What Is John 5's Net Worth?
John 5 is an American guitarist who has a net worth of $10 million. John 5 has been a guitarist for David Lee Roth, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and Mötley Crüe, and he has released several solo studio albums, including "Vertigo" (2004), "The Devil Knows My Name" (2007), "The Art of Malice" (2010), "Careful With That Axe" (2014), and "Sinner" (2021). Working for Chrysalis Records, he has worked with artists such as Avril Lavigne, k.d. lang, Rob Halford, Meat Loaf, Garbage, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Slash. In 2016, he played rhythm guitar on Ace Frehley's album "Origins Vol. 1." John 5 appeared in the 2012 Rob Zombie-directed film "The Lords of Salem," and he worked as a composer and musician on the film. He also produced the 2019 animated promo videos "Zoinks!" and "I Am John 5," and he directed "The Death Parade" segment of the 2002 Marilyn Manson live video album "Guns, God and Government." In late 2022, John 5 became the official touring guitarist for Mötley Crüe, replacing longtime member Mick Mars.
Early Life
John 5 was born John William Lowery on July 31, 1970, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He began playing guitar at the age of 7 after watching "Hee Haw" with his father. On his official website, John 5 stated, "I watched the guitar playing and knew that was what I wanted to do. My friends wanted to be astronauts and such but all I wanted to do was play and play and play." During his youth, he took guitar lessons from Robert Gillespie, learning rock 'n' roll and classic blues guitar. John 5's parents accompanied him when he played at bars and clubs and were supportive of his budding music career as long as he was able to keep his grades up. Some of his early influences were Kiss, the Monkees, Jimi Hendrix, and Eddie Van Halen.
Career
John 5 moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 and began working as a session guitarist. His first L.A. band was Alligator Soup, and his involvement with the group led to a meeting with Whitesnake's Rudy Sarzo, who asked him to join his band Sun King. Around this time, John 5 met producer Bob Marlette, and the two worked together on several movie and TV soundtracks, such as "Speed 2: Cruise Control" (1997), as well as infomercials and commercials. John 5 was later chosen to perform with Lita Ford while she was the opening act for Kiss, and he became friends with the band members and played on Paul Stanley's 2006 album "Live to Win." John 5 worked with Randy Castillo in the bands Red Square Black and Bone Angels, performing on the 1994 Red Square Black EP "Square." Red Square Black disbanded after John 5 was chosen to tour with k.d. lang. In 1996, he formed the band 2wo with vocalist Rob Halford of Judas Priest, bassist Ray Riendeau, keyboardist James Wooley, and drummer Sid Riggs, and they released the album "Voyeurs" in 1998.
In 1998, David Lee Roth chose John 5 to play lead guitar on the album "DLR Band." That year he also became the guitarist for Marilyn Manson's band, and he played on the albums "Mechanical Animals" (1998), "The Last Tour on Earth" (1999), "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)" (2000), and "The Golden Age of Grotesque" (2003). In 2004, John 5 parted ways with Manson and released his debut solo album, "Vertigo." He followed "Vertigo" with "Songs for Sanity" (2005), "The Devil Knows My Name" (2007), "Requiem" (2008), "Remixploitation" (2009), "The Art of Malice" (2010), "God Told Me To" (2012), "Careful With That Axe" (2014), "Season of the Witch" (2017), "It's Alive" (2018), "Invasion" (2019), "Live Invasion" (2020), and "Sinner" (2021).
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In 2005, he formed a band called Loser with vocalist Joe Grah, drummer Glendon Crain, and bassist Charles Lee, and he began working with Rob Zombie. Conflicts between Loser and Zombie's touring schedules led to John 5 leaving Loser, and Island Records subsequently dropped the band. John 5 has played on several of Zombie's albums, including "Educated Horses" (2006), "Hellbilly Deluxe 2" (2010), "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor" (2013), "The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser" (2016), and "The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy" (2021), and he scored "The Lords of Salem" soundtrack. In 2021, John 5, Zombie, Tommy Clufetos, and Nikki Sixx formed the supergroup L.A. Rats, and their song "I've Been Everywhere" was featured on the soundtrack of the Liam Neeson action-thriller "The Ice Road."
He also worked as a composer on the 2016 film "31," and he performed on Alice Cooper's "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" (2011), Sebastian Bach's "Kicking & Screaming" (2011) and "Give 'Em Hell" (2014), and Steve Perry's "Traces" (2018).
Mötley Crüe
In 2022, John 5 became the new touring guitarist for Mötley Crüe after Mick Mars retired due to health problems. John's addition the band inadvertently caused a major rift to form between Mars and his former band mates Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil. According to Mars, after announcing his retirement, his band mates of 41 years asked him to relinquish his ownership stake in all of their business LLC, effectively cutting him out of earning a profit from the group going forward.
For their part, his former band members claimed that since they had already sold their publishing rights and master recordings – and were no longer releasing new records – touring was the only remaining source of revenue. And if he wasn't touring, they didn't think he deserved a share. Furthermore, John 5 needed to be paid.
Personal Life
John 5 has two children, Nicole and Jeremy, from his first marriage. From 2002 to 2006 he was married to adult actress Aria Giovanni. Next he married hair stylist Rita Aghajani in June 2009. He is the stepfather to Rita's son Andre.
John 5 collects Kiss memorabilia, primarily focusing on clothing, merchandise, and promo items from the early '70s to early '80s. He shares photos of his collection on the Instagram account @knightsinsatanservice.
Awards and Nominations
John 5 has received two Fright Meter Award nominations, winning Best Score for "The Lords of Salem" (shared with Griffin Boice) in 2013. He was also nominated in that category for "31" (shared with Rob Zombie, Bob Marlette, and Zeuss) in 2016. The film earned him a BloodGuts UK Horror Award nomination for Best Soundtrack/Score as well.
Real Estate
In 2000 John paid $415,000 for a modest home in Woodland Hills, California. He appears to still own this home today and its estimated value is $1.5 million.
In 2015 John paid $1.38 million for Spanish-style mansion in Northridge, California. The 6,000 square foot mansion has 9 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, pool, pool house and more.
