Guitarist John 5 gave an interview to Mistress Carrie Podcast during which he remembered the time he talked to David Lee Roth on the phone and started to tear up.
John 5 achieved his big breakthrough when former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth recruited him to play guitar on his 1998 release, ‘DLR Band.’ This was one of the guitarist’s dreams, and it had finally come true. His gig with Diamond Dave also marked the beginning of John 5’s career.
Apart from being a successful solo musician, David Lee Roth had also worked with Van Halen as the band’s frontman across three stints; between 1974 and 1985, in 1996, and from 2006 to the band’s disbandment in 2020. Back in 2007, when DLR rejoined Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen was struggling with health problems.
Due to that, the guitarist missed some performances and the band’s induction to Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. After a tour and the ‘A Different Kind of Truth’ album, Eddie passed away on October 6, 2020, from cancer. In the interview on Mistress Carrie Podcast, John 5 talked about the time Van Halen’s iconic guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s health condition wasn’t well.
He said that he talked with DLR on the phone at that time, and Roth told him that Eddie wasn’t doing well. John 5 confessed that he started tearing up after he heard that. The guitarist then stated that the reason he burst into tears was that hearing something from Roth, who was close to Eddie, was shocking for him.
In the interview, John 5 told the Mistress Carrie Podcast the following:
“I talked to Roth a while ago, and he was, like, ‘Yeah, Eddie’s not doing well.’ And I remember I’m sitting there at his place, and I started to well up, I was starting to tear up. I was, like, ‘Okay, get ahold of yourself.’
Because that’s you hearing it from someone that’s close to Ed. I was, like, ‘All right. Keep it together.’ Because I was shocked. I was, like, ‘Oh my God. This can’t be.'”
Following the death of Eddie Van Halen, Van Halen decided they could not continue without their guitarist and disbanded. Some months ago, DLR announced his retirement, but John 5 continues his musical career both with Rob Zombie and as a solo artist.
