Though he’s best recognized as bassist for Porno for Pyros, Martyn LeNoble has racked up a formidable credits list across his career – including an ill-fated stint with another Perry Farrell-fronted band, Jane’s Addiction.
Following Jane’s Addiction's first break up in the early 1990s, LeNoble linked up with the band’s vocalist Perry Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins to form a new alt-rock outfit in 1992.
Fast-forward a decade, and LeNoble was drafted in by Farrell and co to play bass on Strays – Jane’s Addiction de facto comeback album from 2003. However, LeNoble didn’t last long: despite recording most of the material, he was replaced by Chris Chaney at the last minute.
In an upcoming interview with Guitar World, LeNoble discusses his short tenure with – and eventual departure from – Jane’s Addiction, and reveals how it all come to a close following a confrontation with Farrell.
“I still don't really know what the why and the what of all that stuff is,” LeNoble replies to questions over the Strays experience.
“I was working with Jane’s. We were in the studio and writing in the studio, which I think is always a terrible idea because it's expensive. We had Bob Ezrin producing us, and we were playing shows as well.”
According to LeNoble, it was during the aftermath of one of these shows that the wheels started to come off. After one gig, Farrell reportedly took issue with his playing, leading to a verbal confrontation.
“We ended up going to Korea and then one show in Japan,” LeNoble recalls. “After that show, Perry was really upset. He was upset during the show, and he said he was gonna kill someone – and it wasn't me.
“I tried to talk him down a little bit, and he suddenly turned on me. He goes, ‘Everything you play sounds like shit. There's nothing but feedback coming from your amp.' I was like, 'Hold on one second, there's no feedback. I play bass; there's no feedback.'
“The only time there was feedback was when he put his microphone at arm's length and held it out like he was Whitney Houston. His microphone would pick up the bass, and then it would go through his delay, so that was the feedback.
I found myself after the show in Japan the next morning, flying back with a band that I was no longer in
“He was trying to blame that on me, and I was not having it. That's when I found myself after the show in Japan the next morning, flying back with a band that I was no longer in.”
Farrell’s stage-related altercation with LeNoble bears some similarities to his recent onstage bust-up with Jane’s Addiction, during which the vocalist punched Dave Navarro. The band later canceled the rest of their tour, all but signaling the end of Jane’s Addiction.
The rest of LeNoble’s recollections of working with Farrell follow a similar pattern. As the bassist explains, “I just don’t enjoy working with him”, owing to a string of similar fallouts.
“It was tough,” he says of working with Farrell. “Music, to me, is always a time capsule. For example, if I listen to records now that maybe I didn't like when I was a teenager when I hear certain recordings, it brings back some kind of feeling. It becomes this sentimental thing.
“But with Porno for Pyros, I don't have that feeling. It never brings me good memories.”
Look out for the full interview with Martyn LeNoble on Guitar World next month.
