So Addicted

Whores An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane’s AddictionBy Brendan Mullen

Da Capo Press, $26

Pick any page at random from Whores and you’re almost guaranteed to find lines like: “He’d end up with these incredible tracks down his arms,” or “Dave would just shoot nonstop.”

The “Dave” in question is Dave Navarro, guitarist for Jane’s Addiction and the band’s most committed junkie during their early-’90s heyday, although, as this oral history of the band shows, there was stiff competition for the title. Indeed, Whores acts as a fine alt-rock companion to Mötley Crüe’s similarly narco-fueled, quote-based The Dirt. There are even times when Whores exceeds The Dirt in gross-out terms, notably the anecdote that finds singer Perry Farrell, pissed that one of his roommates was stealing his food, masturbating over some string cheese (later eaten).

Unfortunately, while entertaining, the deluge of depravity overpowers any discussion of Jane’s genre-bending musical approach or Farrell’s founding of Lollapalooza. True, it is pointed out that they “never really got their due as the impetus for ‘alternative’ music coming into the mainstream.” But neither, frankly, do they get it in Whores, which more often resembles a pharmacist's inventory list than an authoritative history.