Whores

by Brendan Mullen

  CASEY NICCOLI: Early on in the band, Eric got drunk one night and tried to pick up on me. We were both really wasted. When I told Perry what happened, he basically stopped liking him. Perry just never got past that. He hated Eric forever because of this stupid incident. I’d kissed him back, but I was just drunk. It was nothing. Just stupid puppy-love stuff.

  PERRY FARRELL: But did she tell you he also went on to confess his undying love for her? That was uncalled for. I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t try to steal girlfriends. C’mon, man, you never try to pick up on your dear bandmates’ girlfriends—even in rock ’n’ roll, man. I mean, please.

  ERIC AVERY: It was just so silly and petty of me. That thing with Casey was just another indicator of me wanting to have a little part of his world or something. And his reaction was just so indicative of that same dynamic between us.

  BOB FORREST: The two of them just don’t have the right personalities to get along.

  CHARLEY BROWN: It was all about jealousy, creative and personal jealousy. Dave was a pretty boy and was getting all the attention from the girls and from the guitar playing. Dave was not nearly as smart as Perry or Eric. Dave and Steve came out of this dumbed-down metal genre, which by definition we all hated, especially Perry. I mean, Perry was getting a lot of girls, too. They were all getting girls. It was more about attention. For Perry it’s all ego. From hindsight, it’s very clear that if it hadn’t been that way, the band just wouldn’t have worked.

  ERIC AVERY: I admit I had a jealous feeling about how creative and interesting and everything Perry was. And I think that Perry had some similar feelings for me. There was kind of a mutual admiration, but also a jealousy of each other’s powers and strengths. Rebellion is often brought about by a feeling of intimidation where you’re going to have to assert yourself whether it be a cop, or an institution, or a personal relationship. There was an element of that with me and Perry.

  STEVEN BAKER: Perry was an authority figure within the group and maybe that caused some issues amongst the other guys by virtue of his seniority. . . .

  ERIC AVERY: I resented that he was getting all of the attention and all the power and so it would make me act like a prick. And me acting like a prick would then upset him and then he would retaliate. It was like a textbook deterioration of a relationship.

  PERRY FARRELL: Maybe Eric felt he wasn’t able to make enough decisions for the band.

  ERIC AVERY: Perry was meeting with the label people and they were asking him for things, rather than me, or anybody else in the band. Geiger was also just dealing with Perry on business matters. I don’t think any of us was interested in dealing with the business side because it was really Perry’s gig at that point.

  CASEY NICCOLI: Perry would openly, even on stage, put Eric down. He did it to be mean. He did it cause he thought he could. It was funnier than shit, because Perry is really funny. Maybe a lot of it, Eric didn’t hear, because things were so loud onstage.

  ERIC AVERY: I didn’t take any personal affront to snide things Perry may have said [about me] from the stage. I thought it was part of that show, like the way you make fun of your cronies—your friends—and you fuck with them or whatever.

  REBECCA AVERY: We were all like, “Perry, shut up and just play. We came to see this great band and hear the music, not hear you pontificate and be the prophet to all of us.” One of those times Eric left the stage and he said, “You don’t need me, I’m going over there, call me when you want some music.”

  ERIC AVERY: There was a lot of obvious eye-rolling onstage, little exchanges between me and Dave about what Perry was saying and there was just this kind of plainly exhibited rift going on.

  PAUL V.: The chaos and interfighting, the tension and all the other dramas that were always going on in this band only added to the subversive allure for me because it was volatile and dangerous, while the music manifested this weird energy that always surrounded them. I think audiences during that era definitely picked up on that, it added edgy mystique. . . .

  DAVE NAVARRO: Somehow the inner tension of the band translated to the audience and the listeners.69

  ERIC AVERY: Some of our weirder fans really dug that about Jane’s Addiction.

  BRYAN RABIN: The guys in the band looked to Perry as a father figure because a band is a gang or family. It was really apparent to me they were onstage pleasing him. But it didn’t feel like a one-man show either. None of it could have existed without all the parts of it together. They were playing with so many different types of imagery, so many different sounds, and really blurring lines in what they were presenting. Jane’s also felt like performance art. Perry was the visionary, the driving force, creatively and . . . he physically towered over the rest of the band. He was this incredible modern-day shaman, that’s for sure.

  PF RUNS DOWN THE DIRTY VOODOO

  PERRY FARRELL: We wanted groupies. It was a time when you could still get out there, screw your brains out, meet a girl a night, literally. It was great. And through that period of the AIDS epidemic, it started to become more and more of an issue and eventually not smart, not a good idea. But in my life, that was the time for it, and I don’t know if there’s any more time for it—I would say no, there’s no more time for it.

  REBECCA AVERY: Sometimes Perry’s weird shit-faced raps were amusing, many times it was just plain embarrassing, like drunken barroom talk that didn’t make any sense at all. Perry was getting worse and worse with his onstage rantings and ravings. He’d just be really fucked up on bottle after bottle of wine and he’d be talking and talking. We saw him gradually developing this messianic complex.

  CHARLEY BROWN: One of the most unnerving times for me managing Jane’s was in-between songs when Perry would talk. Sometimes he’d sound just like a fucking idiot. Sometimes it was hilarious. Perry can be very, very funny.

  Li’l ole wine drinker, he . . . (Chris Cuffaro)

  REBECCA AVERY: Perry was talking shit to the audience all the time. Telling whoever to fuck off. He would get drunk and start going on these crazy riffs. You’d just start going. “Oh, no. What’s he gonna say this time?” “Pigs in Zen” was just a classic where he would just riff. You’d see Eric and Dave looking at each other and they’d try to start the song back up again.

  CHARLEY BROWN: Once during this long, twisted, psychotic version of “Pigs in Zen,” there was this overweight chick kitted out in some kind of Madonna hooker setup . . . way over made up, way underdressed, and Perry just started singing “Pigs in Zen” to her, and he was like “Come on, just show me some titties,” and he goes into this taunting thing and just gets her in this whole S&M kind of insinuation thing.

  PERRY FARRELL [to a club audience in ’89]: She said to me, “Perry, come on. Can you make it hard?”

  I get haaard . . . when I see my woman’s titties. I got no problem gettin’ hard with that woman’s titty. She said, “Perry, watch this.” I said, “No problem watching that.” Not with that woman’s titty. She said, “Perry, do I look alright?” Man, you look alright, with them titties, anything looks alright. I can’t help myself when I see those titties. I JUST . . . WANNA . . . FU-U-CK!!

  —THE STONE, San Francisco, 4.11.89

  Oh, baby . . . I just wanna fuck! I know about pain and suffering and being cold, but I just wanna fu-u-ck!

  —THE SCREAM, LOS ANGELES, 1.26.87

  I know about PAIN! I still wanna fuck! I still wanna fuck! I still wanna fuck!

  —THE COTTON CLUB, ATLANTA, GA, 2.8.89

  You’re all just so fucking horny. That’s why . . . you wanna jump up and fuck . . . me! This is the part of the show where somebody comes up and sucks my cock. It ain’t a tough one to tackle, but I’ll tell ya, when the shit starts shootin’, ya better look out, cause uh . . . uh, well, I dunno, I’ll fuckin’ piss somethin’ or other . . . Fuck me or fight me. I’ll wake up next morning with a big ol’ dick and I’ll say I WANNA FUUCK! Man, I like to make it long . . . last long . . . make my balls hurt real bad. I WANNA FUCK! The pig is l
ed to slaughter . . . the pig, the pig, the pig . . . the pig with your daughter. . . .

  —PARAMOUNT THEATRE, SEATTLE, WA, 3.29.89

  How many girls have clitorises that have been stimulated to orgasm?

  —THE STONE, SAN FRANCISCO, 4.11.89

  Fuck all the assholes! Fuck ’em up the ass. The ass is behind the penis. If you’re female it’s behind your vagina. There’s a use for an asshole . . . it gets rid of all your shit. But the penis, it’s a dick . . . it’s big and it’s thick. It’s for cumming up a twat . . . but it doesn’t hurt to occasion- ally fuck an asshole. You need an asshole, huh? I mean how would you take a shit without one.

  —LA ULTIMA CARCAJADA DE LA CAMBANCHA, MEXICO, DF, 6.90

  What’s up, sluts? I like your drinkin’ and your attitude. . . .

  —TEATRO TENDASTRISCE, ROME, ITALY, 4.1.91

  I’ll fuck three women and put ’em all up there! You don’t believe me?

  Try me!

  —MT. BALDY, CA, 7.7.90

  Let’s all hold groins on this song. . . .

  —MT. BALDY, CA, 7.7.90

  After a while you become numb . . . [to hard sex] . . . and so now we bring you a little bit of death.

  —WAR MEMORIAL, ROCHESTER, NY, 5.91

  God is in your scrotum!

  —MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NY, 5.1991

  ARTWORK CONTROVERSIES

  DAVE JERDEN: We finished the record and then the real trouble began. When we turned it in, someone at Warner Bros. was saying, “We’re concerned about this record. It doesn’t sound like anything else.” It was the time of Guns N’ Roses and the metal-lite thing. And this was before they’d even seen the cover!70

  Cover of Nothing’s Shocking.

  PERRY FARRELL: I get a lot of things from my dreams, because in that state, you’re either having a nice conversation with yourself and nobody can get in the way, or you’re having a nice conversation with maybe a spirit guide. And a dream came to me—the Siamese twins with their hair on fire rocking on a swing.

  DAVE JERDEN: Perry used the record company assets and then learned from them how to do it himself. For instance, he hired somebody to do the sculpture for the photograph on the cover of Nothing’s Shocking. He just watched closely how the person worked and then fired the guy and did the sculpture himself.71

  Perry casts Casey’s head in plaster for the Nothing’s Shocking cover.

  (Karyn Cantor)

  PERRY FARRELL: I found a person who did body castings, ’cause I wanted a perfect replica. He put Casey into a full body and face cast. We spent the whole day, and she sat there, but she was completely stoned, so maybe it was a little easier for her, ’cause you know what happens when you nod off. It’s a rocking chair, but if you look closely, it rocks side to side instead of back and forth. We had that made. We took the picture ourself, we did all the artwork ourself.

  STEVEN BAKER: In 1988, nine of the eleven leading record chains refused to carry Nothing’s Shocking because of its cover [which featured the Farrell-Niccoli painting of two naked, conjoined nymphettes].

  PERRY FARRELL: Well, obviously nudity doesn’t fly well at Wal-Mart.

  STEPHEN PERKINS: We had to issue the record covered with brown paper.

  PERRY FARRELL: Record companies wouldn’t even mess with people like us anymore. You don’t really see bands that go that far too often. I wouldn’t mess with people like that, if I was trying to make a living. If I wanted to have a group of people that I wanted to work with, I sure wouldn’t have chosen us.

  PAUL V.: Perry didn’t give a fuck if his record wasn’t sold in Wal-Mart. Who wants to sell a record in Wal-Mart? The record company does. Yeah, great, everyone will make back their investment and maybe the band will make more money, but at the end of the day who gives a shit if a Jane’s Addiction record can be sold next to the gun rack?

  SOUL KISS

  Circa August 1988

  MODI FRANK (filmmaker, videographer): By then Casey and Perry lived in a storefront off of Santa Monica Boulevard by Vermont. Chickens were squawking inside the house while Casey was gluing paper flowers together. She was so high that I gave her a bowl full of crepe paper and scissors and said, “Here, cut these up into flowers. . . .” Five minutes later, I’d turn around and she was in the same scissor and hand position. The scissors had gotten no closer to the paper.

  PETE WEISS: The big lesson for the music industry of Jane’s Addiction was that it all happened off the radar. It happened despite the worst intentions of the industry. The Soul Kiss video completely circumvented MTV.

  STEVEN BAKER: The genesis of Soul Kiss was we financed a video of “Mountain Song.” It had Casey’s bare breasts displayed in it and MTV wouldn’t play it. Probably for a couple different reasons: One, they didn’t give a shit about the band to begin with. Second, the video had some censor issues.

  TOM ATENCIO (rock manager, one in a series of Jane’s Addiction managers): The band and Perry always hated MTV. He would always stick something in there so that it couldn’t be aired.

  STEVEN BAKER: Perry said, “I want to release it as a single on video.” He was like, “OK, so MTV won’t play my video? Fuck it, we’ll sell it to break even. Let the kids who like us see what we’re doing.” Then he added twenty-plus minutes of band footage. It’s commonplace on DVDs now . . . live performance plus backstage footage. What Metallica was doing at that time. Just price it super cheap. But it was a first at Warner Bros.

  CASEY NICCOLI: Soul Kiss was my first film project. I made the first Jane’s Addiction video, which had some nudity on “Mountain Song.” It had Perry and I laying on a bed together. And Perry didn’t want to take the nudity out, it was only like five seconds of it, so in order to release that video, we did like a twenty-eight-minute short documentary and we featured “Mountain Song” in it.

  MODI FRANK: The so-called naked breasts in “Mountain Song” are from the dummy! The label guys freaked out. They were like, we can’t have naked girls’ breasts. I’m like, but it’s not a girl, it’s a fucking statue. “Mountain Song” was considered ground breaking because the videos on MTV at the time were Scorpions, Iron Maiden, and Def Leppard . . . big-time heavy metal . . . huge productions, in front of massive crowds. . . .

  DAYLE GLORIA: They shot “Mountain Song” at The Probe with a chorus line of dancers on stage wearing diapers . . . throwing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the crowd. It was crazy slapstick fun. . . .

  MODI FRANK: The label people thought Perry was totally insane, so they hired a director behind his back to do another version of “Mountain Song” while me and Perry were doing our version. The label hired KK Barrett, who never even met with Perry . . . [who] had no idea that KK was doing this.

  KK BARRETT (musician, art director, production designer, videographer): I was asked to work on a version of a video for “Mountain Song,” which Andrew Ducette was directing for Warners. I only found out later it was without the blessing of the band. Andrew told me the band wasn’t happy about their non-involvement and proceeded to stage their own version. I think Modi got me to shoot additional camera because I had been shooting a lot of Super 8 and had a few cameras. I got to work on both versions. . . .

  Perry shreds the Probe club with the satanic Diaper Guy. (John Eder)

  MODI FRANK: Perry wanted to do this poetry reading at the Probe [a former all-male club in Hollywood] with Casey lying dead on the table and he was going to read all this poetry to his dead girlfriend. Perry wanted girls and guys in diapers! He wanted waitresses to come out with trays of Tampaxes. On the Tampax in blood it would be written “God Is Dead.” The girls would throw the Tampaxes into the audience.

  DANUSHA KIBBY: Perry or Casey had this idea that we would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and that me and Karyn would dress up in 50s waitress outfits and toss them into the audience to provoke something. They spent the whole day writing “God Is Dead,” or some other weird saying in red ink on little pieces of paper, then rolled ’em up and put strings on them
so they looked like tampons and we put them in the middle of these peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They were going, imagine how great it’s going to be, imagine their reactions, but the audience didn’t get the idea, the stunt backfired. It was totally anticlimactic. It just got so late and people were really tired. We started tossing the sandwiches and all the kids were just eating them! Yummy! They were supposed to throw them back, it was supposed to become this confrontational big shock-value thing, like a crazy foodfight, but nobody threw a sandwich back. It was more like, Oh wow, I got one, and everybody’s just like starving because it’s like two in the morning.