Pop Talk by George Varga

At 50, Jane's Addiction leader Perry Farrell is nearly 17 years younger than Paul McCartney, who drew a sellout crowd of more than 60,000 to his marathon, 2-1Ú2-hour performance on the opening night of April's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

But it was the energy and enthusiasm of the former Beatle, not just his age, that made a big impression on Farrell. The fact that McCartney was appearing as a still-active solo artist was also significant for Farrell.

"Music keeps you young," Farrell said, during an interview at Coachella, where he performed an electronica set with his wife, Etty, and sat in for a number with Thievery Corporation.

"Singing and dancing, that's the fountain of youth," he continued. "And that's why you can party your (behind) off (like McCartney) and still look like you're a little Kewpie doll. But did you notice that there were some Beatles missing? That's why I gotta tell my guys: 'Let's not (mess) this up.'"

The "this" in question is the recently reunited Jane's Addiction. Farrell's desire to not "(mess) up" may be wishful thinking for an often-contentious band that already has three previous reunions under its belt.

The Los Angeles quartet formed in 1986. It imploded in 1991, the same year Farrell co-founded the Lollapalooza festival, not long after he and guitarist Dave Navarro came to blows on stage during a Lollapalooza date in Phoenix. At the time, drummer Stephen Perkins was apparently the only band member not caught in a downward spiral of debilitating drug use.

But before it all went wrong, Jane's Addiction earned a large following with its enticing combination of punk-inspired attitude, hard-rock fire, funk-driven polyrhythms and exotic Led Zeppelin-in-Morocco-like textures.

At its best, the music that resulted was mysterious, earthy and explosive. And Farrell — part singer, part shaman — commanded attention with his wailing vocals, charismatic stage presence and vivid lyrics about love, despair and the seedy underbelly of life for young artists in Hollywood.

Now, with Farrell still in the driver's seat, Jane's Addiction is embarked on its first reunion tour with all four original members.

The previous reunions (in 1997, 2001 and 2003) reteamed Farrell with Navarro and Perkins, now both 41. But this is the first time original Jane's bassist Eric Avery, 44, has returned to the band. (His role was filled on the previous reunion treks by Chris Chaney, Martyn LeNoble and Flea.)

The band's ongoing tour with industrial-rock pioneers Nine Inch Nails provides fans with an opportunity to celebrate — and possibly bid farewell to — two of the biggest non-mainstream rock bands to emerge in the 1980s.

The prognosis for Jane's Addiction is equally shaky, especially given the volatility of its members.

"I cannot predict the future, even on a good day," Navarro said in a interview conducted during Jane's previous reunion tour in 2003.

Farrell, the father of three young sons — Yobel, Hezron Wolfgang and Izzadore Bravo — describes the current state of his on-again/off-again band with an analogy perhaps better suited for an "Old McDonald Had a Farm" sing-along.

"Somebody is a bull, somebody is a lamb, somebody is a puppy and somebody is a pig," he said, declining to specify which band members he had in mind.

"There are all kinds of different animals on the farm, but you need all of them."

Indeed. But will these "animals" and their audience fare better with a new musical diet, or with strictly familiar offerings?

With the exception of 2003's "Strays," a slick, halfhearted album that was geared for radio airplay but failed to gain much, Jane's Addiction has not released an album of new songs since its third studio outing, 1990's "Ritual de lo Habitual." As a result, the band's previous reunion tours were nostalgia-fueled exercises, as Navarro acknowledged in a 2003 interview.

"Right now, we're just interested in putting on a really great show," the guitarist said at the time. "We're not really creating much. We're creating an environment, but we haven't written anything (new) in 12 years."

Accordingly, the band's latest release, the limited-edition "Cabinet of Curiosities" (Rhino), features three CDs and a DVD, but nothing really new.

The CDs contain 43 songs, most of them unreleased demos and live recordings from years gone by. Also featured are the band's versions of songs by such disparate bands as Led Zeppelin ("Whole Lotta Love"), The Doors ("L.A. Woman"), X ("Nausea") and, um, the Grateful Dead ("Ripple").

The lack of new material may disappoint fans hoping for Jane's to stretch its creative wings again, but Farrell is happy just to have the band back together.

"First of all, it's OK to be a classic car," he said. "You can go to a car show and see a gorgeous car with the hood up, and say, 'Wow,' and still want a 2009 BMW. In my garage, I have Jane's, which is a classic car. But the fans will also get off on a new song that you put up on the Internet for free."

Make that one new song, and only one new song, a point Farrell stresses by conveniently overlooking "Strays," the band's moribund 2003 album.

"People say: 'You haven't recorded a new album in 18 years, would you go (on tour) like that?' I would," he said. "I don't have to give you 10 new songs you won't listen to. I'll give you one that you will listen to, and that's musical currency. We have three album to choose from, and we can play anything.

"After 20-plus odd years of working with these guys, we kind of like each other a little more than we ever have. But we're all very different and have four different opinions on any subject. I do my best to keep the group together at any cost. When we hit the stage, we blast, we're all alive and it's a great thing to have the original lineup.

"It's rare. So, we'll see how long we can do it before somebody becomes ill — or a monk."

To find out more about George Varga and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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