Jane’s Addiction’s Debut Album Almost Didn’t Happen
Jane’s Addiction‘s debut album Nothing’s Shocking was released on August 23, 1988. It’s a miracle it was recorded at all, let alone released.
The story goes like this. Jane’s Addiction was signed to Warner Bros. Records off the strength of their self-titled release on independent label Triple X Records. Frontman Perry Farrell chose producer Dave Jerden to helm the record’s production; Perry was a fan of Jerden’s work with David Byrne and Brian Eno. Jerden was elated. He was big on the band’s demos and chose nine of them to record.
One day, as Jerden arrived at the studio, he was greeted in the parking lot by Jane’s guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, and drummer Stephen Perkins. They informed him there would be no recording session that day: the band had broken up. Jerden was shocked. He immediately looped in the Warner Bros. brass, and the label called an emergency meeting.
Jane’s Addiction’s Debut Album Almost Didn’t Happen
What had happened in those early sessions? Perry had declared to his fellow bandmates that he wanted 50% of the band’s publishing royalties (for writing the lyrics) and a quarter of the remaining half (for writing the music). In other words, Perry would be getting 62.5% of the total royalties from Nothing’s Shocking. The other three members of the band would split the rest.
An edict like that would certainly cause me to walk out of the recording sessions if I were Navarro, Avery, or Perkins. But here’s the wild thing: after the label intervened, that’s exactly what happened. Perry got the cut he sought. The rest of the band got 12.5% each. And Nothing’s Shocking was recorded.
Because of this, the album’s legacy is twofold. It’s rightly considered one of the greatest alternative rock albums of all-time: Nothing’s Shocking helped lay the groundwork for the decade of music to come. And it has “Jane Says,” which is arguably the band’s best-known, best-loved song.
But the wound that was opened up at the beginning of the album’s recording would fester. Jane’s Addiction would follow up Nothing’s Shocking with 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual, and then go the entire decade of the ’90s without releasing another album. They helped start the revolution, but weren’t around long enough to take part in it.