Jane’s Addiction and one-time Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro has revealed that he nearly took to the stage alongside Axle and co. in Guns N’ Roses, but his drug addiction prevented him from joining the LA rock megastars.
Speaking on the Appetite For Distortion podcast, Navarro reminisced on where the band was at in 1991 when there was an opening, due to the exit of Izzy Stradlin.
“Axl really wanted me to join the band,” said Navarro, adding that “we talked nearly every day about ideas and the way the band could work with me in it.
“At that time in my life, I was just simply not present enough to do it.”
“I had an audition with the band that I actually didn’t show up to because I was immersed in my drug addiction and I just simply couldn’t show up in that shape. But it happened the way it happened.”
Oddly enough, the ven-diagram of Dave Navarro, the Peppers, and Gunners would cross over many more times in the intervening years, with Navarro remarking how “oddly enough, Flea ended up joining Jane’s Addiction for a tour, and Duff McKagan ended up joining Jane’s Addiction for a tour.”
“So at this age now, it’s all water under the bridge and we’re all part of this collective musical family and we all played together a myriad of times. But the degrees of separation with those guys and we are way less than six.”
Navarro would go on to join the Chilis and write the polarising One Hot Minute record – a record panned by many but staunchly defended as an all-time classic by a vocal minority. Check out the full podcast interview below.
