John 5 Posts Video to Debunk Claims That He Uses Backing Tracks

The idea of a Mötley Crüe member relying on backing tracks during a live show ain’t nothing new. We’ve seen pretty damning evidence that Tommy Lee’s done so in the past and there’s public allegations from ex-guitarist Mick Mars that bassist Nikki Sixx does too. As far as Vince Neil, well the whole world generally wishes he’d start fucking lip syncing, but that’s beside the point.

Yet over the last week or so, people online have been circulating a video that claims to show that the backing track bug has spread to the super insanely talented guitarist John 5. He’s only been in the band since October 2022, so in the grand scheme of things it’s not that long but damn, the video doesn’t look too good to the average layman.

Only problem is that John 5 is ridiculously good at what he does, so it would make no sense for him to fake anything. To prove that’s the case, he took to his Instagram page this morning to show people what was actually going on by using what he called a “very simple technique.”

“I do this a lot, it’s just hammer-ons and pull-offs, but if you’re not a musician, you don’t really understand what’s going on. I do this thing where I flip the pick around on my neck. Very simple, so it’s not a big thing. A lot of things are played with one hand. A lot of musicians know this. So, nothing to worry about, no backing tracks.”

Hammer-ons and pull-offs are pretty fundamental techniques. And if you compare how he explained it to the video of the actual performance of “Wild Side,” it doesn’t look all that far off.

So there you have it. His bandmates may suck and use backing tracks, but John 5 doesn’t suck.