make you what you are, then it’s what you do with those influences. When I started, I thought, 'Well, we already have Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen; since I love rock and I love country, why don’t I just meld the two together?'”

Read the complete interview here.

The new John 5 And The Creatures album, Invasion - produced and mixed by Barry Pointer at Riot House Studio - proves to be a diverse progression of the sound that John 5 fans have grown to expect from the eclectic virtuoso.

Invasion, featuring the singles "Zoinks!", "Crank It - Living With Ghosts", "I Am John 5" and "Midnight Mass", is available to order now in both physical and digital formats here.

Invasion tracklisting:

"Invasion"
"I Am John 5"
"Midnight Mass"
"Zoinks!"
"Howdy"
"Crank It / Living With Ghosts"
"Cactus Flower"
"I Want It All"
"I Like The Funk"
"Constant Sorrow"