When you’re a starting and struggling musician, you may not be able to land your dream gig right off the bat, so it should come as no surprise that before he was laying down some serious licks with Five Finger Death Punch, guitarist Jason Hook took a number of gigs, including some outside of the metal genre.

 

Hook told the Evansville Courier & Press that he was actually once a member of Mandy Moore’s touring band before ever crossing paths with his current Vegas brothers in arms. He recalls, “When I moved to Los Angeles, I was broke. I just made a pact with myself that if I could just get into the field, I was going to take the job so I could learn whatever I could. It beat working at Home Depot. I had to beat out about 50 guys at the audition. And then it was like, ‘Pack a bag! We’re going on tour!’ I was pretty happy about it, you know?”

While playing pop songs wasn’t his passion, Hook says the experience with Moore proved invaluable. He adds, “[It] taught me a lot: There were rules, you had to be on time, you had to be prepared, you had to be focused, you had to be responsible. It taught me discipline and how to work in that environment. I’m very grateful to have the history that I have. Some people think it’s not cool, but that’s OK. I had the option to do roof tiling and all that stuff. I just didn’t want to.”

After working with Moore, Hook toiled as a sideman for Vince Neil and Alice Cooper before the Five Finger Death Punch call came. And as for his current band, the guitarist says they have the professionalism as well as the sound that he desired. He explained, “[They're] pretty disciplined. We’re doing business during the day, constantly. We spend time making music and we’re always trying to prepare new material. We’re very proactive in that way. We set goals for ourselves. We don’t just sleep all day and party all night.”

Five Finger Death Punch are currently headlining the ‘Trespass America‘ tour. The trek continues through Michigan, Ohio, and New York this week.

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