VOLUME 14.7
Perry Farrell
Text: Jaan Uhelszki
Photography: Patrick Hoelck

He was the frontman for seminal alternative rock bands like Jane's Addiction and Porno For Pyros. He was the brains behind Lollapalooza. Now Perry Farrell has a new solo album out titled The Diamond Jubilee, and he's as interesting as ever.

Did you think music was a holy thing when you started?
I was much greener. I was perceptive enough to see what Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan and The Stones and the Beatles and...you know, [what] all these people had done to the world. I was very aware that if you start something and do it right, watch, the whole country [could] be affected. Lollapalooza was a prime example of that. But I work a little bit slower. My plans always go in a seven-year cycle.

Do you find that you give a lot of yourself to a certain project? Like, how long did Jane's Addiction last?
Six years and then I rested on the seventh. Same with Lollapalooza.

It's great to look for themes in your life. What about Porno For Pyros?
You want to know the truth? My favorite record I've done to date was the last Porno For Pyros. I enjoyed so much Jane's Addiction, and I loved singing those songs, but if you would ask me what I want to put on right now, I would want to put on Good God's Urge. I went through more bizarre life-changing moments during the course of that record, and I could reflect it probably will never happen again. It was the craziest romance that ever happened to me, and life-death situations, and I was writing about it. If I would be in Jane's Addiction right now, I'd only be doing it for the money and the fame.

0 “If I can't get attention, and they're going to come in and get me, I'll just blow the windows out of the hotel and that will get their attention.”

Are you at a transformative stage?
Yeah, I feel I'm about to start to fly. I was just a caterpillar for a few years here. What's going on is, I'm carrying sensibilities that I had, but I'm applying them to new formats and new ways of writing.

What is the greatest misconception about you?
That I'm gay. I was hanging out with a gal yesterday that I actually date, and she said, "You know how many people ask me if you're gay?" Because I messed around with everything, you know that. But I don't know, I really just love women so much I don't think I could ever be gay.

Where do you get your sense of style from?
Well, it started way back. My sister when I was a little kid sometimes would dress me up. Occasionally she would dress me up as a girl.

What a surprise.
Right. That stopped one day when she says, "Go show Daddy," so I ran downstairs and I said, "Daddy!" And he went, "Get the hell upstairs!" And he screamed at my sister. He said, "What the hell are you doing? Don't ever dress him up like that again." But I didn't understand why. I thought I looked pretty damn good. But then later-I had older brothers and sisters and that has a lot to do with why I kind of had a groovy outlook on life. My brother and my sister were extremely groovy people.

When did you realize that you'd grown up?
Having the kid. I call him kid. We have such fun. But that's when I thought to myself, you know, I always used to tell people, when they said, what do you think about being a role model? And I say, I'm not looking to be a role model-don't count me a role model. But now I finally am, because there's someone who's helpless that was put into the world and he has to emulate his parents.

Have you ever been arrested?
Yeah. They were very nice to not, like, blow it out of proportion, but I had some pretty bad arrests. It's been a couple of years. I kind of got myself together.

Was it a drug or obscenity charge?
It was drugs. It was pretty bad. I was in a hotel-a very nice hotel, too--and I had the feeling that somebody was trying to have a hit put on me. So I was in this hotel and I was very high, and I had a nine-millimeter with me and a bunch of drugs, and this person-I thought there might be somebody outside because, you know, when you look through those peep holes, they're just so distorted. I thought, they're outside, I'm going to call security. But security wouldn't come up. I don't know if you've ever been like seriously chased by people, but I thought, you know what, they're not coming up. So this is my crazy thinking-I thought, well, I know what I'll do. If I can't get attention, and they're going to come in and get me, I'll just blow the windows out of the hotel and that will get their attention. So I started blowing the windows out of the hotel. And, of course, the SWAT team came and cleared the hotel out-and this is a very nice hotel in L.A.-and had me crawling out there and throwing my gun out. It was a mess. I threw my drugs out the window.

They found them?
Floating right on top of a bush. Didn't do too good there.