SEVEN NIGHTS IN APRIL
LEON BING (journalist, writing in L.A. Weekly): There were bare midriffs and leopard prints; there were fishnet, fringe, rubber, leather, ’jams, stiletto heels, and bright red winklepickers; there were pink bustiers and jackboots and peaked military hats cocked to one side in a 1989 update of 1939 Berlin. (June 16, 1989)
DAN NAVARRO: The Anson Ford shows were family affairs all right. Dave’s dad would be there, Eric’s family, Steve’s parents, too. . . .
KARYN CANTOR: Perry wanted every show to be a special event.
MARC GEIGER: Whether it started small and they did an acoustic set with balloons and a couple of dancers in the earliest days at the Variety Arts Center and Scream, Perry always had a flair for the theatrical. As Jane’s got bigger and bigger, he had more and more thoughts about how to not be conventional in a rock-show format.
BRYAN RABIN: Even though it was so theatrical and so arty, you still related to them. They were art tarts and rock gods combined, but somehow they were still normal guys. It wasn’t like seeing Poison or Great White, or Ratt or the other bozo hair bands.
KARYN CANTOR: Danusha [Kibby] and I were, like, the initial dancers before the strippers came into Jane’s Addiction’s set. We created costumes. One time we made these outfits out of colored cellophane. We’d strut onstage in these elaborate outfits with big hair bows carrying these huge silver trays. When they played at the John Anson Ford Theater for seven nights in a row Danusha and I were the tortilla tossers. We came out in these sexy Spanish señorita outfits we had made carrying these huge trays and then threw tortillas at the audience . . . that was so fun.
THE BEST OF THE WEST
Circa July 1989
DAN NAVARRO: The creative antecedents for Jane’s were people like Fishbone, Thelonious Monster, Chili Peppers. The Chili Peppers were already the grandfathers of the scene because they’d been around since like ’83. They already got their record deals, the socks on their dicks, lots of touring, the Full Monty.
ERIC AVERY: The Peppers, Fishbone and Thelonious Monster, L7, there was always such a scene around them. They were more popular than us because they moved in such circles that was related to everybody who worked at the L.A. Weekly. They were just so much hipper than we were, more social and sociable than us.
FLEA: Dave told me they used to take the piss out of us at Jane’s rehearsals. They did this thing were they’d go like “Chili Peppers!” and Eric would start slapping his bass, and Steve would play a funk beat, and Perry would run around in circles around the microphone.
Red Hot Chili Peppers as fresh-from-high-school kids who worked their way up through the local underground. Around the time (if not the actual night) of the socks-on-dicks episode. (Lynda Burdick)
ERIC AVERY: Fishbone were always the band with real musicians. We were all friends, but they were certainly intimidating as musicians.
JOHNNY NAVARRO: All those guys loved Fishbone, they respected them as the most accomplished musicians out of all that group. Perry and Flea and Bob Forrest and even Anthony would all be going, “We’re fucking great, but look at Fishbone.” There was this amazing level of musicianship, poetry, and performance art that Angelo Moore brought. That whole band had an amazing amount of skills.
FLEA: The Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction ended up playing this unforgettable show together—a Fathers’ Rights benefit for [Fishbone bassist] Norwood, who was having a hard time getting his kid from his ex.
DANUSHA KIBBY: She took off with the baby and he had to find her. She was worried they were going to take the baby away from her. She just up and left and Norwood had no idea where she was. He was trying to hire some private detectives.
WALT KIBBY, JR.: She was trying to cut him out of his rights to see his son but she still wanted him to pay. We decided to have a Fathers’ Rights benefit. Norwood wanted custody or at least shared custody. He got together a lot of bands: Jane’s was one of them, Chili Peppers, too. . . .
JOHN FRUSCIANTE: There was an argument on who was going to headline. Should it be the Chili Peppers or Jane’s Addiction? Mother’s Milk hadn’t come out yet, I think it was like coming any day now, but their album [Nothing’s Shocking] was already out and doing really well. That was the main reason they won that argument. They deserved to headline but we were real egocentric and headstrong. Once I saw that show I realized we weren’t shit. We would have made total idiots out of ourselves if we had headlined. Those guys were like kings on stage. This was the first time I’d ever seen them live and they scared the crap out of me. . . .
FLEA: I remember thinking, just from the energy in the room, like “God they’re a much more together rock band than I thought.” There was just a vibe in the room. And I thought, “Oh shit, we better rock tonight; they’re serious.” And when they came out, sure enough, the crowd went crazy.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE: Musically, it was like really dark, tense . . . up to that point music for me was just like something that was fun, like with my band, which was about being crazy and jumping around, but Jane’s was at this whole other level. I was scared shitless by how intense they were, how good it was. I’ll never forget Perry looking into the audience. It looked like there were lights shooting out of his eyes. He looked at me at the side of the stage with this really scary look and then he looks at the audience and, like, this light comes from his eyes. Wherever he would look there would be this huge burst of energy.
JOHNNY NAVARRO: We’re talking about Thelonious Monster and Fishbone and Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers all playing the same night in Hollywood at small clubs, That’s a fuckin’ rich heritage that we all got to experience. We just don’t have that anymore.
ERIC AVERY: The entire bill was filled with our peers and our closest friends and stuff. There was definitely a focus of energy that evening because of that.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE: Jane’s Addiction was so far beyond anything I thought a rock band could be. It was so scary it just seemed like they were a bunch of murderers on stage! I just didn’t think rock music could be that powerful. There was this darkness and this magical glow that had nothing to do with the music; this whole other energy that had nothing to do with human beings on stage playing music. I can only imagine that would be the same kind of energy that would be around Jesus Christ.
WALT KIBBY, JR.: Remember John was kind of young then, too, he was still a teenager . . . he hadn’t really grown his fighting teeth yet. He might have been a little fearsome. Hillel [Slovak] was still the man to most people and Jane’s Addiction was in peak shape, at the top of their game. It was a hell of a night. I wish I had a video of that show. That was a serious night of great music.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE: I remember going home after that show and just being so freaked out . . . that somebody had opened up the door to this world of darkness and madness that I didn’t even know existed. It took a while for me to change enough to feel like I could be a part of the energy of something like that. They became my favorite band and I saw them every chance I got. Without Perry Farrell’s influence, without the inspiration I got from him I would have never been able to do all the shit I had to do to get where I am now in my life where I’m pretty much set with everything.
WALT KIBBY, JR.: That night seemed like the beginning of the explosion of those bands, where they just took off and there was no coming back to the club scene per se.
“JUAN’S ADDICIONE” (1989-90) The Making of Ritual de lo Habitual
PERRY FARRELL (from the Ritual de lo Habitual booklet): Blessed is “Ritual de lo Habitual,” a love story between three people.
CINDY LAIR: “Señores y Señoras . . . nosotros tenemos mas influencia con sus hijos que tu tiene. Pero los queremos. Creado y regalo de Los Angeles, Juana’s Addicion.”
[“Ladies and gentlemen, we have more influence over your children than you do. But we love them. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jane’s Addiction.”]
PERRY FARRELL: Cindy Lair was a Latin Marilyn Monroe. I met her in rehab.
She was a video queen for one of these one hit wonder rap cats of the 80s. She wore a pair of short hot pants that said “Stop” on her rear end. I thought, Holy Mother, this girl is just gorgeous. You can see her at the beginning of Gift. I wrote out the spoken introduction for her, but I didn’t know how to speak Spanish fluently. We liked the piece so much, for Gift, that we put it on the record.
DAVE JERDEN: It’s a ballsy way to open an album. It’s like, “We have your kids.”81
PERRY FARRELL: We were having a lot of sex. I would run away to hang out with my partner—a partner or two and have some fun. The Ritual album was a reflection of that. I like to build things on the run. It’s a certain time of your life, and you’re in a certain state of mind, and if you can grab the things around you and place them together, they start to tell a story. That was the story of my life right there.
JOHN FRUSCIANTE: When we were writing Blood Sugar Sex Magick I’d hear all these things about the goings-on with Jane’s Addiction . . . a girl would come over to my house and tell me she’d had an orgy with Perry and Casey. . . .
PETE WEISS: You don’t write songs about three-ways and stuff expecting to be mainstream.
“THREE DAYS”
“I’m either going to be a famous artist or a famous waitress.”
—XIOLA BLUE (FROM BEN IS DEAD MAGAZINE)
CASEY NICCOLI: Perry wrote a song called “Xiola” for the Psi Com album. She was his girlfriend before we met. She was maybe thirteen or fourteen when Perry met her. She was this really colorful, crazy, risk-taking, artsy girl who was a lot of fun to be around. She was a good artist, a painter. She was like a rich girl from Malibu or Newport Beach, or something.
PERRY FARRELL: The word for Xiola is “precocious.” When I first met her she was wearing a chartreuse and yellow dress and her hair was green—in dreadlocks. And I think she was wearing yellow lipstick, yellow tights, and she had very light freckles and a very pale face. She was the kind of girl who looked like a 1920s cigarette ad, except in vivid ultra color.
CASEY NICCOLI: Perry told me all about her. He said, “She’s a friend, I went out with her, but she’s too young for me. I’m in love with you, but I really want you to meet her. She’s fun, she’s really cool. She’s coming to town.’ So I met her and we became friends, although she ended up moving to New York to go to art school so we didn’t see her a lot.
JENNIFER BRANNON (friend of Xiola Blue): Xiola was so young when she dated Perry. They fed off each other’s energy and creativity. They even looked alike. They moved and danced in the same ways. Xiola loved him so much. She was ecstatic after he told her he had written a song about her.82
JANE BAINTER: Xiola Blue was another huge influence on Perry. More like an inspiration than an influence. She came out from the East Coast to visit Casey and Perry, and they had a long weekend together of sex and drugs, which the song “Three Days” is all about.
CASEY NICCOLI: Xiola was another person that we did drugs with occasionally. It was only playing around [for us]. It wasn’t a daily thing. She had a little friend with her, whose drug habit she also supported. They were both just tore up. Emaciated. Her friend was just open sores all over her body. They were speedballing, like shooting coke and heroin and stuff. I really loved her so much. I really cared about her a lot, but I didn’t love her more than Perry. I used to send her packages and presents. I’d send her a box full of blue things . . . blue lingerie, blue candy, and blue whatever I could find . . . because she was named Xiola Blue. . . .
PERRY FARRELL: When she died [June 1987], it was just kind of a jolt. An electric jolt.
Ritual de lo Habitual album cover.
CASEY NICCOLI: We all had a physical relationship, me, Perry, and Xiola. She spent three days with us, hence the song “Three Days.” We just got high and danced with each other and made love and listened to beautiful music. We had a room we called “the love garden.” It was decorated with plants and tapestries and candles. It was really romantic. There were like three small rooms, and the bedroom part was actually a patio. When it rained, you got wet. When you slept on the bed you got wet because it wasn’t really insulated. . . .
JANE BAINTER: Perry was devastated. It was like the first wake-up call—“Oh maybe all this fun with drugs just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
CASEY NICCOLI: Xiola was a really neat, really smart girl. She was like a tragic Edie Sedgwick character. So colorful and creative, but she’s also a hardcore heroin addict. She was a trust-fund baby and had tons of money which she would just spend. Her father had died and left her a bundle. Friends found her overdosed in her apartment in New York. She was like, only nineteen years. Xiola’s real name was Lisa Chester and her family is so opposed to anything about Jane’s Addiction. Her mom especially felt betrayed by Perry because he made her famous for being a drug addict.
JENNIFER BRANNON: Xiola died of a heroin overdose and Perry immortalized her on Ritual de lo Habitual via sculpture, song, and photos. I hate Perry Farrell for making my friend famous for nothing else but being a junkie. That makes me so crazy, to see this incredible girl reduced to nothing but her demise. Someone in Perry’s position could have made her famous for all the things she wanted to be famous for. He could have taken her art and turned it into the most beautiful eulogy ever. He could’ve made all of her dreams come true. I feel like I have to defend her honor, but at the same time I’m not really sure if she’d want me to.
PERRY FARRELL: We were experimenting with different lovers and having a good time. Xiola was one of our lovers. The image on the Ritual cover is of Xiola. I love both of those girls. To love two women at the same time is a pretty amazing moment in any personal history.
JENNIFER BRANNON: Life was a big dance party to Xiola and the littlest thing could be fun—when she was clean. When she was clean she was a princess. Her makeup was impeccable. She’d take two hours to get ready to go anywhere and wouldn’t go until you told her she looked beautiful. When she wasn’t clean she’d stay locked in the bathroom with her makeup running down her face as she tried to make herself feel beautiful in other ways.
CASEY NICCOLI: Perry talked up the Ritual album cover [in interviews] where he’s in bed with two lovers at the same time, and one of them is her daughter, who’s dead. It really made [her mom] angry. We did the sculpture for the Ritual de lo Habitual cover in honor of Xiola. It’s Perry, me, and Xiola, like we’re these abstract bodies lying on a bed.
JENNIFER BRANNON: I can’t decide if I hold Perry responsible for my dear friend’s death in some warped way or if I should be kissing his feet for doing for her in death what she didn’t have the time to do in life.83
EARLY RITUAL SESSIONS
Circa mid-1989
DAVE JERDEN: We were supposed to start recording the Ritual record in June or July, but because of his rift with Eric, Perry just didn’t show up for weeks. We started recording without him.84
ERIC AVERY: Casey tried to bridge the increasing gap between me and Perry—like some kind of emissary.
DAVE JERDEN: Eventually Eric and Perry talked and decided they would just come in at different times to do their stuff.
STEVEN BAKER: They played as a band on the first record. With the second record, it was more like they were laying down their parts separately.
DAVE JERDEN: But there was one magical day when I got them all together and we cut “Three Days.” I set the whole band up, they played it, and that version is what’s on the record, note for note.85
PERRY FARRELL: We came up with the title when we were doing seven nights at the Anson Ford Theatre. Casey and I came up with “Ritual of the Habitual” for that particular event. I thought it was funny.
STEPHEN PERKINS: We started a few songs for Ritual with Dave Jerden producing again, and then decided we needed to get away from each other, and then took like a two- to three-month break.
DAVE NAVARRO: I found out recently that we were in such poor condition that we had to stop and take a break for several months.
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PERRY FARRELL: Was it from drugs? Did anybody mention that it might be from drugs? Was it me that time-out had to be taken for? Or was it somebody else? Casey was really sick and had to be taken to rehab and she wouldn’t go unless I went with her. I didn’t want to go into rehab, but Casey was going to drop dead within a week. She just didn’t want to be alone. I hate rehabs. I never want to be in another one. Maybe that’s where this break comes from.
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