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If you had told 15-year-old me I’d be doing a podcast with today’s two Talkhouse guests, I would have asked you what the hell a podcast was before getting truly excited: It’s Perry Farrell and Daniel Ash.
Perry Farrell almost certainly needs to introduction, but here goes: He first found fame as the singer for Jane’s Addiction, a band that bridged the gap between glammy metal and some burgeoning genre called alternative rock, and is pretty largely responsible the latter becoming a thing. The end of Jane’s Addiction in the early 1990s was the beginning of Farrell’s other big creation, the Lollapalooza festival, which continues to this day—the U.S. version was just this past weekend in Chicago, as a matter of fact. Farrell has played with other people over the years, and the legendary Jane’s Addiction has reformed in various incarnations over the years. But the big news for 2024 is that the band’s original lineup has reformed both to play shows and even to record some new music. Check out the band’s brand new song, “Imminent Redemption.”
This week, Jane’s Addiction will embark on a U.S. tour with the band of today’s other guest, Daniel Ash. Love and Rockets formed from the ashes of the legendary goth band Bauhaus, and features three of that band’s four members. The original Love and Rockets run, from 1985 until 1998, resulted in a legendary string of albums that was influential on an entire generation of tough-to-define bands, a list that definitely includes Jane’s Addiction. Love and Rockets has reformed a couple of times over the years, the latest being a successful run last year that marked their first shows in 15 years. It doesn’t seem like there’s any brand new music on the horizon for Love and Rockets, though last year’s My Dark Twin gathered some hard-to-find tracks. For now, why not refamiliarize yourself with their biggest hit, 1989’s “So Alive.”
In advance of their co-headlining tour, Farrell and Ash talked about how they keep fit enough to rock this hard all these years later, which includes taking a day off between each show and utilizing superfoods instead of hard drugs. Ash talks about how three of the biggest songs of his career were written and recorded in one day each, as well as how Ziggy Stardust changed his life forever. They also chat about the joy of collaboration and the potential up and downsides of AI. Enjoy.
Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Perry Farrell and Daniel Ash for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!
(Photo Credit: left, Walid Azami; right, Chris Jensen; Edited by: Keenan Kush.)
