Dave Navarro talks Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails

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Dave Navarro talks Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails

by Ed Masley - May. 8, 2009 10:26 AM
The Arizona Republic

When bassist Eric Avery joined his Jane's Addiction bandmates in a four-song trip down memory lane at last year's NME Awards, it marked their first live performance together in 17 years. A year later, they're back on the road with Nine Inch Nails, another major player in the early '90s underground explosion and subsequent rise of a tattoo-friendly culture Jane's lead singer, Perry Farrell, dubbed the Alternative Nation. In fact, the first time these two bands went out together, it was 1991 on a traveling festival, Lollapalooza, that Farrell had launched to take that Nation to the masses.

We caught up with Jane's guitarist Dave Navarro, who talked about the NIN/JA Tour, how it feels to have Avery back in the band and why they won't be dipping into "Strays," the Avery-free 2003 "reunion" effort. He also spoke a bit about those recent recordings with Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor.

Question: What's appealing to you about touring with Nine Inch Nails?

Answer: That's a multifaceted answer. Not only have we been friends with Trent for many years, we toured together on the first Lollapalooza in '91, and they've been a favorite band of mine ever since.

Q: What can people expect from the show?

A: That's an interesting question. As far as what they can expect, I don't know because as we're talking, the tour hasn't kicked off yet so the truthful answer is that I'm looking forward to finding the answer to that one out more than just about anyone.

Q: Has there been any talk of what you might do when the tour is done? Any talk of recording?

A: The past couple of months, we've just been really focused on rehearsal and the live show, getting our catalog sounding good and ramping up to this thing. So there really isn't a whole lot of time to talk about outlying plans. We do five and a half weeks with Nails and then we take some time off, and I know we have some European dates booked. The original lineup hasn't been to Europe since the early '90s so that's gonna be a lot of fun. We haven't been anywhere since the early '90s, to be honest with you. So I can tell you that we're all really excited and really pumped up for the whole thing.

Q: How did you go about deciding what songs you'll be doing?

A: Well, we focused on the stuff we did with Eric, since it's the original lineup. So obviously, "Strays" isn't an option. Having said that, we really have three full-length albums to choose from, so we pretty much learned everything we ever did and have it at the ready. We're a band that likes to switch things up from night to night. You never really know what's gonna poke its head out and where that's gonna happen because we don't know. But the good news is that we have all the songs in good form and ready to go if we ever need them.

Q: How does it feel to be playing with Eric again?

A: Musically, it really feels like no time has gone by. It feels natural, and he really proves himself as being part of a machine that's been missing for a lot of years. Even the positioning onstage is down to the exact way it was back in 1991. So it's really nostalgic but it's also really inspiring.

Q: What inspired you to go in and record those older songs you did with Trent?

A: Probably a number of things. The opportunity of working with Trent, the opportunity to give away new recordings of songs that only appeared on the live record. And the other thing is that just by hanging with Trent and his crew, it was nice to kind of feel a camaraderie prior to going on tour, which is something I've never done with any band I've been on tour with. You rarely get a chance to spend weeks with them before you go on tour. That was probably, for us at least, the best thing to come out of that experience.

Q: How was Trent in the studio?

A: He's probably the most exceptional and gifted musician I've ever worked with in the studio.

Q: Are you happy with the way that recent boxed set, "A Cabinet of Curiosities," came out?

A: I am. It's truly a collectible. It's for the diehard fan who has everything but just wants every little bit of history that's been recorded. My thing with boxed sets is that I don't recommend that they get loaded into your iTunes because when you go into random, little tidbits are gonna keep popping up in your random player. If you're into that, that's cool. But I put the Doors boxed set into my iTunes and the Doors come up way too much. If you put in, like, 70 songs, it's gonna come up a lot, you know? So buyer beware.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4730.

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