Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell on Walk of Fame Star and Kardashian Allure (Q&A)

The members of Jane’s Addiction — singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Chris Chaney – will be inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 30, by special guest speakers John Densmore of legendary rock band The Doors; Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters and John Doe of the seminal L.A. punk band, X. The dedication of the star will be unveiled at 6436 Hollywood Boulevard, next to the Playmates of Hollywood Store, in the category of Recording. The band will mark the occasion with an outdoor performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in Hollywood.

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It has been a big year for Jane’s Addiction as the band celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the release of their Warner Brothers debut, Nothing’s Shocking, which featured the hit “Jane Says” and the fan favorite “Mountain Song.”  The band spent this summer on tour with Alice In Chains on the Rockstar Uproar Festival.

Tuesday afternoon, singer Farrell sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the significance of the honor and whether Kim Kardashian deserves a star of her own. 

What does it mean to you to have a star on the Walk of Fame?

A star is essentially a trophy, right? So how does it feel to accept a trophy for anything? It warms your heart. Specifically, the Hollywood Starwalk, or the Walk of Fame, means something a little more to me because, growing up as a musician in Hollywood, I walked the streets of Hollywood Boulevard. Our management was on Hollywood Boulevard, on Gower, and our record company was in the same complex, so as a young musician the first time I got involved in the business, in the business of music, we walked on those streets and went and got lunch and discussed the future and our shows and everything else. So, we would walk with our heads down, just kind of reading — reading the streets of Hollywood Boulevard. So the idea that I would be a name there is quite novel and fun for me. So I imagine that some kid, who comes maybe from the East Coast — slightly lost but a good guy — I imagine that kid walking the streets and seeing Richard Pryor and then seeing Jane’s Addiction and then seeing Lucille Ball and thinking to himself, “Man it would be really cool if my name was down there someday.”

The location of the star puts you right next to Lucille Ball. Were you ever a fan?

Yeah, I love Lucille Ball! Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez… my wife and I sometimes call ourselves the Desilu of our era because I met her when she came out on tour with me as a dancer, just like Lucy did with Desi’s band; and we’ve been together ever since. She’s been with me since 1997 and we’ve had projects together. So, I love Lucille Ball. And Richard Pryor! I just love the fact that we’ll be next to Richard Pryor because there’s a lot of names down there, but there’s not many that are as cool as Richard Pryor’s.

What kind of neighbor will you be?

What kind of neighbor will I be? Well, I hope to be a really, really good neighbor. You know, I have this idea and I have to talk to them more about it, but I want to kind of renovate the stars, if you will. I want to plant a chip in ours that, you can run your phone over it and it would upload information and video about the band. So I think I’d be a really good neighbor; and I think that, maybe, I’ll renovate the neighborhood a little bit.

And they could actually do that for all of the stars and it would be really exciting; you know, people do go walk on Hollywood Boulevard and, to be honest with you, sometimes I feel like Hollywood Boulevard, when you get there, it’s maybe a little bit of a letdown because stars are not really there. Of course, our stars are there, but that’s just metal and stone. But, if you had something interesting to do off the street, which is, like I say, if you wanted to know about a certain person, you know — “Myrna Loy, who was she? — you know what I mean? “Harold Lloyd? I’ve heard the name, what does he do?” And it would be really fun if they came to life and it wouldn’t be impossible to do. It’s possible to do, you just need to put a chip into the star.

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How were you notified that the band was getting a star?

You just get a letter that says these are the people that are going to be receiving stars this year and it comes to management. And that’s it. Amongst the noteworthy people this year is Janis Joplin and I’m excited about her. But it is a nice thing; it’s never a bad thing to get an award, but it’s nothing that I live for certainly. At the same time, when you don’t receive respect or recognition it’s very hurtful; so in this case it feels like a nice warm pat on the back.

What does it mean to you to have Taylor Hawkins, John Densmore and John Doe introducing you?

If there’s any tie, emotionally, to this star, it is that knowing, back in the day, that when I was beating the path on the Hollywood Boulevard, I was listening to and emulating The Doors and thinking about X. They were the giants of my city; they were the kings and the ones that, whatever I had to do or whatever I was going to do had to be in respect of them. And to know that they are… it’s pretty amazing. It’s something that is hard to explain. These are people who are kind of my luminaries, and I don’t even put myself in the same category. My wife says I am but she doesn’t understand that as a young man when you look up to someone it’s very hard to start seeing eye-to-eye with them. I loved The Doors and I love X and to me they held the keys to the city; so for them to be up there and speaking… and Taylor — by the time I met Taylor, Taylor I think admires me! And I love Taylor! You know what I’m saying? John Doe… I’m always going to be the kid who looks up to him; and John Densmore, I’m always going to be the guy that idolized him. Taylor is like my little brother and I love him! So there’s a different level of respect — I’m not in fear of Taylor! — but I’m glad, because he’s my buddy! He’s my pal and he’s one of the best people in the world. He’s one of the greatest guys and to have them there emotionally and for all the support is going to be great.

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Do you think Kim Kardashian should get a star on the Walk of Fame?

Oh, I don’t know, sure. I mean, she took up a great amount of time; she took up a lot of people’s time for a long time, that girl did. However she did it, she did it, you know what I mean? She took up a lot of space and a lot of time and I’m sure she made a lot of people’s lives a lot more interesting. Whether it be talking about her or trying to emulate her, she’s not a bad person. I can’t say that I watch her show.  I’ve seen it, it’s been on the TV, my wife has had it on — she doesn’t put it on, but it comes on — E!’s a great station — if you’re an entertainer especially, it’s great to see what’s going on in the entertainment world — but if you really stop and think about it, the family is extremely interesting. They have gorgeous, tall, young girls; they have the Kardashian name that is tied to the crime of the century; they’re tied to one of the greatest athletes of our century; and it is a really interesting family — especially if you’re talking about it in Hollywood terms, Los Angeles terms. This family has been through and known everybody there is to know in this city… so now I’m starting to think: yes. There you go!

Jane’s just finished a summer tour and will wrap the year playing Kimmel: are there any plans to record or tour for 2014?

Well, next year I’m going to be working very hard on a project called “Kind Heaven.” You’ll see a lot more about it… I could put it together in six to eight months if I had money in my pocket. I don’t have the money in my pocket, so we’ll see where I go from here. There’s no website — it’s way too early — but “Kind Heaven,” remember: “Kind Heaven.”