Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan is shocked by Jane’s addiction when he forces his label to release a live album

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan has said he was surprised to learn that Jane’s Addiction chose to release a live album as their debut purely for creative reasons.

The Pumpkins singer/guitarist was speaking with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell for Live Nation’s 1:1 video interview series when Farrell explained why his band pushed through the decision to ‘Jane’s Addiction’ (1987) so presented before he signed with Warner.

The original tracks of the self-titled debut were recorded live at the Roxy Theater in Los Angeles in January 1987, with additional overdubs and corrections recorded at The Edge studio in the city.

In the interview, Corgan remembers hearing Jane’s Addiction for the first time at a friend’s house in Chicago in the late 80s. He recalls hearing the band’s debut in 1987 and having an “instant connection” with the Los Angeles rockers. , which he started. to follow eagerly.

Corgan then says that the Smashing Pumpkins opened for Jane’s Addiction at a concert in 1988, around the time their album ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ was coming out. “I think I’ve seen you live before I’ve even heard the record,” Corgan tells Farrell in the clip, adding that it’s a “cool” experience that not many fans get to enjoy.

“So the first record people wanted to hear from us was a live record,” Farrell replied, revealing that he told Warner his band would sign with the label on the condition that their first record be an album. alive.

“I didn’t know,” replies Corgan. “I always thought – you know, the typical musician’s brain – that you did it because it was kind of the fastest and easiest way to record. You know, I didn’t know that asked you on that.”

Farrell explained that the idea was to capture the band in their most “raw” and “energetic” state.

He and his colleagues wanted fans to “listen to us and know us at our most honest and innocent.”

“You know, when I say ‘poorer,'” continued Farrell, “I mean it in the nicest sense. We had nothing. We had nothing to lose at the same time, and I was try to catch that before someone could screw it up. up.”

Elsewhere in their talk, Corgan and Farrell tackle Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro’s absence from the two bands’ joint current tour due to the long-running COVID battle, giving fans their current shows a shock Corgan when they see Farrell and Navarro in the audience at a poorly attended Smashing Pumpkins performance in 1992.

In other news, Jane’s Addiction recently had to cancel five concerts of its stadium tour with the Pumpkins, citing Farrell’s injury.