Latest / DISGRACELAND / Jane’s Addiction (Pt. 2): Nothing’s Shocking, Not Dead Teenage Girls or Onstage Brawls

Transcript

Jane’s Addiction (Pt. 2): Nothing’s Shocking, Not Dead Teenage Girls or Onstage Brawls · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: story about freaks and frauds, about the underground going mainstream,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and about some of the people who dragged it there.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It's about sex, drugs, and a teenage girl whose memory
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: was turned into a shrine for the alternative nation. It's
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a story about Perry Ferrell, the outlaw who built a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: church for the weird and then crowned himself as its
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: high priest. And it's also about the cost of control,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about what happens when the carnival barker becomes the cop.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: This is the origin story of Jane's addiction. So it's
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a story about great music. Unlike that music I played
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show. That wasn't
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop from my melotron
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: called Venice Beach Sweatbox MK. Two. I played you that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: loop because I can't afford the rights to Vision of
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Love by Mariah Carey. And why would I play you
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that specific slice of multi octave vocal run cheese? Could
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I afford it? Because that was the number one song
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in America on August twenty first, nineteen ninety and that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: was the day that Jane's Addiction released their second studio album,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Ritual de Loo Habitual, a record inspired by the tragic
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: death of one of Perry Ferrell's muses, a death that
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: foretold much darker days ahead. On this episode, freak scenes,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: alternative Nations, outlaws, weirdos, Perry Ferrell in Jane's Addiction, I'm
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Jake Brennan and this is disgrace Slam. Jane's Addiction lied.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: It turns out that everything was shocking, or I should
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: say that everything still had the capacity to shock, even
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, when we the audience, the fans,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: those who had seen it all before, especially that well
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: worn chestnut of a tail, the one in which a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: band always splinters apart from the inside out. We sat
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: there on a day in September, Miles agate jaw on
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: the floor, watching on our screens at the smartphone footage
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: taken at the previous night's Jane's Addiction show in Boston.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: There's singer Perry Ferrell, dressed like Johnny Depp on Safari,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: striking that rock star pose, standing ten feet tall and
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: letting the music shoot through him like lightning. WHI she
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: was right? Dave Navarro rips into a guitar soul during
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: the band's song Ocean Size, A fan favorite and a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: favorite of mine as well, I guess because I've always
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: been a fan Anyways, Perry, He's on stage, grunting into
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the mic, rhythmic tribal, finally in step with Eric Avery's
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: bass and Stephen Perkins's drums after a night in which
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: his timing had been alarmingly off. The grunts become shouts,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and then they become screams, and Perry turns to Dave
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: and quickly closes in, body checking the guitar player with
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: hate in his eyes. Dave is momentarily stunned. What the fuck?
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: And then Perry is screaming again, or this time not
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: into the mic, but in his guitar player, Dave Navarro's face.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Fuck you. Davis to stop shredding for a moment so
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that he can hold up his picking hand and keep
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Perry at bay as the singer is pushing into him again.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: What that word? What? It keeps cycling through Dave Navarro's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: head and coming out of his mouth. It's the only
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: word that he can think of at the moment. Perry,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, is dumb with words. He goes
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: full jock now his elbow pushing into Dave again like
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a right wing pushing past the defenseman into the crease.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And then Perry winds up quick and throws his stiff
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: right hand at Dave's chest. It connects with a thut,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and suddenly the band's guitar tack Dan Cleary jumps into
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the frame, pulls Perry away, but Perry doesn't want to
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: be pulled away, so Eric Avery, the bassist, has to
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: throw down his guitar, get Perry in a headlock, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: start punching him repeatedly in the stomach in order to
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: subdue him. Meanwhile, David Navarro takes off his guitar and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: places it gently down on the stage, but not before
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: turning the volume down so that a dozen feetback, you
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: know the son, we're told professionally, even in the turning
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: eye of chaos, and after which Dave just walks off stage.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: But those of us watching all of this transpire on
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: our screens again, miles gape, jaws on the floor, we're
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: all thinking the same thing. I think I just witnessed
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the end of Jane's addiction. Now, as I said at
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the top of the episode, this moment, which was quickly
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: disseminated all over the Internet, was capital S shocking, no doubt.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: But for anyone who's ever been in a band before,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a touring band, a band with numerous, wildly different and
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: frequently competing ideas of creative direction, you know what it's like.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Even I had to admit that. Yeah, back in the
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: day when things got he did, I could have been
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: one bum note away from either being Perry or Dave
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: in that situation. But cooler heads typically prevail in moments
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: like these. Dirty laundry remains stop to way down inside
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a Duffel bag in the backstage green room. And you
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: know that Mick and Keith or Bono on the Edge
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: have had moments like this in their decades of fragile brotherhood.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: It's only natural and it's more than a little inevitable.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: So why haven't guys like that come to blows publicly
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: in the way the Jains Addiction did. Because the Rolling
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Stones or U two or whoever, they don't have a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Perry Farrell, a whole, unique, eccentric front man who made
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it his job to champion the freaks and the outlaws
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and the mystics and the dopers, and the Wanderers, the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: one in the same Perry Ferrell, who had once loudly
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and flamboyantly brought the so called alternative nation to the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: front door of the corporate mainstream, only to grow up
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and find that that transformative power of freakdom which he
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: wielded with startout pride, went and transformed him into the
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: very thing he vowed never to become, an authority figure.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty four, Los Angeles. The cops were relentless, two
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: LAPD officers, one on either side of him, asking all
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: sorts of questions, where was he from, why was he here?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: And what did he do for a living? Perry Ferrell
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: didn't want to answer that last one, or I should
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: say he didn't want to answer truthfully, because if he
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: was being honest, he was a twenty five year old
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: rogue musician, a feral artist, a rock on tour out
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: on the margins, a free spirit blown by the wind,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: who spent the last six years living out of an
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: old Buick regal down in Newport Beach. He made a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: little money waiting tables over at Oscars, but he wasn't
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: cut out for shift work or work work for that matter.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: He was dubious of the promises made by others. His
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: mother had taken her own life when he was young,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and his father had filled the maternal void with lots
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of young women in hard drugs. But Perry wasn't about
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to say this to a couple of LA's finest. Instead,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: he told him he was a successful interior designer with
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a steady income, and at that the two cops were satisfied.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: They handed Perry the keys to the house they co
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: owned at three sixty nine North Wilton, between Melrose and Beverly,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: just outside Hancock Park and told him that rent was
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: due on the first of every month. The irony was
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: almost too much. Perry Farrell was about to fill this
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: six bedroom house with other like minded rule breaking artists, musicians, photographers, painters, junkies,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: their girlfriends, their dealers, twenty four to seven partying and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: conniving in criminal mischief, all of it taking place under
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: the roof of Johnny Law, his new landlord, in an
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: apartment he was renting in a house owned by a
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: couple of cops. At the height of Mayhem, there were
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: about twelve people living in what would become known as
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the Wilton House, including Perry's friend Jane. Jane's habit, along
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: with her fucked up relationship with an abusive dealer named Sergei,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: inspired the name for Perry's new band, Jane's Addiction, formed
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: after Perry's brief tenure in the post punk group's picon,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: even though the name Jane's Addiction was also Perry's Addiction.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about perro and addiction solely, but
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the additional addictions to life stark corners, to its tattered
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: lunatic fringe, to sex, to violence, and things far beyond
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: any socially accepted norms. As a band, you didn't find
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: these sorts of things out in the more hallowed rooms
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: on the Sunset Strip, the Whiskey Ye Go Go, Doug
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Weston's famous Troubadour. These venues were notoriously pay to play,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: meaning that you the band, had to pony up cold
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: hard cash before the powers of b would put you
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: on a bill. What's that all about? Anyways, Perry didn't
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: want to be on a bill with some slick asshole
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: like Axel Rose, who Perry found to be nothing more
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: than a market corrected second coming of Vince Neil. And sure,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: some of this could be chalked up to sour grapes,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: as Perry and his band didn't. Actually we have the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: funds to get themselves to be able to play the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Whiskey You Go Go, or on the Troubadour stage, for
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that matter. But they had something else. They had the
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: ingenuity of the fiscally challenged. They had the backing of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the criminal underworld. Specifically, they were bankrolled by the earnings
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of a sex worker who turned her tricks with b
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: list actors at the Capitol for early Jean's Addiction shows,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and soon Perry, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: were clawing their way out of the underground and knocking
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: on the mainstream's door. And the only problem they knock
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: loud enough, and sometimes the mainstream answers. Bianca sat on
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a stool outside the banged up door of an abandoned
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of LA's underground. She was
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: naked from the waist up, with small strips of black
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: electrical tape covering the nipples of her exposed breasts, a
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: site which attracted welcome attention from passers by, while also
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: ensuring that the entire operation which she was overseeing remained
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: on the right side of the law, not that she
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't familiar with the wrong side. Her primary source of
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: income came from the wrong side, from her regular gig
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: as a sex worker, but tonight she was turning that
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: hard earned money into a legitimate side hustle. She was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the one who'd rented out this stump and was now
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: collecting the five dollars cover from any and all manner
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: of Hollywood freaks looking to experience something they couldn't find
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: anywhere else. Bianca knew it was a losing proposition. It
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: was nineteen eighty six, and in Los Angeles, the cohort
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of Freaks, which was strong but finite, had many options
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: for music venues in which they could hoist their flags.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: There was Lingerie on Sunset, where you could catch Fishbone
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Ska Metal Hybrid, and the Anti Club over on Melrose,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: where the Circle Jerks and the tube sock wearing pre
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: John Fruchiante Red Hot Chili Peppers did their aptly named
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Freaky stylely thing. And then there were the pop up
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: clubs like Scream and Power Tools, which operated in basements,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: lobbies and rooms of local hotels, stomping grounds for only
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the fringe of the fringe, and so to attract attention.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Here now for a little known art metal band called
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Jane's Addiction, a band that was the perverse inversion of
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: more popular local groups like Guns n' Roses. Well that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: was a tall order, but that's what the tape on
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the nipples was for. Anything helped, and Bianca, for one,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to help out her friends. So she posed, with
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: her very being an invitation to something illicit and darkly seductive,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a cigarette burning between her lips, cash money in her
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: hands now, all the while taking the financial hit so
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: that Perry Ferrell, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: could make a name for themselves. Inside the room was
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: sparsely populated. Smoke machines and flashing lights provided a dramatic
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: backdrop for fire eaters, strippers, hot dog vendors, and of
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: course Perry Ferrell and nothing but pantyhose leading Jane's Addiction
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: through a deafening tribal groove. Since forming the year prior,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the group had quickly found a voice as unique as
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: any of their so called alternative peers, while also sounding
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: like none of them. And they walked the same wide
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: open spaces as latter day led Zeppelin, to whom they
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: were frequently compared. He and Perry's high pitched whale was
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: admittedly in conversation with Robert Plants. But if Zeppelin was
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: muscular and mountainous, Jane's addiction was wiry, scrappy and almost
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: maniacally horny. They sounded as if a post punk band
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Wire or Magazine or Gang of Four take your pick,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: had swallowed Zeppelin whole, and then the ensuing indigestion had
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: brought on some sweaty night terrors. And that was the music, or,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: as the La Times put it, psycho metal. That psycho
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: medal was being made mostly by guys who were barely
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: out of high school. The rhythm section, Eric Avery and
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Stephen Perkins laid down hypnotic foundations which Dave Navarro would
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: then smother and effects laden guitar shrapnel. And then there
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was the odd guy out Perry Farrell on vocals. Odd
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: guy out in this case because he was the one
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: pushing thirty, and also because he was just odd period.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: The way he saying what he's saying, the way he
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: dressed or didn't dress, the drugs he did. He was
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: provocation in Carnie, pushing right up against the line of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: what was socially acceptable and frequently crossing that line too.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Not that some of the other guys like Dave weren't
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: doing hard drugs as well, because they were, But Perry
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: was the one introducing those drugs to a girl who
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: he allegedly began dating when he was an adult and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: she was still in her early teens. And to be clear,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's provocative, not just pointing it out
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: because it's gross, not to mention illegal. I'm also now
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: getting ahead of the story, so more on all of
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: that in a bit. But a funny thing happened in
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: the mid eighties when Jane's Addiction was working hard to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: be the weirdest, most psycho metal band in Los Angeles.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: They began to gain momentum. They graduated from Bianca's independently
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: funded warehouse one offs and got themselves a real reputation
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: in an otherwise crowded music scene. They found themselves at
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: the center of a record label bidding war, and it
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: was all because there were others out there who were
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: just like them, and maybe these others, maybe they were
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: hiding behind a start shirt or inside a three piece
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: suit that maybe they were having a three martini corporate launcher,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: smoking a pipe while wrapped in the warm embrace of
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: tenure at UCLA. But deep down they were all freaks too,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: and they, just like Jane's Addiction, were tired of the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: same old things that the mainstream kept force feeding them
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: as if there were some chirping little pet They were
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: bored with that shit. They were bored with Madonna and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Cindi Lauper and Prince and Tom Petty, and Prince was
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: just a horn dog and Cindy Lauper was nothing but
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: an older, punky brewster. These were safe, monoculture approved versions
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of the rebel. Jane's Addiction, on the other hand, were not.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: They were actually dangerous. They were actually rebellious. They were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: actually transgressive, and they were on their way out of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: the Hollywood underground and into the storefront windows on America's
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: busy main street, or so they thought. January nineteen eighty seven, late,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a long black limousine pulled up along the Sunset Strip,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: just outside the legendary Rainbow Bar and grow the Limos
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: back door opened in forty nine year old Jack Nicholson
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and all his raised eyebrowed cheshire cat grinning glory stepped out.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: He straightened out a suit jacket, adjusted the black sunglasses
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that he wore even at nighttime, and wondered if he'd
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: find that giant mutton shop having let me Killmeister of Motorhead,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: nursing a jack and coke at the end of the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: bar inside. The year prior, Jack Nicholson had been nominated
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: for his eighth Academy Award for his role as a
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: love struck hit man in Prizzi's Honor, which took place
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: just two years after he'd won Best Supporting Actor for
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Terms of Endearment. How executives from Warner Brothers were pressing
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: him to play the Joker in Tim Burton's radical new
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: vision for Batman. Suffice to say, at this moment, Jack
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Nicholson was at the top of his game, not to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: mention the consummate embodiment of a Hollywood icon, and Jack
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: was only a few feet from the Rainbow's door when
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: a scrawny figure came running down the block from the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: nearby Roxy Theater. Yo. The scrawny guy was yelling now,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and as he got closer, Jack saw the clash of
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: clothing styles. The silver jacket, the white boy dreadlocks, and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: this was a familiar scene. Some homeless dude looking for
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a fistful of dollars from the a lister who just
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: stepped out of the shiny black car. Some stray dog
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: chasing after a rolls Royce Yo yo, Jack shit, scrowny,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: dreadlocked homeless guy knew his name, Jack panicked looking for
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: his bodyguard, while simultaneous engaging how fast he'd have to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: move to make it to the Rainbow's front door unscathed. Jack.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I'm man, The guy was now mere feet away from
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the movie star. Jack. My band, we're playing over there tonight.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: With this, the guy motioned back to the roxy next door.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: We're actually making a record there tonight. It's our first album,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a live album. Jack. Would you come over and introduce
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: us to the crowd. It would be so good, Jack.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: By this point, Jack's bodyguard had stepped in between his
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: boss and the scrawny, silver jacketed dreadlock guy, who just
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: stood there vibrating, looking equal parts strung out and anxious
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and waiting for an answer. I'm sorry, the bodyguard said,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: putting a hand out to keep What jackiet clearly clocked
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: is some completely delusional crack pod at a safe distance.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Mister Nicholson doesn't do requests. Then Jack Nicholson was whisked
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to safety inside the Rainbow Bar and Grill, while Perry
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Farrell walked himself back to the Roxy, where Jane's Addiction
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: recorded their debut live album in front of a packed
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: house that included members of Fishbone and the Red Hot
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Chili Peppers and Thelonious mon They're watching from the audience,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: But no, Jack Nicholson didn't matter. The little freak show
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: that Bianca had once financed, and that Perry conducted, the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: nipple tape, the pantyhose, the psycho metal that was all kindling,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and now a fire was starting to catch somewhere far
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: beyond the Strip. And something else followed, something darker, something
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the band carried with them, something that would take center
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: stage right along with the music. We'll be right back
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: after this. We're We're, We're after, sending Jack Nicholson, reeling
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: with terror and confusion, straight into the safe and capable
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: arms of his bodyguard. Perry Farrell and his Freaks came
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: from mainstream America next. But why did they succeed? Why
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: were weirdos like Jane's Addictions being wilfully injected into the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: bloodstream of Western popular culture. The answer was actually quite simple.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: It wasn't personal, It was business. To paraphrase Michael Azibrad,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: who has written extensively about the indie rock that defined
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: this moment in history. When Jane's Addiction signed to Warner
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Brothers in nineteen eighty seven, all the other major labels
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: opened their eyes to this organic movement that had been
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: steadily growing beneath the surface. And in that organic movement,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the major labels saw dollar signs. But even as it
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: was quickly becoming corporatized, so called alternative rock proudly saw
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: itself as the antithesis to the corporatization of music and art.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: One of the alternative nation's selling points was its sense
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: of freedom. There was the freedom to express oneself with
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: sounds that were distorted and dissonant, freedom to ignore along
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: held and well established conventions or expectations. And those freedoms
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: could be heard on Jane's Addiction self time titled debut
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: live album, and then again on Nothing Shocking, their second album,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a studio effort, this time which came out in the
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: summer of nineteen eighty eight, in which features one of
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the only songs I know about Ted Bundy, but I digress.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Perry Farrell flaunted his own freedom every time he got
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: on stage and went full Jim Morrison, tossing aside the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: shackles that evening scantily clad outfit, a corset perhaps, or
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a pair of rubber pants, to let both his inhibitions
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and his penis run wild. But there was a price
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: for all that freedom. Many record stores refused to carry
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Nothing Shocking because they took offence to the cover art,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: a sculpture created by Perry and his girlfriend Casey Nikolai,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: which depicted a pair of naked, conjoined female twins with
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: their hair on fire. And MTV refused to air the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: music video for their single Mountain Song because it contained
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: graphic nudity and that was just the commercial cost of things.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: A few disgusted retailers, some pearl clutchers at cable TV
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: in the age of the PMRC, the real price was
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: paid elsewhere, because when you live with that much freedom,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: without rules, without limits, and a world of your own
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: making where anything goes and everything is fuel for your music,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: your art, eventually someone gets burned. Eighteen year old Lisa
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Chester aka's Iola Blue walked inside her New York City
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: apartment and dropped her keys on the counter. The place
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: was a mess, but she told herself she'd pick it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: up later. She had so much on her mind her
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: head was spinning. The last few weeks have been a blur,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: especially those three days she spent out in la with
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: her ex boyfriend Perry Farrow and his current girlfriend Casey.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Three days of sex and dope, three days of getting high,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: shooting up and listening to the flicker of candle flames
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: lapped the sticky air while two pairs of naked arm
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and legs wrapped around her body. But had she really
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: heard that the candle flame or was it something else?
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: She heard it again, now, almost like an echo. It
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: followed her around like Perry, and even though Iola was
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: no longer in a relationship with him, it was like
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: some kind of spell he cast. She was young and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: impressionable when they first met, Ziola in her mid teens
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and Perry ten years older. Perry gave her heroin for
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the first time, and from then on she was hooked.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: She was still hooked, and maybe that's what was calling
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: out to her. She realized she was sweating, She got
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: out her gears so she could fix and a few
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: hours later she was dead. The freak scene had devoured
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: z Iola Blue, and while she was being mourned, Perry Farrell
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: turned his grief into something he could memorialize, something that
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: he thought would hold meaning, and the place he chose
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to do that was Jane's Addiction's next album, Ritual De
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Loo Habitual. He put the pain and loss on tape,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: specifically on the record's centerpiece, Three Days, a nearly eleven
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: minute epic inspired by his three day trysts with Ziola
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: and Casey, and for the album's cover art, Key and
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Casey created a mixed media sculpture out of chicken wire, newspaper,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: flower paste, and twine that depicted the two of them,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: along with Ziola during their three day tryst, and the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: graphic image got Jane's Addiction in hot water again, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: this time the record company created a sanitized, text only
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: alternate cover to appease the stories that were refusing to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: stalk a record with three naked people on the front.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But regardless of which version was on sale at Tower
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Records down the street, Perry Farrell had done what he
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: had set out to do. He turned a dead teenage
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: girl into a saint for the alternate Nation. Ziola's family
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: did not approve. They blamed Perry for glamorizing Ziola's junkie life.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: They said he was cashing in on a tragedy in
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: order to line his pockets, just like all those major
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: labels that cashed in on LA's music Underground. Ziola was gone,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and now she was nothing but raw material, the emotional
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: clay that Perry was molding in his exploitative hands. Similar
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: claims emerged later when Casey Nikolai accused Perry is stealing
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: her ideas, her input, and her influence. Casey made music
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: videos for the band. She made a bizarre docudrama for
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: them called Gift. She was the muse and those were
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: her clothes and her style that Perry appropriated. But in
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: the end, again according to Casey, she was essentially erased
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: from the Jane's Addiction low. By the time Ritual de
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Loo Habitual was released on August twenty first, nineteen ninety,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Jane's Addiction had nearly erased themselves. Eric Avery, newly clean
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and sober, and suddenly acutely perceptive to the exhausting bullshit
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of artzy FARTSI freaki diki, dudes on a lot of
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: drugs could hardly be in Perry's presence for more than
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: a few minutes at a time. And Eric's old buddy
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Dave Navarro, who used to split a joint, a line
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: of blow and a six pack of beer before high
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: school every day with him, was now a full blown junkie.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: And Jane's Addiction wasn't really a band anymore, not in
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: any traditional sense. They have built altars to sex and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: transgressive self destruction into the promises of freak centric freedom,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: no matter the cost. They were in their own way,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and also in the same way that many bands are
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: worshiped a religion, and Perry Ferrell had become their self
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: appointed high priest. All right, guys. Earlier in this episode
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I mentioned the band Psycom, which was Perry Faroll's first
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: band before Jane's Addiction, that he had formed in the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: early eighties. Now, what I didn't have time to get
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: into here in this episode was this crazy incident in
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five when Perry was attending this huge free
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: music festival in Los Angeles, part of which was shut
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: down by well over one hundred cops, many of them
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: on horseback, and more specifically, I didn't get into how
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the ensuing riot actually wound up playing an important part
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: in the origins of Jane's addiction. But if you want
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: to hear that wild story, we've got you covered. As always,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: you can hear it as part of this week's mini
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: episode of Disgraceland, which is available exclusively for All Access members.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: To become a member and get more content like we
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: leave bonus mini episodes, add free listening, and more, just
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: go to disgraylandpod dot com for more info and to
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sign up. All right now for the conclusion to our
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Part two episode on Jane's Addiction. When Jane's addiction came
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to their inevitable end the first time around in nineteen
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: ninety one, they went out with a bang. I briefly
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: covered the inaugural Lollapalooza festival tour in our Part one
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: episode on Jaine's Addiction, mostly about how the festival doubled
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: as a traveling farewell for Perry, Dave, Eric and Stephen.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: But what made Lallapalooza so impactful and so cutting edge
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: was that it embraced a sense of freedom. In its curation,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: it brought together bands that you normally would never have
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: seen in the same bill. For example, here's who took
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: part that first year, Jane's Addiction, Iced Tea, Nine Inch Nails,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the Rawlins Band, the Butthole Surfers, and the Living Color.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: In effect, the programming of Lollapalooza was an attempt to
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: tear down some of the walls that have been put
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: up for decades by music obsessives. Music was identity. It
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: defined the social or ideological group in which you fit.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: It was shorthand for who you were, what you believed in,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: and what you hated. Therefore, if you rolled with Iced Tea,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: chances are you didn't also roll with Nine Inch No.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And honestly, it sounds a little nuts now, but back then,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: if you were into Living Color, you probably didn't give
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a fuck about Jane' Addiction. Those two bands represented very
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: different ideas, different cultures, different styles of thinking and playing
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and dressing. I mean, Living Color had a bona fide
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: top ten hit album, which is something that Jan's Addiction
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: was never able to accomplish. That divide between mainstream and alternative.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: It's a big part of what I'm talking about, and
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: at the time, Jane's Addiction was often pointed to as
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the anti Sunset strip band. They weren't slick and radio friendly,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: and they didn't attract jocks and meatheads like their La
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: neighbors Guns n' Roses and so. In that same year,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one before Jane's Addiction called it quits, when
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Dave Navarro got a phone call from Axel Rose. Dave
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: was torn. Axel was obsessed with Jane's Addiction. He loved
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: everything about the band, but most of all, he loved
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Dave's playing, and Axel had news busy Stradlin Guns n'
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Roses rhythm guitarist the Johnny thunders Foil to slash his
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: meat and potatoes pentatonic scale shredding was on his way out.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: G and R needed someone to replace him, and Axel
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: wanted it to be Dave. Okay, So again, at the time,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: this was practically heresy. This is like Robert Evans calling
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: up John Cassavettis and asking the alternative indie director to
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: direct the mainstream studio film Love Story. Dave Vivarro didn't
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: know what to do. Here was the opportunity of a
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: lifetime for any guitarist to join the biggest rock and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: roll band on the planet and to make all the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: money for christ sakes, and to get all the chicks too,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: by the way, But Dave knew what would happen if
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: he said yes. He'd be called a sellout, a turn code.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: He would expose himself as a phony, no longer a
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: card carrying member of the freak scene. He'd aligned himself with.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Sure he'd get the paycheck, but he'd also lose the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: street credit. So Dave Navarro said no. Dave remained with
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Perry and the others because the stigma of crossing over
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: that invisible divide between the alternative and the mainstream was
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: that intense over the years after Lallapalooza, that invisible divide
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: those walls. They went away, and Dave joined the Red
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Hot Chili Peppers for one album in nineteen ninety five,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and the Chili Peppers bass player Flee joined Jane's Addiction
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: for their reunion tour in nineteen ninety seven, and Dave
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: even wound up playing on a Guns and Roses song
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: called oh My God in ninety nine, and in twenty
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: twenty four, Dave reunited once again with the band he
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: had chosen to be faithful to decades prior. But just
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: as things had changed when it came to the musical
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: divide over genre and popularity, things had changed within Jane's Addiction.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: All that freedom at the core of the band's genesis,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the freedom of expression to be whoever you want it
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: to be, no matter what it looked or sounded like,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: that was gone, almost like it had never existed. Now
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: was replaced by control. Perry wanted to assert control. According
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: to people in the Jains Addiction camp, Perry attempted to
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: control what the show's looked like, involving other people on
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: stage when the rest of the guys just wanted to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: play just the four of them, and when Perry didn't
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: get what he wanted, he lost control. We all saw
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: that the meltdown on stage in Boston, the shove and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: the punch, but what we didn't see was that it
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: continued backstage. And backstage, Dave confronted Perry. He wanted to
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: know what the fuck was going on, and Perry responded
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: by throwing another punch and hitting Dave in his face,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and Dave vowed to never play with Perry again, and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the remaining fifteen dates of the twenty twenty four Jane's
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Addiction tour were immediately canceled. Just recently, more than a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: year after the violent incident, a year in which Perry
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: and the other members of Jane's Addition spent suing each other,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: the band released a statement on their Instagram account. It read,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: in part, after that show, without notice to Perry, we
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: unilaterally determined it would be best not to continue the tour.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: It made inaccurate statements about perry mental health, which we regret. Today,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: we are here to announce that we have come together
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: one last time to resolve our differences so that the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: legacy of Jane's Addiction will remain the work the four
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: of us created together. We now look forward to the
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: future as we embark on our separate musical and creative endeavors.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Jane's Addiction will forever live in our hearts. We are
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: proud of the music we created together, and with that
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: they can only hope that the legacy of one of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the defining bands of the alternative nation wasn't left in
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: utter disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland, all right, guys,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Thanks for rolling with me through this Jane's Addiction episode
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Part two. If you haven't heard part one, yikes, get
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: back there and listen to that one. Yeesh. Get a
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: listened to part one before the part two. Listen to
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Apple podcasts listeners. Get auto downloads turned on, so you
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: never missed an episode of disgrace Slam. Give Disgraceland a
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: The question of the week this week is is Jane's
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Addiction the band that best embodies the nineties? For you?
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: All right? Who is the most emblematic band of the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties in your opinion? That is a tough question
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: to answer, so many great bands that define that era.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Hit me up sixty one seven, nine oh six sixty
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: sixty three eight, voicemail and text to let me know
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: your answer to the question of the week. I'm available
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and everywhere else at disgracelampod and here comes
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: from Credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: can be found on the show notes page at disgracelampod
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and if not, you can become a member right now
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: by going to disgracelampod dot com, rate and review the show,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and facebok. Booked
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: at disgrace lamppod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: slash at Disgracelampod, rock a Rolla, He's a baddad man.