Jane’s Addiction to Reunite (Again) for NME Awards
In August 2006 Dave Navarro told Jimmy Kimmel on national TV, “Here’s the thing about Jane’s Addiction: As much as I love it and it was a huge part of my life, we have reunited three times in our career. When enough’s enough, you kind of pack it up.”
Apparently the guitarist spoke too soon, because the band is getting together once more — to accept a lifetime achievement-like honor — at the NME Awards at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on April 23 (a performance is possible, but not confirmed). According to NME’s publishing director, Paul Cheal, Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins are all confirmed to appear, though it’s unclear whether original bassist Eric Avery or reunion bassist Chris Chaney will be joining them. The band will be presented with the NME Godlike Genius Award for Extraordinary Services to Music at the ceremony, which is being held in the U.S. for the first time in twenty-five years.
Jane’s Addiction first split up in 1991 after releasing 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual, then reunited briefly in 1997 for the Relapse tour. They got together again in 2001 for the Jubilee trek, which featured Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble, included a headling spot at Coachella (with Flea on bass) and resulted in the 2003 album Strays, on which Chris Chaney handled bass duties. The band headlined Farrell’s resurrected Lollapalooza tour in 2003 with Chaney, but wasn’t booked for 2004’s version of the tour, which was ultimately nixed due to poor ticket sales and resulted in Farrell developing the festival into a successful two-day destination fest in Chicago.
After Jane’s parted ways again in 2004 — Farrell later blamed Navarro’s commitment to his reality show with Carmen Electra — Navarro, Perkins and Chaney formed the Panic Channel with frontman Steve Isaacs and Perry Farrell assembled Satellite Party with his wife Etty and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt (who left the band last summer), a cross-genre band that released the poorly selling Ultra Payloaded in May 2007.
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• Perry Farrell Blames Reality TV for End of Jane’s Addiction