Perry Farrell Says Duff McKagan Got Annoyed With Jane's Addiction

Rolling Stone
Jane's Addiction hasn't had it easy these last few years, as plans for the band's first new album since 2003 have been repeatedly sidelined by delays and the abrupt exits of bassists Eric Avery and Duff McKagan. Singer-ringmaster Perry Farrell describes the wait as excruciating. "It's definitely like, as Brian Wilson puts it: The dry hump," he tells Rolling Stone. "We're waiting and waiting and waiting to release this record. It's like watching something that you really want. You become an animal. Your desire grows and grows."

Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins are reaching beyond the Zeppelin-sized swirl of 1988's Nothing's Shocking and 1990's Ritual de lo Habitual to a modern, forward-looking sound with the help of Dave Sitek from the Brooklyn art-rockers TV On the Radio.

The band's evolving sound comes after several false starts. In 2008, Jane's reunited with founding bassist Avery for the first time since the original band's 1991 breakup, but he quit again after a busy year of touring and some recording sessions produced by Trent Reznor. His replacement was McKagan, which seemed like a masterstroke until he also quit after just six months of live gigs and songwriting work.

"He wasn't really comfortable hanging with us," says Farrell. "We thought it was a good idea, but it ended up that we annoyed him."

Songs written with McKagan might still make the final album, including the rocker "Soulmate," though dramatically reworked with Sitek. "We had probably 15 songs, and then he pulled out and we went into a little bit of a tailspin. It was a drag, man," Farrell recalls of McKagan's exit. "Some of the guys in the group said, screw it – they didn't want to use any of the material we had written with Duff because they were so pissed off. I said, 'Don't be mad at the material, because we have some good things there.'"

Sitek has declined the band's invitations to tour this year as live bassist with the Los Angeles alt-rock trailblazers, so when the album is finally done, Jane's Addiction will begin searching for a bass-player one more time. "My head's not in that place right now. There's no lack of great musicians out there," insists Navarro. "The prospects are good. I am super-inspired and enthusiastic about what we're doing right now - probably more so than I have been in a decade."