Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro revealed to the Appetite For Distortion podcast that his drug addiction kept him from joining Guns N' Roses in the early-'90s. Blabbermouth transcribed Navarro's chat where he explained, “Axl (Rose) really wanted me to join the band and we talked nearly every day about ideas and the way the band could work with me in it. (But) at that time in my life, I was just simply not present enough to do it. I had an audition with the band that I actually didn't show up to because I was immersed in my drug addiction and I just simply couldn't show up in that shape. But it happened the way it happened.”
Navarro, who went on to beat his demons went on to say, “I went on to go and be in the (Red Hot) Chili Peppers. And, oddly enough, Flea ended up joining Jane's Addiction for a tour, and (Guns N' Roses bassist) Duff (McKagan) ended up joining Jane's Addiction for a tour. So at this age now, it's all water under the bridge and we're all part of this collective musical family and we all played together a myriad of times. But the degrees of separation with those guys and us are way less than six.”
Dave Navarro did however play guitar nearly a decade later on the Guns track “Oh My God,” which was featured in the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie End Of Days. Navarro recalled hey played his guitar parts along to a pre-recorded track, and was told Axl Rose was en route to the studio: “I said, 'This f***ing sounds great.' And I recorded a couple of passes. And then, I s*** you not — I swear — all of a sudden I hear in the background, 'Yeah, that sounds really good. Why don't you keep that one?' And what it was was Axl on speaker phone from his home listening in the whole time. I was, like, 'What?' It was just Axl's voice out of nowhere — like out of a f***ing speaker. Then he kind of gave me some direction, and I was, like, 'Okay, cool.' And then we were stoked, and that was that.”
He went on to recall, “It was a very strange (experience) but I love that it was strange. Y'know what I mean? Because it makes the story so much juicier and more f***ing just memorable and fun.”
Jane's Addiction is set to play the opening night of 10th anniversary Lollapalooza Chile. The three-day event will kick off on March 18th, 2022 at Santiago's Parque Bicentenario de Cerrillos. Dave Navarro told us why he thinks Jane's has endured: “Y'know, one of the things that I attribute our ability to last as long as we have is the fact that we never fit into a genre, so some of the genres that have come and gone, no one could ever categorize us. Therefore we were never really a part of anything that was considered passe, y'know? Which is a testament to sticking to what you know, and not trying to fit into a box.”