Perry Farrell returns to stage with Steven Adler
This past Thursday (Oct. 30), The Doors’ Robby Krieger celebrated the band’s 60th anniversary with a star-studded concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Among the many big names who performed was Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell – whom Krieger dubbed as “the godfather of alt music.”
It marked Farrell’s first time on stage since his onstage altercation with bandmate Dave Navarro during a Jane’s Addiction show in Boston in September 2024. The incident ultimately led to the band officially calling it quits last year.
Alongside Krieger and the band, Farrell sang The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues,” “Waiting for the Sun,” and “Touch Me.”
Other guest performers included Billy Idol, Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler, Cigarettes After Sex singer Greg Gonzalez, Rob DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, and more.
Fans on the Jane’s Addiction fansite AintNoRight.org criticized Farrell’s performance, though some said it was an improvement. One fan said, “Man — I don’t know the entire performance feels on the verge of collapse
Perry really is toast at this point…”
Another fan said, “Everything Perry has done (or does) has caught up to him. It was a crazily long run until that happened, considering.
That said, this effort is 100% better than anything he gave on the US tour last year or the Porno tour (so no, Etty is not a magical weapon to neutralize whatever it is that’s “wrong” with him). And I still care about the guy, so I’m glad to see him outside the confines of Etty’s instagram camera.”
Another fan concluded, “That whole Doors tribute thing looks and sounds awful. All Perry needed was one of his NINJA tour Liberace outfits with the kitty tail to complete the joke. The word shambolic comes to mind. Compare that going back a couple decades when The Cult’s Ian Astbury fronted The Doors nostalgia money grab tour – the energy is mostly there even if Ian is overtly aping Morrison. At least he’s awake and putting something into his performance and the rest of the band isn’t dosed on ambien like the Perry party.”
Dave Navarro talks playing with Red Hot Chili Peppers
Following John Frusciante’s exit from Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992, the band recruited Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro to take his place. Despite his talents, Navarro only lasted five years with the band, leaving in 1998.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Navarro admitted that he doesn’t think he was the right choice for the job.
“Whatever magic John brought to the Chili Peppers, I didn’t have that style of magic,” he told the publication.
While Navarro cherishes his time with Anthony Kiedis and co., he has accepted the fact that they were just too different musically.
“When it came down to it, I was a goth kid in a funk band,” he said, laughing. “If you had to narrow down what the disconnect was, I’d say that would be it.”
“It became clear pretty fast that as much as we tried and as much as we wanted it to work, we weren’t coming from the same musical place.”
“I couldn’t help but feel like the odd man out in a lot of ways,” Navarro added. “We made a record [“One Hot Minute”] and embarked upon a world tour, but I had very little history with these guys.
“The best way I can describe it is that I was in a cover band with the actual band [laughs]. And that’s a very strange place to be – especially with the clashing of styles.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ One Hot Minute faced backlash
In 1995, the Chili Peppers released their sixth studio album “One Hot Minute.” Despite being a platinum-selling album, the record was initially not well received.
When asked about why “One Hot Minute” was “considered a failure at the time,” Navarro told Guitar World that he believes some of that mixed reception came from fans who were not happy about him taking over for Frusciante.
“I had to face the diehard audience of Chili Pepper fans, who didn’t like the fact that I was in that role. There was a lot of backlash from the fanbase because I was filling John’s role,” he said.
“I always found it odd that any of that was directed at me. I was like, ‘Well, if you don’t like me being here, you can blame them. I didn’t force myself into this, they asked me. All I did was say yes.’ [laughs]”
“Coming off the success of their previous record, and then having the lukewarm reception of this record, that really impacted everybody in the camp,” Navarro continued. “Again, this was odd for me because the record wasn’t what we had hoped in terms of reception from the fanbase, and there were question marks about the direction, and I was feeling the brunt of that.
“But for me, personally, it was the most successful record that I’d ever played on. [laughs] It definitely outsold anything that Jane’s [Addiction] had done prior, so getting a platinum record, to me, felt like a win. But for those guys, it felt like a failure, so it was a really strange dynamic.”
