They have mouths to feed, and they havent had a paycheck in almost two years.
During this time, Navarro vanished from public view.
I want to shake the cobwebs off a little bit.
Dave Navarro is back with Jane’s Addiction after a two-year absence to battle long Covid.Javier Bragado/Redferns
You first did that in London back in May.
As you know, we are now touring with the original lineup, Janes Addiction, 1.0.
When we reunited in 2009, we did a tour with Nine Inch Nails.
I felt that in this little crammed room.
It was a tiny stage with no production, no lights.
It was just four guys playing music, and I couldnt have been happier with it.
We were kind of finding our groove again.
I also felt good that I was able to get through a show because Id been very sick.
Hes certainly the best bass player that Janes Addiction had, outside of Eric.
Duff McKagan, of course, is an incredible presence.
Flea has his own style.
He plays with his fingers, not with a pick, so that brought a unique sound to it.
Hes like John Entwistle.
What led to this reunion?I honestly dont have any idea.
I love both those guys.
So they did great jobs, and I stayed at home and recovered.
Are you able to do this?
Ill follow any diet.
Ill see any doctor.
I will do whatever exercises I need to do.
And its still problematic.
The jurys still out on whats the right treatment for long Covid.
So I said, You know what, Im going to give it a shot.
If I run into trouble, we may need a backup plan, or another guitar player.
If we need to cancel dates, maybe thats what happens.
But that hasnt happened.
Lets go back a little bit.
When did you get sick?2021.
When did you realize this was different than a normal case of Covid?A couple of months later.
What were your symptoms?Just overall fatigue.
And it was just a pretty miserable experience for several years.
And going to different doctors, trying different methods, holistic methods, Western methods.
Some doctors claim that theyre specialists.
It still rears its head once in a while, but what am I going to do?
Did you watch any clips online of the shows they played with Troy and Josh?I did not.
Why not?I had plenty to focus on.
While they were doing that, I was pretty much housebound.
I took the time to focus on my art.
And I participated in a couple of art shows, and I kept myself busy that way.
Thats because Josh is an incredible player.
I want to stay true to what the original lineup was.
It was, Maybe, Ill never get to do this again.
Maybe this is my life for the rest of my life.
You cant help but lay awake at night and think up scary thoughts.
And you just kind of have to pull yourself down to earth.
Thats just such a hard thing to force the brain to do when its looping on negativity.
Did you see any of that stuff?No, no.
I imagine that one of the theories was that I was on drugs.
There was definitely a certain subset of fans convinced that was the case.Im not surprised.
I mean, my past is no secret.
Drugs would not keep me from the stage.
I might even have more experience playing loaded than sober with the band.
So, in fact, I wish it was that problem, because theres a solution to that problem.
But what were the other theories?
But at the same time, Taylor was the biggest Janes Addiction fan you could imagine.
I would be motivated to go out there.
All you have to do is call my parents.
I could give you a list of 10 doctors that Ive seen.
You dont need to convince me.
This was all coming from fan forums.Hey, I would be skeptical too.
Hes fuckin drunk in a hotel room somewhere not that Im comparing myself to Keith Moon.
I had to focus on my life.
The band, I can do.
Rejoining the world, Im still kind of working on that.
It was a challenge.
I was like, Fuck it.
What do I got to lose?
And that track ended up being Imminent Redemption, which is the first song that we put out.
And I wanted to put a Janes-y feel to it.
So I doubled those with the tremolo bar to make them just kind of uncomfortable.
If you have trouble out there, then thats another issue, but it turned out to be cool.
The last reunion with Avery was pretty short.
I mean, it was great.
It was fucking great to see Nine Inch Nails every night, but it was showbiz.
Im lucky we got to do that tour.
But this one, were playing smaller rooms.
We have new material.
Its pretty clear that you mended the friendship.Oh, yeah.
Our friendship was mended years ago.
But weve talked plenty of times in between and reconnected that way.
We didnt know anything.
We got to see some really great stuff.
The dream of so many fans is a new album with the 1.0 lineup.
There hasnt been one of those in 34 years.Thats more than likely going to happen.
I mean, we have recorded material.
I kind of stay out of that stuff.
What matters to me most is that this stuff is on vinyl.
I dont know anything about streaming or anything like that.
But Im 57 years old.
The songwriting process has really changed thanks to technology.
Aerosmithannounced just last weekthat they were hanging it up.
All of these giants are falling.
I feel a desire.
But you mention Rush.
Whats funny is that Rush were my earliest childhood influences.
The same goes for Stephen Perkins.
But oddly enough, Perry and Eric hated Rush.
Lets just put this this way: They were all about Joy Division back then.
They werent about Limelight.
Im really happy for him.
Im so happy for him.
You and Chris recorded a lot of music with Taylor Hawkins shortly before he died.
Is that stuff going to come out at some point?I sure hope so, man.
We have a completed mastered album, but this might be a little soon.
His overall musicianship, I think, really deserves to be known and highlighted.
And he had other projects, Chevy Metal.
He had Coattail Riders, and Birds of Satan.
But they were somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Its like he almost kind of wanted to take the piss out of himself before anybody else could.
But on the NHC material, I wouldnt let him do that.
I was like, No, dude.
Were not making this funny.
Were making this real, and so I really hope it sees the light of day.
Will you be returning toInk Master?No.
I think my time there is done.
My number one love is music, and art, and playing.
And that was a bigger platform than the band had.
Im still friends with the whole cast of all of that, and certainly had great times.
And it will be backed with another song.
So thats exciting to me because Im a vinyl freak.
Its hard to say a hundred percent, but I dont think I could put a number on it.
Really, the reality is its a day-to-day thing.
Some days, I wake up and Im like, Lets go.
Other days I wake up, and Im like, Fuck this, Im going back to bed.
So thats something I couldnt have done a year ago.
Just to see if theres any supplements that I might want to bring, or medications or whatnot.
I work out every day.
Ive changed everything around me to give a shot to heal.
Ive never lived this clean and healthy of a lifestyle.
Before, there was always something.
I dont live like that anymore.
They just thought you were on drugs or maybe were secretly fired by the others.
But it was mainly just drugs.I wish they had gotten a little more creative.
The truth is that hes Q, and hes pulling all the strings.
That would have been funny.
