Perry Farrell joins Pearl Jam on stage during Austin City Limits on October 4, 2009 in Austin Texas.

Perry Farrell performs during Lollapalooza '09 festival at Grant Park on August 8, 2009 in Chicago.

• Get all of Rolling Stone's Lollapalooza coverage — live reports, video, interviews and more.

Perry Farrell and LeAnn Rimes perform during Lollapalooza at Grant Park on August 7, 2009 in Chicago.

• Get all of Rolling Stone's Lollapalooza coverage — live reports, video, interviews and more.

Birth of Lolla

Perry Farrell knows how to throw a party. It had been his mission from the earliest days of Jane's Addiction, hosting shows on the Los Angeles club scene that were exciting, festive and loud, more wild party than mere concert. By 1991, Jane's Addiction was leading an alternative rock revolution, tapping into a new, national audience hungry for new sounds and thrills. Farrell wanted to celebrate, and the Lollapalooza Festival was born.

"Even when I'm coming and going to the festival myself, I'm never in a long car line, it takes me minutes to get into my hotel, and it's just fantastic, the foods great," Farrell says. "You really can't beat it." — By Steve Appleford, with additional reporting by Shirley Halperin

Lolla Reborn

Jane's Addiction returned to action as a fully functioning touring and recording entity in 2001, and released Strays in 2003. For Farrell, it was time to finally resurrect Lollapalooza. Jane's headlined that year, sharing each night with Audioslave, Incubus, Kings of Leon and nearly a dozen others.