In a new interview with Guitar World, guitarist Sophie Lloyd named ten guitarists that helped shape her sound.
Among with names such as Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmour and Slash, Lloyd also named Mötley Crüe’s John 5, and shared a confession about him.
“I’m kind of ashamed to say I discovered John 5 relatively recently,” she revealed. “I’m a Mötley Crüe fan and when I saw he’d joined I started researching him. Last year with Machine Gun Kelly, we were doing a lot of festival dates with Mötley Crüe. I got to watch so many of their performances from the side of the stage. He’s one of the most phenomenal live guitarists I’ve ever heard,” the guitarist continued.
She then explained what she liked so much about John 5 and why he is an inspiration for her. “His showmanship is something I really took from him. A lot of people can play guitar really, really well, but he knows the showmanship is also important; your fashion is important. He’s got this crazy light-up guitar. Things like that do make a difference in that live space, because there’s something that people will go home and tell their friends about. And the fun he injects into it – everything is so much fun!”
Lloyd’s admiration for the Mötley Crüe isn’t just limited to John 5. The guitarist named the band’s fifth studio album, ‘Dr. Feelgood,’ as one of the albums that highly influenced her.
“Motley Crue’s ‘Kickstart My Heart’ was one of the first songs I learned to play. Not that I played it that well – I was 14, I was trying! I’d ask people to come up to my room and listen to me play it on my shitty little Line 6 Spider amp. I used to go on rock bandcamp for weeks away, and we once played this song in front of all the parents. I actually met Mötley Crüe and watched them side of stage this year, which was a very full-circle moment,” she recalled during a chat with Metal Hammer.
It indeed was a full circle moment. 13 years later, Lloyd went ahead and covered ‘Kickstart My Heart’ and shared it on her YouTube channel.
