Perry Farrell is firing on all cylinders beyond Jane's Addiction's upcoming arena tour with Smashing Pumpkins. Spin.com reported today (July 27th), Farrell will appear at a benefit concert spearheaded by Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan to raise money for the victims of the July 4th mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, which has been the musician's home for the past two decades. The show will be live-streamed from Madame Zuzu's, the tea shop Corgan and partner Chloe Mendel own in downtown Highland Park.
Ahead of this week's Lollapalooza festival at Chicago's Grant Park, Farrell will appear with Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot today, and shed light on why he's been so involved with the Highland Park attack: “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long, long time: gun violence. What is the cause of it, how do you alleviate it.”
The Together And Together Again – A Benefit For The Highland Park Community Foundation begins tonight (July 27th) at 9 ET, live on Smashing Pumpkins' YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3vjiJMC
Perry Farrell went on to talk about this fall's 32-city joint arena tour between Jane's Addiction and Smashing Pumpkins: “What I found interesting about Billy’s offer is that we’re going to share production. So I have the ability to make a show that is as grand as his. And I like that a lot. Because there’s something unique about Billy — not only in his music, but in the fact that he puts his time into producing a show that is not just musical, but also visceral. You’re being lit up by lights and video and costuming and all these things. It’s a proper show. I think a lot of people today, they get up there on the stage and they’re just greedy — they don’t want to put out for any of those other things that, I would say, you expect when you’re coming to a concert. Don’t you want see the band up there all sexy, and check out what they’re wearing, and have the lights creating drama? And then, of course, there’s the sound, and the sound’s going to be fantastic at these shows.”
Farrell offered up an update about his ongoing studio work: “As soon as we finish this (Porno For Pyros) Lolla performance, we’re going back home and I’m going to be recording through August. And that will be for Porno For Pyros, for Kind Heaven Orchestra, and for Jane’s Addiction.”
A while back, Perry Farrell told us he's always felt particularly safe when onstage: “Musicians and music festivals. . . I would be more afraid if I was a politician or an army. I think that the last people –although I would say that nobody is above getting their ass kicked and retaliated on — but musicians, I think, we're peace makers.”
On Saturday (July 30th) Perry Farrell will perform with Porno For Pyros at Chicago's Grant Park as part of Lollapalooza.