Guitarist John 5 recently spoke with AL.com about the material he has worked on with VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth, including a track written about the iconic band.
Last fall, David Lee Roth included five previously unreleased songs in ‘The Roth Project’ which was an online comic narrated by the singer, featuring music from John 5 on guitar and bass, Greg Bissonette on drums, Brett Tuggle on keyboards, and Luis Conte on percussion.
“People really like those songs, so I’m super happy about it,” John 5 said. “Because listen, you can’t deny a good song and Dave writes good songs. He’s written some of the most amazing songs of our lifetime, and Dave worked really hard on these lyrics. I’m not sure when it’s going to come out or if it’ll come out, but I hope it does.
“There’s one I’ll tell you about called ‘Nothing Could Have Stopped Us’, and it’s unbelievable,” he continued. “Being a VAN HALEN fan and a Dave Lee Roth fan, it’s unbelievable because it’s about Dave singing about VAN HALEN and what it was like. Really something special, so I really hope that comes out.”
Asked if the rest of the unreleased David Lee Roth record in the same vein as the songs that have come out, which have a singer/songwriter sound, John 5 said: “He wanted to do this kind of a more California sessions type of thing. And he’s such an artist, I was, like, ‘Whatever you want to do, I’m there for you.’ So it is that kind of vibe. But there’s a lot of multi tracks and different acoustic parts that all work together. It’s kind of orchestrated, if you will.”
In a 2014 interview, John 5 described the LP as “11 of the greatest songs you’ll ever hear, and it’s just me and Dave, and we had Gregg Bissonette play drums on it. And it’s unbelievable,” he said. “You know, just great, great songs.”