Last month, it was announced that Mötley Crüe's guitarist Mick Mars would be retiring from touring due to his ongoing battle with the "crippling degenerative disease" Ankylosing Spondylitis, which affects joints in the spine.
In the band's statement annoucing Mars' retirement, they also declared his official replacement: Rob Zombie guitarist John 5.
Filling the shoes of such a well-known player is no easy task, but one person who has no doubts in John 5's ability to pull off the role is Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, who has already seen the new guitarist in action.
Kroeger was in attendance at drummer Tommy Lee's 60th birthday party - held last month in Punta Mita, Mexico - alongside the Crüe's Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil, the aforementioned John 5 and strangely enough, actor John Travolta.
The private bash was held over a course of five days, during which Kroeger sat down with John 5 to watch him practice the guitar parts of Crüe's songs.
"John's incredible," Kroeger says, while speaking to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station. "He brought his guitar [with him to Mexico]. 'Cause we were there for... I think we were there for, like, five days. So on one of the nights, John brought a guitar out. And a lot of people were heading to bed. And it was just, like, John and Tommy and myself. I think Deadmau5 [Canadian electronic music producer and DJ] might have stayed up with us that night as well.
"John just played… 'Cause now I'm allowed to say that he's gonna be filling in for Mick for the rest of the tour. And so he just sat there and played every single Mötley Crüe riff that's ever been written and recorded — flawlessly. Flawlessly. You don't need to put on music when you've got that kind of talent just sitting right there. I mean, he was just running the gamut, and it was fantastic."
In other news, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard recently shared that they will be hitting the road together for The World Tour, a sequel to this year's Stadium Tour across the US. The trek will kick off on February 18 in Mexico.
Watch Chad Kroeger's interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station below:
