Eric Avery Reflects on Jane's Addiction's Past and Hopeful Future

Malcolm Gladwell's theory is that it took the Beatles 10,000 hours of playing together to find greatness. Success came a lot sooner for Jane's Addiction.

"I was practicing 'Mountain Song' in front of my wife the other day. I had to stop and say to her, 'Can you believe this is the first thing Perry and I ever played together?'" Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery tells New Times.

It was nearly 40 years ago when Avery and singer Perry Farrell first met.

"I'm bad at dates. It was 1984 or 1985 when a mutual friend put us together," Avery says. "Perry was in this band, Psi Com, that was this 1980s new wave, Cure-ish band. The drummer was playing a tribal beat, and I just kept playing that 'Mountain Song' groove. I was such a rudimentary player then that if I found any notes that made sense, I'd stay there. Perry later said he didn't know if I was a genius or a moron because I just kept playing it."

With the addition of guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins, Jane's Addiction became whole. Meshing a love for classic rock and a lust for life, the band crafted two perfect albums: 1988's Nothing's Shocking and 1990's Ritual de lo Habitual. Upon their release, Jane's Addiction sounded like nothing else. Somehow, decades later, the band still sounds timelessly fresh, even if "Jane Says" can now be heard on classic rock stations.

Avery remembers the origin of the mid-tempo ballad like it was yesterday.

"I was bouncing between Amherst, Massachusetts, and New York. I'd buy dope in New York and run it down to Amherst. I jammed it with a friend, and it got imprinted in my head," he remembers. "Years later, I was living with Perry in Los Angeles in a place where five or six people were living. I played it on an acoustic guitar, and Perry came up with the poetry. I added the chorus."

When they first wrote "Jane Says," Avery had no idea they had just composed what would become Jane's Addiction's most famous song. "I didn't know it was special because everything felt special back then," he adds.

Eventually, things stopped feeling special. In 1991, Jane's Addiction found mainstream success, with the song "Been Caught Stealing" playing nonstop on MTV and radio and a headlining slot at the inaugural Lollapalooza.

"It became a monolith. I felt like a dinghy next to an ocean liner," Avery explains. "Perry and I were estranged. He had this big entourage. I told Dave halfway through Lollapalooza I was done. He said he was, too."

While Avery doesn't have regrets that the band ended when it did, he admits it's a shame Jane's Addiction stopped at the top of their game.

"The world could have used more of what we had going. It was so brief," he says. "We had ideas for songs on deck that could have been another album, but we had the hubris of youth."

Now, the original members of Jane's Addiction are back on a tour that will take them to Hard Rock Live on Saturday, August 31. Their setlist will include plenty of those great old songs.

"They still feel fresh for me; I haven't been around for all the iterations of Jane's Addiction," Avery adds. "We're reworking guitar and drum parts and trying different things. We're focused on the music in a way we haven't always been."

Will this renewed focus lead to any new songs?

"If one has any sense, you wouldn't bet on the future of this band. But I will say if there's a Jane's Addiction in 2025, there will be new music," Avery says. "The songs are in various stages of development. I ask myself, What can I bring to Jane's Addiction in 2024 that would be different from what we did in the '80s but still have that spirit?"

He hopes any new Jane's Addiction music can live up to the praise Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello gave the band after joining them on stage in Cologne, Germany. "He said, 'You guys are undiminished. You have the energy and the wildness of four guys in their twenties,'" Avery remembers fondly. "And that is actually what it feels like on stage." 
 
Jane's Addiction. With Love and Rockets and Crawlers. 8 p.m. Saturday, August 31, at Hard Rock Live, 1 Seminole Way, Hollywood; 954-797-5531; myhrl.com. Tickets cost $95 to $135 via ticketmaster.com.