A New Jane's Addiction Album with the Original Lineup Is "More Than Likely," Says Dave Navarro
"There’s always hurdles in collaborative creative efforts, but overcoming those hurdles is where the solution happens, and the solution, should it reveal itself, can be pretty exciting"
In a new wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone, Navarro opened up about coping with the long COVID case that forced him to drop off of the band's initial 2022 reunion tour, grieving Taylor Hawkins, not returning to Ink Master, and Jane's overcoming interpersonal issues to make new music together.
"There was a day, where they had a studio day, and they said, 'Hey, we got studio today. If you want to come up, and try and lay a track down, we'd love to have you,'" Navarro recalled. "I was like, 'Fuck it. What do I got to lose? Let's do it.' And that track ended up being 'Imminent Redemption,' which is the first song that we put out."
After explaining how he put a "Jane's-y feel" on the track by doubling the verses with the tremolo bar, the guitarist said that recording that comeback track on a whim was the inciting incident for more to follow.
"Once we did that, we just continued working on more music, and the tour was coming up, and I wasn't sure if I was going to go," he remembered. "And then, finally, I talked to my doctor, and he's like, 'Hey, man, there's no medical reason why you can't go right now. If you have trouble out there, then that's another issue,' but it turned out to be cool."
Jane's will be playing "Imminent Redemption" live with Navarro in tow on their co-headlining North American tour with Love and Rockets, which kicks off in Las Vegas tonight. When journalist Andy Greene asked if there would be a full-length album with the classic lineup to follow, the musician answered, "That's more than likely going to happen. I mean, we have recorded material. I don't know specifically the model, if it's going to be a song at a time, or if we're going to drop a song, and then a record, or I don't really know. I kind of stay out of that stuff. What matters to me most is that this stuff is on vinyl."
He continued:
I don't know anything about streaming or anything like that. But I'm 57 years old. I've been in this band since I was 17 or 18, and it's the same band, and we have some of the same hurdles, and we have other obstacles that are no longer there. There's always hurdles in collaborative creative efforts, but overcoming those hurdles is where the solution happens, and the solution, should it reveal itself, can be pretty exciting.
The songwriting process has really changed thanks to technology. Everything was on reel-to-reel before, and so all four of us would have to be in the recording studio to get something down. There's something really magical and special about that, because all the tapes are live, and everybody's playing together, and tempos fluctuate, but it's human, and it feels good. But the state of technology now allows us to individually, to work on ideas, away from the room, and then when we come into the room, have a way more concrete concept of where we want to go rather than fishing.
In the throes of the worst of his illness, there was talk of Josh Klinghoffer recording guitar parts in Navarro's place and that the Jane's recording sessions around that time were happening at Johnny Depp's place for some reason. Greene didn't ask Navarro about that.
Check out our ranking of the 10 best Jane's Addiction songs while you await the arrival of potential new additions to the list — which seems, well, imminent.