Howard Stern and Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction Agree Modern Music Has Been ‘Watered Down’
Howard Stern and Jane's Addiction's Dave Navarro lamented the lack of mystery in modern rock music this morning as the guitarist visited the King of All Media's studio to promote his band's new album 'The Great Escape Artist.'
During a discussion about the tragic murder of Navarro's mother when he was a child, Stern asked what music the guitarist listened to back then. Dave's response -- "Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Rolling Stones, all the old-school bands" -- touched off what Howard self-deprecatingly referred to as an "old fart" rant, albeit one that raised some interesting points about how media influences today's music.
When Stern mused, "I don't think the music is as good anymore, right? It doesn't seem as important..." Navarro quickly jumped in: "No, it doesn't seem as important, and that's because the playing field has been really watered down. The funny thing is, when I was growing up, I got the record and I saw the picture on the cover, and I heard the music inside, and that's the only access I had to that artist. That's all I knew about it. Now, people can just f---ing tweet you. You know what I mean? It's not the same."
"It was mysterious," Howard agreed, "The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album ('Deja Vu'), all the access I had was that picture, and it looked like they were into a whole new scene, they had the long hair, with guns or something, my imagination went berzerk. Then when the Beatles came out with 'Sgt. Pepper's,' and I heard about that, I got scared. I actually thought they were going somewhere dangerous."
Now, you might think it's odd that Navarro, who is or has been an active twitter user, blogger, radio show host, and reality TV star at various points, would be the one commenting on the abundance of access to rock stars in today's media, but he's definitely aware of the contradictions:
"It's such a double-edged sword, because on one hand, you wanna stay in this mysterious untouchable world, because that's what you loved about music. On the other hand, society and media has changed so much, sometimes it's a necessary evil to do things outside of your comfort zone."
One thing he and his bandmate Perry Farrell agree on is keeping their band out of the reality TV world. "The music is our artistic expression, and that's what's important to us. All the rest is just entertainment. Neither of us brought Jane's Addiction into our TV worlds."
Navarro also ran down his favorite guitarists (David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, etc.) and talked, of course, about the new Jane's album, 'The Great Escape Artist,' which comes out on Sept. 27. He played Stern a bit of their new single, 'Irresistible Force' (see our review and hear the song in full), and naturally it wasn't long before Howard starting singing along, making up his own words about past and possible future romantic partners for Navarro.