Guitarist John 5, who currently plays with Rob Zombie, recently appeared on The Sessions. During the interview, which can be seen below, John 5 shares the story of how he became David Lee Roth's guitarist, and ended up playing on the 1998 album, DLR Band.  

"I was reading (Roth's 1997 autobiography Crazy From The Heat). I was at my friend's house. And there was a number in the back of the book where you could get ahold of the management company," begins John 5. "And I thought to myself, 'Hmm, I think I'm going to reach out and call this number and see if I can... see what's going on.' Cause I knew Dave wasn't doing much at the time, and I loved Van Halen, and I loved David Lee Roth. And I said, 'Are you guys accepting any (music) right now or anything like that?' And they said, 'Well, not really. But you can send a CD, and we'll see what we've got.'"

And I was, like, 'Oh my God!' Just that little bit, I was shocked. I was, like, 'This is insane.' So I go there. I record with (producer) Bob Marlette. And I do my best Van Halen — I do 'Slam Dunk' and I do all these other songs. Of course, no vocals — just my best Van Halen impersonation. And I sent it to them, and they said, 'We like it. Can you send three more?' I was, like, 'God. This is the most crazy thing ever.' So, I did three more, and they said, 'We like these too. Can you do three more?' And I said, 'I'm sorry, but I don't have any more money.' Back then, studios costed a lot of money. Now we can just be in our house and do it. And they said, 'Okay, well, Dave wants to meet you. Go to his house.'"

"Listen, David Lee Roth is not around; he's not hanging out. It's very hard to meet David Lee Roth. And I go to his house. And this is the house where they filmed 'Pretty Woman', they did all the photo shoots for the early Van Halen, they rehearsed in this basement. And this is the house. And there's Dave in his overalls. And he's, like, 'John, great to see ya. We're gonna make a record. I really like what you're doing.' And I was, like, 'Oh my God.' I couldn't believe it."

"And then, later on, I had him sign the (Crazy From The Heat) book that made it all happen. And it says, 'David Lee Roth, 1998.' This is after I'm a little more confortable with him, and I said, 'Hey, Dave. Sign this.' So, you just have to go after things and do things and make it work."