PERRY EMOTIONAL!

Perry Farrell says the band had become as "clumsy as a circus seal tooting his horns"...

PERRY FARRELL has spoken for the first time about the split of Jane’s Addiction – saying that the band had become as “clumsy as a circus seal tooting his horns”.

The singer has hit back at last month’s announcement by guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Chris Chaney that the alternative rock pioneers are no more.

Farrell said: “The band went astray, falling into shallow holes. There was no consideration for the legacy she had built up over the years. Jane’s Addiction was getting stripped of her majesty.”

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He told Rolling Stone: “My separation came about because this legendary band was taken over by new owners. Music that was once relevant and graceful had become clumsy as a circus seal tooting his horns . . . Jane’s Addiction doesn’t strip for anyone but me. I brought Jane’s Addiction to life, it is only fitting that I am the one to bury her.”

Jane’s Addiction reformed in 2002 after ten years apart and released ’Strays’, an album of new material in 2003, have been on a hiatus for much of this year.

The band are considered one of the most influential of the last 20 years. Their albums ’Nothing’s Shocking’ and ’Ritual de lo Habitual’ are both modern classics, and a noted influence on bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction.

Farrell added: “I wish for Jane’s Addiction to be remembered as one of the seminal bands of her era. She laid a foundation for unbridled underground music to rise up on. The newly coined ‘alternative music’ came on to replace a stale music scene. We encouraged people to make scary choices.”

The singer – who released the solo album ‘Song Yet To Be Sung’ in 2001 -claimed his best work is still yet to come. He added: “At my pace, I have 20 more years in which to perform. I ponder that my greatest achievements still lay ahead.”

As first reported on NME.COM, a statement issued on Navarro’s website (June 23) read: “We know we can’t avoid this anymore so we will give it our best shot. What’s the deal? The deal is that it simply didn’t work out. Sometimes things just don’t work out. In all honesty, we have broken up and rejoined roughly four times over the years. Perhaps that should shed some light as to where we are now. We really don’t know. We do know that we really gave it everything we had this time and we actually made a really great record after so many years of silence.

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“Why didn’t it work out? So many reasons. Some of them over 15 years old, some of them new and none of them worth mentioning. Maybe we are just a volatile combination. Maybe that is why we were so great. The bottom line is that we are all extremely creative and motivated people and I know we will all continue to create and work on many different projects.

“Sometimes people grow apart in the relationship, it is nobody’s fault really… just a fact of life… an inevitable creative dissolution. Sometimes the best creative relationships are the most combustible and they aren’t meant to last forever.”

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