born march 29th, 1959, perry is most well known for his work with jane's addiction
from the years ~1987 to present, pioneering alternative music throughout his career.
perry was never afraid to experiment with femininity and sexual expression in his music and art in
general at any stage of his career, wearing corsets and makeup on stage countless times as part of
his stage persona.
it's important to mention that this, and much of the writing in jane's addiction/porno for pyros songs
was very inspired / advised by his girlfriend at the time, casey niccoli, who is in her own right an
artist who has been mostly forgotten despite her indisputable part of making jane's addiction what
it was during its peak. she wrote lyrics, helped put together outfits, partly came up with the band's
name, is the model for the nothing's shocking cover sculpture, and helped create the ritual de lo
habitual cover sculpture.
her influence spread so deeply into the dna of jane's addiction that when they ran out of material
written by her after good god's urge by porno for pyros, the lyrical quality of their songs dropped so
sharply they're basically unrecognizable, which i why i don't recommend you listen to anything
jane's/porno/perry that was recorded after ~1999.
when you listen to jane's addiction, to porno for pyros, to any of his good work, you are listening to
hers because she made the band.
this article explains everything directly from HER so i highly suggest you give it a read.
moving on however; much of his music is about his various lovers over the years who he speaks of
very tenderly and poetically.
from ~1985 to at least 1997, perry was addicted to heroin which he writes about in the majority of
his music. through heroin he met his first love, xiola, who died of an overdose in 1987, which, along
with his mother's suicide, directly inspired the song then she did on ritual de lo habitual.
perry was and is still a narcissist, his position as frontman feeding into this. the relationship he had
with his bandmates can probably be considered abusive given that he met them when he was ~30
and they were in or fresh out of high school. in the early days they couldn't even perform at some
clubs because they simply weren't let in. he allegedly controlled the band's finances as well.
over 1987, the band wrote 3 albums worth of songs, releasing their debut self-titled live album the
same year, nothing's shocking the next, and ritual de lo habitual in 1990. the writing binge stopped
shortly after their debut album when they signed to warner bros. which according to perry made
writing much harder given that it all had to be approved by some higher-ups.
after breaking up in 1991, their farewell tour being the very first lollapalooza, perry started the band
porno for pyros with former jane's drummer stephen perkins, releasing their self titled album in
1993, followed by good god's urge in 1997.
after this, jane's addiction got back together and released kettle whistle in 1997, which i consider to
be their last release actually worth listening to, and most of it is demos and live recordings.