Lollapaloozatoday is a sleek, reliably well-oiled pop music festival.
But it was born of chaos.
KING COFFEY (drummer, Butthole Surfers):The first show was brutal.
Perry Farrell and dancers, onstage with Jane’s Addiction, 1991© Chris Haskett*
It was 120 degrees, I think, maybe only 110.
Either way, youre in Arizona in the full sun in the daytime playing a show.
And its the first show, too, so youre still getting your bearings.
It feels like youre playing a sponge or something.
KEVIN LYMAN (stage manager, Lollapalooza 199192):We started at a place called Compton Terrace.
I dont think hed ever promoted anything that big at that point.
I dont think anyone expected Lollapalooza to be that big.
Because there was no real amphitheater in Phoenix at the time.
Jess is Stevie Nickss dad, and Gene is Jesss brother.
And Stevie was the third owner.
So Stevie Nicks was involved in the very first Lollapalooza.
STUART ROSS:We certainly werent going to start in Los Angeles.
Or New York, you know?
You want to be really good at what youre doing by the time you get to New York.
And the show ended at 11:00 p.m. And that was a Herculean task.
The place is southeast of the city and nobody was living there yet.
Although they did serve beer.
But it was perfect for Lollapalooza because the show, it was a circus.
And yeah, it was pretty bad.
KEVIN LYMAN:Some of it was still coming together.
The production company was a big Australian contingent, Delicate Productions.
Because Ted Gardner, being Australian, went with a company he knew and had worked with.
They were also the sound company for Supertramp, so the Delicate guys talked about Supertramp a lot.
It was, like, 117 degrees and were trying to figure it out, readjust things.
MICHAEL CURLY JOBSON (stage manager, Lollapalooza 199192):We were dying.
We went back to some golf resort; I didnt even make it into my room.
I fell asleep in the grass cause it was cooler outside.
You couldnt touch the steel of the stage; peoples equipment was melting.
KEVIN LYMAN:We were using technology that had never really been used too much.
Moving lights, things like that.
PHIL BURKE:We had something that we called the Reader Board that flew right over the stage.
It was basically a really, really early-generation LED screen.
It ran all day long and would carry social and political messaging as well as regular show messaging.
It was definitely the first of its kind and it was purpose-built.
I think everybody enjoyed goofing with it.
KEVIN LYMAN:Ill never forget when Ice-Ts tour bus pulled up during rehearsals and twenty-four people came off.
It was like a mass of humanity coming off that bus.
Then the rap crew, which could consist of up to, lets say, seven to eight people.
Then you have Body Count, which was like seven people by themselves.
Then we had a road manager.
So Ice was out there with at least twenty, twenty-one guys, all on that one bus.
I walked over and I introduced myself and I said, What are you doing here?
Youre not sound-checking now.
And he says, Im here to learn everything you guys do.
I want to understand what you do.
That really stuck with me forever.
Everything was super perilous.
But we made it work.
KEVIN LYMAN:It was very physical.
We used big rolling riser systems; it was like a big dance of equipment onstage.
If you flinched, you got run over.
I guess that was part of the adventure, wasnt it?
DANNY ZELISKO:They were flying by the seat of their pants.
Nothing short of a miracle.
DANNY FLAIM (roadie, projectionist, Butthole Surfers):No one really knew each other yet.
But they turned out to be the nicest people in the world.
She felt, like, untouchable to me.
And he said, Oh, come in here.
And then this huge, six-foot-plus man walks in and he goes, Hey there!
How many people youve never seen before in your fucking life in your own dressing room!
And Im just like, Oh, hello.
Im seeding at the moment!
That was the first time I met Gibby Haynes.
CHRIS HASKETT (guitarist, Rollins Band):That first show is where I met Vernon Reid.
I came offstage and hes sitting on the couch, wanting to say hello.
I was like … [gasps].
PERRY FARRELL:I remember running into Ice-T for the first time on the backstage grounds.
He looked at me and he said, Perry, you a playa!
I was all dressed up.
But it was gigantic.
So he thought I had a lot of money or something, I dont know.
I mean, he probably knew I didnt, but he just called me a playa.
I never forgot that.
That was a great compliment to me.
DANNY ZELISKO:We did the show pretty much without incident.
The Who, they werent.
JON KLEIN:They were running their tape machine on a TEAC four-track cassette-like thing.
A rack-mounted Portastudio, effectively.
And I guess the rubber bands in that just melted.
SEAN E SEAN:Trent Reznor, he waspissed.
It was like, Uh-oh, this is how we starting off?
ICE-T:It was a lot of equipment to make that show sound the way it sounded.
And shit went bad.
None of us had done any shows that size.
It wasnt pro-level gear we were touring with.
I thought, Man, we dont have our shit together.
We didnt have any money, but we didnt know any better.
You could bring fifteen guys out and it would sound, you know,kinda sortalike the record.
So we had to bring sequencers out that play a good chunk of the music.
So Trent would sing and play guitar.
I would play guitar and sing backups.
Every time the riser moved it would short out.
And we cant play without it.
Theres just no way.
Drum rack dies, drums are dead except for the acoustic drums, and the guitars go dead.
And were like, What the fuck?
We plug the thing back in, comes back up.
We finish Terrible Lie, go into Sin.
Were like a bar or two into Sin and it goes out again.
And Trent just goesberserk.
He fucking trashes the stage, storms off, and he says, Fire everyone.
Were all standing there with our dicks in our hands.
RICHARD PATRICK:We were so emotionally pissed off about it that we just trashed everything.
Threw our guitars around, destroyed the stage, walked off.
Then theyre filming Trent.
At that point, I just keep to the background.
Its sort of a famous interview.
Trents fairly calm, cool, and collected, saying what happened.
RICHARD PATRICK:Trent handled it perfectly.
Actually, he didnt.
He said something about an incompetent crew.
And so the crews of Lollapalooza were fucking furious with us.
We had really pissed everybody off, day one.
And that, complemented with incompetence on the crew part, led to a disastrous embarrassing situation.
MARKY RAY:The Lollapalooza crews took that very harshly.
Curly Jobson, Kevin Lyman, they all took that personally.
Especially about people who were working in very difficult circumstances.
I said, You didnt play!
Why am I paying you?
And remember Nine Inch Nails was notNINE INCH NAILSat that time.
But it wasnt me being rude to them.
It was like, Why would you ask to get paid when you didnt play?
I went through this whole litany of things: You knew it was gonna be hot …
Finally, Ted Gardner comes to me and he goes, Look, Danny, youre paying them.
He goes, Dont look at it like youre paying them money and they didnt play.
Their name was on the bill, right?
We used them to promote the show, right?
They came here to play, right?
I go, Yeah … but they didnt!
Ted says, Doesnt matter.
RICHARD PATRICK:This is also just the kind of chaos that could erupt onstage.
I mean, there was a lot of turmoil between the members of Janes Addiction.
This was supposed to be their last tour.
Dave and Perry actually got into a fight onstage that first night.
During that time, Dave was struggling with his problems.
Perry was doing his shit, and Stephen was as happy as he is today.
Eric was never anywhere to be found.
But backstage there was just this bad mood.
I dont know what anybody else told you, but it was just there.
It was very stressful.
And then, you know, the heat didnt help.
Eric was clean at that point in time, and Stuart was actually on Erics bus.
Ted and I were on the other bus, and David used to switch between the two.
So I went back and forth quite a bit.
Do I go with Eric and get sober?
Do I stay with Perry and, you know, continue doing what were doing?
Dave was desperate to get clean.
Perry was not desperate to get clean.
So that caused a great deal of friction within the band.
I mean, this is the vibe, right?
And, you know, this is Perrys day.
So Perrys pissed, everyones pissed.
Its tense and its 120 degrees and people are acting like assholes.
So I was in Arizona, and he was coming from L.A. to join me at the show.
And Daves guitar that he wanted was at a pawnshop in Hollywood.
Dave Gahan saves the day.
DAVE NAVARRO:God, thats very nice.
I dont remember that.
T. C. CONROY:The guitar gets there, but, I mean, the tone was set.
It didnt fix anything.
It just took away one excuse.
Im trying to get pictures, and Im like, What the fuck is this all about?
I never saw this before.
And then Dave trashes his stacks and throws his guitar into the audience.
Dave walks off and then Perry walks off and then they start fighting off the side of the stage.
DAVE NAVARRO:I had gotten too high on heroin and I couldnt really get up.
So then I was given cocaine by an unnamed source that got me too speedy.
By the time I got onstage, I didnt know which way was up.
And Perry and I got into it.
Its been super hot.
Tensions were high and they werent getting along.
And they went at it, in front of everyone, onstage.
PERRY FARRELL:I thought we wereoffthe stage.
I didnt know that we were on the stage.
No, I dont think so.
Not on the stage.
I waited until we were off the stage.
The problem was, we got off the stage and Dave didnt want to go back out.
Thats what that was.
And I dont feel good about that at all.
That was a stupid thing to do and I really regret it.
MICHAEL CURLY JOBSON:I think it was about Dave not wanting to play an encore.
And look, Perry, spindly little dude.
But one of the toughest men youre ever gonna meet.
You wouldnt wanna get into it with him.
MISSY WORTH:No, no.
MICHAEL CURLY JOBSON:And he just knocked Dave around, you know?
Im pretty sure that Perry wouldve knocked me around if he had chosen to.
So Dave didnt have a hope.
NIKKI GARDNER:Okay, this is a picture its from the Nineties, so its not very clear.
Perry is lying beside them, trying to calm the situation down.
PERRY FARRELL:Ted reminded me a lot of a wrestler.
Im not sure that hewasntan amateur wrestler in Australia.
And not, like, amateur collegiate.
I think he mightve messed around with pro wrestling.
NIKKI GARDNER:This was literally backstage while the fans were cheering for an encore.
And I believe they did go back on and do one.
CHRIS CUFFARO:So they come out for the encore.
And what I remember is that Dave is running around, body-checking Perry and trying to knock him over.
Perrys trying to sing and it was … weird.
And instead of taking pictures, Im just in shock about what is going on.
I wouldve been a lousy press photographer.
At the crash of the zeppelin I wouldve been standing there going, This things up in flames!
With a camera in my hand, you know?
We were free-falling at that point.
DAVE NAVARRO:I take responsibility for that.
KEVIN LYMAN:The tour could have collapsed right there.
DAVE NAVARRO:I didnt have any questions as to whether it was going to go on.
I knew it was.
Were not going to put together this tour and then not do it.
DANNY ZELISKO:We drew twelve thousand people at twenty-five dollars a head.
And they all had a blast.
Now, Im a CBGB, 9:30 Club guy, right?
So we grabbed some gear and starting moving it.
And somebody in charge, it wasnt Kevin Lyman, but somebody, was like, Get out!
And the crew goes, Why are you throwing them out?
What did they do?
The guy points at me, Hes in the opening band.
And then he points at Theo.
And hes a soundman!
Hes like, We cant have musicians moving gear!
So we got thrown out of the trucks for helping.
KEVIN LYMAN:You werent supposed to touch the equipment, if that makes sense.
A union person was supposed to carry the drum kit or move the risers.
But for us the only way to make it work was to be all hands on deck.
KING COFFEY:Everybodys equipment got shoved onto eighteen-wheelers.
So everything had to be on wheels and in hard-core cases.
We didnt have, like, big industrial rolling cases for the drums.
We had to spend a couple thousand dollars to get the cases up to spec.
JON KLEIN:I should have counted the buses it looked like fifty forty-foot buses, at least.
That kind of number.
KEVIN LYMAN:Ill just never forget that first load-out.
The promotor, Danny, was well known for having tons of strippers hanging around backstage.
DANNY ZELISKO:Im sure there were!
Back in the day, strippers came to a lot of the good rock shows.
That was something that was always a fun sight.
KEVIN LYMAN:I was yelling at Danny because we didnt have enough crew for load-out.
Im just going to trust that Kevins memory is better than mine.
He was the one that was running the load-out after that insane day.
NIKKI GARDNER:Nobody really knew what we were doing.
It was just mayhem.
And then we headed to San Diego.
I was struggling, to be honest.
I think I got heatstroke or some sort of heat thing.
We worked really hard all day long, we get through it.
And I walked into the production office and collapsed into a pile of towels.
