Perry Farrell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Perry Farrell, born Peretz Bernstein in 1959 in Queens, New York, is an American singer, songwriter and musician. At seventeen he travelled by bus to California, with a surfboard and drawing materials, and in Los Angeles in the early 1980s he became the singer of the post-punk and gothic band Psi Com. There he used the name Perry Farrell for the first time. In 1985 he formed the band Jane's Addiction with the bassist Eric Avery, the drummer Stephen Perkins and the guitarist Dave Navarro.

Music and breakthrough

Jane's Addiction became popular in Los Angeles and then in the United States with energetic performances in small venues. The group released three albums in quick succession: Jane's Addiction, Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual. It mixed punk, metal and psychedelic rock and became a key name in the Los Angeles scene of the 1980s. Farrell was nicknamed the Godfather of Alternative Music.

Influence

For Jane's Addiction's farewell tour in 1991, Farrell founded Lollapalooza, which grew into an annual multi-genre festival. He then formed Porno for Pyros with Perkins. Their first album from 1993 reached number three on the Billboard 200. In 2001 his first solo album Song Yet to Be Sung appeared. He also started projects such as Satellite Party and Kind Heaven Orchestra, and released Kind Heaven in 2019.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 2001Song Yet to Be Sung
• 2019Kind Heaven