It began with Dave Navarro asking the shooting-the-s--- question, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a photo booth in my house?" Six months later, a photo booth furnishes the guitarist's Hollywood abode, and Navarro is preparing for the release of Trust No One, a memoir detailing life as seen through its lens.

"The book will deal with everybody that's been inside my home in the last year," Navarro says. "It's almost like a year in the life of this home, as opposed to a year out of my life."

Sounds pretty boring, assuming you're not familiar with life in the Navarro house, where scores of individuals routinely show up uninvited. "I have [each month] stored away in a separate folder," he says. "For example, you can open the June folder, and let's say there's 200 pictures . . . it's bizarre to think that that many people have been in my home in that time."

Even more mind-boggling is that many of the mugs represented in the book aren't part of Navarro's inner circle. In fact, many of them aren't even friends. Navarro has a simple rule he hopes all of his "guests" will adhere to: If you enter the house, you enter the booth. And that goes for everyone -- his housekeeper, his girlfriend, Kurt Loder, Marilyn Manson, even deliverymen who drop off packages.

For the book, the former-Jane's Addiction/Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist enlisted help from rock journalist Neil Strauss, who also co-wrote Marilyn Manson's The Long Hard Road Out of Hell. According to Navarro, it was Manson who suggested he team with Strauss, telling him, "You've got a really cool story. Think about the bands you've been in, and your childhood. It would be a great book." It didn't take long for Navarro to realize the potential hidden inside his photo booth.

The book's title, Trust No One, relates to various insecurities Navarro has faced since his childhood. Witnessing his mother's murder when Dave was fifteen -- and the chaos caused by his battle with heroin addiction -- play into these trust issues. "When I say I trust no one, I'm not condemning the world, but I'm saying it's me who has the problem," he says. "I'm not saying you're not trustworthy . . . I'm saying I don't trust you." Through the book Navarro will attempt to analyze relationships, focusing on those that have faded away. In one shot, he holds up his mother's old modeling photos to make it seem like she was in the booth.

While Navarro won't finish assembling the yearlong cycle of photos until next May, he and Strauss meet regularly to produce the companion text. And though it's Navarro's name that will ultimately sell the books, the guitarist is quick to recognize Strauss' contribution. "This is our project. This is not him working with me," Navarro says. "It's nice having unbiased input that can help me see things I wouldn't otherwise consider. I wouldn't want it any other way."

ARI BENDERSKY
(December 21, 1998)