Electric guitar hero John 5 is currently busy preparing to hit the road with hard-rock titans Mötley Crüe.
Even in the midst of those rehearsals – the first of which was described by Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx as "fucking epic" – and preparations, the guitarist has still found time to work on solo material, as evidenced by today's premiere of a hard-hitting new solo song called Strung Out.
The song, the guitarist says, was inspired by his insatiable need to create on the guitar, and, as such, it features wild two-hand tapping – including an incredibly tasty section with unison guitar and bass guitar tapping – crazy kill switch antics... you name it. You can watch its playthrough video below.
"This song is called Strung Out because I am so obsessed with playing guitar that when I don’t play and create new music for a while, I start to go a little insane," the guitarist said in a press release.
"There’ll be more Creatures [John 5's solo band] shows sometime in the near future and I really look forward to playing this song live."
For the video, John 5 uses one of his favorite Telecasters, a hardtail model equipped with just a single volume knob, a pair of humbuckers, and the aforementioned killswitch.
Though the guitar in question won't serve as the guitarist's main six-string for the Mötley Crüe dates – a role, John 5 revealed in a recent rig tour, that has been awarded to his Floyd Rose-equipped gold custom Tele – it will almost certainly make at least a few onstage appearances in the coming weeks.
John 5 was recruited to Mötley Crüe's ranks following the retirement of the band's longtime guitarist, Mick Mars, last October. The band will set out on a world tour with Def Leppard this month, which will begin with a pair of shows at the Mark G Etess Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey on February 10 and 11.
For a full list of Mötley Crüe's tour dates, visit the band's website.
