Thirty-five years later, the band is credited as a forerunner of alternative music and remains an icon of Gen X and American music. Singer and frontman Perry Farrell created the first Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for the band, and three decades, four studio albums and several reunions later, Jane’s Addiction is back on the road.
“It’s just the way it is right now. We’re going out there without our star guitar player,” Farrell says. It was surfing that gave Farrell the edge he felt he needed to become a great musician, a sentiment he shared with his late friend and fellow musician Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, who died unexpectedly earlier this year while on tour in South America.
“When we started Jane’s and I was looking for a drummer, I was looking for the best drummer and just like that, I met Stephen Perkins,"Farrell says."When I met Eric and Dave Navarro I knew from the very first song we played together, I knew. I was already making plans, how far I was going to go with these guys.”
“Out on the road, I run my life exactly like a professional athlete,” he says. “I have nutrition, exercise and have to be careful. You have to be so dedicated to it, because if I didn’t say anything they’d have me talking all day, and singing all night without a break! I’m a lifer, this is what I want to do until the day I die and on my 70th birthday, I’m singing that night.”
Farrell has a wish for the world that he hopes will one day come to fruition and break down barriers of religion.