Flea Out of Jane's Bass Duty

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea will not play with Jane's Addiction during their reunion later this year.

Flea first sat in with the band during a 1997 reunion, after original Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery opted out of performing. When the group decided to reform again for this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival later this month, Flea was again invited into the fold. But Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell plans to keep the band together a little longer, taking it on the road as part of his Jubilee summer festival, starting in July. With the Chili Peppers still writing material for their follow-up to 1999's Californication, Flea opted out of the longer-term commitment.

Martyn Le Noble, who previously worked with Farrell in Porno for Pyros, will take on bass duty for Jane's Addiction for Coachella, as well as during the Jubilee festival.

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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