From the start, Jane’s Addiction were an incomparable force. Even in an L.A. club scene convulsing with the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Thelonious Monster, and Dream Syndicate, the foursome of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, and drummer Stephen Perkins became an almost immediate sensation. Farrell’s shaking dreadlocks and uninhibited dancing, the band’s raw energy, and their primordial, aggressive melding of alternative and furious hard-rock riffs made Jane’s one of the city’s most talked-about bands. And then there was the attitude... defiant and unyielding.
Like the classic quartets that preceded them—Led Zeppelin, The Who, U2—much of Jane’s greatness came from the melding of four disparate personalities, a point driven home by their different musical tastes.
In 1988 the band released their debut studio and major label album, Nothing’s Shocking. With its unforgettable Farrell-designed sleeve—nude Siamese twins with hair aflame (the image was later voted 19 on a Rolling Stone list of 100 greatest album covers and 1 on Metal Edge’s 25 wildest album covers)—the cover was controversial, thought-provoking, and ultimately artistic. In short, it was the perfect visual companion to the complexity of Jane’s music.
The artists who have made the leap to iconic, though, are the few who’ve been able to conquer both stage and studio. With Ritual De Lo Habitual, the follow-up to Nothing’s Shocking, Jane’s took a giant step toward joining that elite company. Released in 1990, the album made Jane’s bona fide rock stars.
For Jane’s, everything in those days was about serving the music. It’s evident in the respect they command from their contemporaries, who give them the highest praise, labeling them “original.” From Billy Corgan to Slash, they all say of Jane’s music, “It was theirs.”
(from the forthcoming Jane's Addiction box set, Cabinet of Curiosities, on Rhino Records)
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