Guitarist John 5 said there is a Van Halen-inspired track he recorded with David Lee Roth that has yet to be released titled “Nothing Could Have Stopped Us”.
During a recent interview with Alabama’s AL.com, John 5 revealed some of the details behind the track:
Speaking of rock legends, you played guitar on the David Lee Roth solo album “DLR Band.” But of course, Van Halen freaks, we want to know more about this unreleased album you recorded with Dave. A couple of acoustic tracks from that were released in the last year or so, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar and Grill” and “Giddy-Up!”.
Yeah, and people really like those songs, so I’m super happy about it. 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. 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.
Is 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? Or is there some hard-rock on there too?
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.
Listen To David Lee Roth (featuring John 5) “Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar and Grill”
Listen To David Lee Roth (featuring John 5) “Giddy-Up”
The Backstory To The David Lee Roth/John 5 Sessions
John 5 appeared on 1998’s ‘DLR Band’ album, which was recorded and mixed in just ten days. He actually performed double duty on the record, playing both lead guitar and bass guitar (credited as B’ourbon Bob) on seven tracks – “Slam Dunk”, “Blacklight”, “Counter-Blast”, “Little Texas”, “Wa Wa Zat!!”, “Relentless” and “Weekend With The Baby Sitter”. Since working with The DLR Band in the late ’90s, John remained friends with Roth in the years that followed. He told VHND that in early 2007, the two joined forces to record a batch of songs for a possible album along with Roth’s former solo band-mates, Gregg Bissonette (drums) and Brett Tuggle (keyboards). Not long afterwards, John revealed to Guitar World that they had, indeed, completed a full album.
In 2003, while still lead guitarist for Marilyn Manson, John was invited back by Roth to write and record “Thug Pop”, the single non-cover song for Roth’s 2003 album ‘Diamond Dave’. He’s since gone on to work with Rob Zombie while also launching a solo career in 2004.
John’s pairing with Roth didn’t end with the song “Thug Pop”, however. Last November, Roth launched The Roth Project, an online comic narrated by Roth, with music from John on guitar and bass, It also includes five songs Roth co-wrote with John and recorded several years ago at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, California: “Giddy-Up”, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar & Grill”, “Alligator Pants”, “Lo-Rez Sunset” and “Manda Bala”. In October of 2020 following the passing of Eddie Van halen, Roth released “Somewhere Over The Rainbow Bar & Grill” as a tribute to his former bandmate.
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