The Uncensored Tale’ Guide Excerpt

Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Tale of Choice Rock’s Wildest Pageant is an upcoming oral historical past in regards to the Lollapalooza pageant, from its genesis as a farewell excursion for Jane’s Dependancy in 1991 to turning into a counterculture touchstone by means of the tip of the last decade. The ebook comes out March 25 on St. Martin’s Press. Written by means of veteran song reporters Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour, it comprises interviews with greater than 200 other folks, together with the fest’s organizers, bands, level crews, promoters and extra.

Excerpted from LOLLAPALOOZA: The Uncensored Tale of Choice Rock’s Wildest Pageant by means of Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour © 2025 by means of the authors and reprinted by means of permission of St. Martin’s Press.

TED GARDNER (supervisor, Jane’s Dependancy; cofounder, Lollapalooza) The genesis of all of it used to be that Perry determined that Jane’s Dependancy used to be gonna get a divorce.

GREG KOT (song critic, Chicago Tribune) It used to be widely recognized that they weren’t loving each and every different as a band at that time.

STUART ROSS (excursion director, Lollapalooza) I don’t imagine that Perry felt that the trajectory of the band as opposed to the extracurricular actions of the band had been sustainable. And when Perry determined to wreck the band up, he used to be very particular that he sought after them to move out on a top be aware, quite than fade into obscurity.

NIKKI GARDNER (assistant to Ted Gardner; particular teams coordinator, Lollapalooza) Lollapalooza can be their large farewell, with a host of bands getting in combination to rejoice the tip of Jane’s Dependancy.

STEVE KNOPPER (editor at massive, Billboard mag) It’s in truth a canceled look on the 1990 Studying Pageant that sparks the entire thing. Which is more or less humorous to take into accounts—{that a} display that doesn’t even occur ends up in one thing such a lot larger.

MARC GEIGER (agent; cofounder, Lollapalooza) Jane’s is enjoying the Studying Pageant, and they’ve a warm-up membership display. It’s a tiny membership. Can’t consider the title of it. It used to be about 180 levels inside of. The partitions had been sweating. Simon Le Bon’s within the membership. Everyone who’s any person made it to that display for Jane’s Dependancy. It used to be an awesome display.

CARLTON SANDERCOCK (proprietor, Simple Motion Data; Jane’s Dependancy superfan) It used to be a membership known as Subterania, beneath a flyover in West London. Jane’s Dependancy, previous to that time, had been cult in the United Kingdom, however by means of summer season of 1990 they had been a large band, and for our small staff of people that had been loopy about them, to look them in a membership like Subterania used to be a f-cking large deal.

DAVE NAVARRO (guitarist, Jane’s Dependancy) I utterly keep in mind that display at Subterania, and I’ll inform you why. I used to be a large heroin person again then, and the day sooner than, I had connected with a host of boulevard children that knew the place to cop. We were given ahold of a host of dope and ended up going to a squatters’ flat in an deserted construction.

So me and a few those boulevard children had been getting top, and someplace alongside the road, I overdosed. After which the entire children that had been residing there, apart from my one pal, break up, as a result of they didn’t wish to have a frame on their arms. All of them ran away, and my pal known as an ambulance and dragged me down a flight of stairs to position me in the street nook to expectantly have an ambulance come and select me up. And he mentioned that once he pulled my frame as much as lean in opposition to a boulevard signal, I began coughing. I had come again. So he needed to pull me again up the flight of stairs and watch during the window because the paramedics had been on the lookout for no matter it’s they had been on the lookout for. They usually by no means discovered it they usually went away.

I consider coming to day after today, someplace within the afternoon. And my pal used to be perched over me, announcing, “Dave! Dave! You had been useless! You had been useless ultimate evening!” I used to be utterly puzzled. And the very first thing I mentioned to him used to be, “Is there any further dope left?” So my subsequent transfer used to be to get top once more, which is insane.

Then I noticed that the Subterania display used to be that evening. I seemed on the clock, it used to be at 4 or 5 within the afternoon, and I believe I had neglected sound take a look at. And this used to be sooner than mobile phones and computer systems. So I needed to by hook or by crook in finding the venue, and I believe I made my method there possibly twenty mins sooner than we had been meant to move on. Simply sooner than the display I used to be utterly asleep, and anyone needed to faucet me at the shoulder and say, “It’s time.” So I went from an instantaneous drug-induced sleep to being onstage. After which we performed, the display went nice, and everyone had fun.

STEPHEN PERKINS (drummer, Jane’s Dependancy) I inform you, guy, not anything is healthier than enjoying to a roomful of people who need your song. They know the lyrics, they’re there for you. There’s a union. And Perry, he’s a shaman when he’s up there. You’ll be able to move into the room and let him take you someplace.

CARLTON SANDERCOCK I simply consider the f-cking warmth.

MARC GEIGER It used to be cool out of doors, scorching within the membership. Perry went out of doors after the display, stuck a chilly, misplaced his voice. Perry wakes up within the morning, the band cancels as a result of he can’t sing.

PERRY FARRELL I were given too f-cked up. So I didn’t make it to Studying. My voice used to be simply shot.

DAVE NAVARRO I felt dangerous for Perry, after all, as a result of nobody desires to get injured like that. However I consider a sigh of aid coming over me that I may just simply return to my lodge room as an alternative of to Studying.

MARC GEIGER Stephen and I am going, “F-ck it. We’re happening to the fes- tival anyway. We’re going to have a great time.” We went all 3 days. There’s one thousand bands: The Pixies, who had been pals and my shopper, and had been ruling the United Kingdom on the time. Inspiral Carpets had been my shopper. The Fall used to be a consumer. And we had any such excellent time putting with they all. Stephen and I mentioned, “That is what we will have to do in The us.” A camara- derie of these types of cool selection bands.

STEPHEN PERKINS We knew the song used to be rising. We knew X and Black Flag and the Minutemen, the entire bands that impressed us, that they had hit the ceiling. But if we noticed what used to be going down at Studying, there used to be the sense that there’s one thing about this song that’s no longer being proven or heard but. And we knew the target market used to be there and able for it. To have that eclectic day, eclectic evening, that have the place the genres more or less simply soften in combination and the lovers are there.

MARC GEIGER They didn’t have this in The us. So we went again to the lodge, and we described our day at Studying. With Jane’s, Perry had mentioned, “We’re breaking apart the band. We wish to do one thing magical for our ultimate excursion.” So at that time, I described what I believed a layout will have to be, and I mentioned, “I believe we will have to convey seven bands. Everyone will have to select a band.” I actually simply threw it available in the market, and everyone began choosing bands. I used to be like a waiter taking orders, together with my very own. I believe Dave picked Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Eric picked the Butthole Surfers . . .

ERIC AVERY (bassist, Jane’s Dependancy) I used to be an enormous Butthole Surfers fan.

MARC GEIGER . . . and Perry picked Ice-T, and I picked the Pixies and 9 Inch Nails, and Stephen picked Rollins, I wish to say.

DON MULLER (agent; cofounder, Lollapalooza) They got here again from the United Kingdom and mentioned, “What do you assume? Are we able to do that?”

MARC GEIGER Once I went to touch the bands, everybody mentioned sure. Aside from the Pixies.

JOEY SANTIAGO (guitarist, Pixies) That most definitely feels like one thing silly that we’d do. I imply, we will have to have completed it. As a result of we labored with some of the founders—he used to be our agent. So it’s like, “F-ck, why didn’t we do it?”

MARC GEIGER So then the Pixies selection in the end advanced into Residing Color. Nice rock band. They usually had the one hit file out of the entire bunch.

DAVE NAVARRO My first reminiscence of listening to in regards to the pageant used to be in our practice session area. I wasn’t very coherent for the times prior, however that dialog didn’t occur till we had been neatly again in Los Angeles. We had been on this dingy little studio, and we more or less threw names round of who can be excellent to be on it. I simply concept it used to be going to be any other pageant gig. I had no thought what it might change into.

DON MULLER I’ll be brutally fair with you, we didn’t have a clue about what the hell we had been doing. 0. If any one says otherwise, they’re mendacity. As it used to be like, Okay, we’re going to position these types of bands in combination, and we expect we will transfer it across the nation . . . however what can we do with it?

RICK KRIM (government, MTV) This used to be 1990, 1991, method sooner than fairs had been in reality a factor over right here. This present day you may have 3 fairs each weekend. There’s not anything distinctive about it. However at the moment, and on this musical lane, nobody had completed it on that more or less scale.

GINA ARNOLD (journalist, writer) Marc Geiger advised me, “Oh, we’ve this nice thought. We’re gonna do those fairs, similar to in England . . .” And I used to be like, “That’s by no means gonna paintings.” I imply, take into accounts the variation between the ones fairs and The us. The dimensions of The us . . . it’s simply too large. Additionally, I advised him, “There’s no marketplace for the ones bands.”

MARC GEIGER However the important thing level used to be it wasn’t about growing an alternate excursion to constitute the time. Jane’s used to be on the lookout for concepts to move out with a bang, one thing other, okay? That is true. They’ll inform you they had been splitting up. They had been preventing, da, da, da, da, da. I believe Eric used to be looking to be instantly and the opposite guys weren’t. That used to be inflicting some frictions.

Now, it became out that the suitable factor used to be reflecting selection tradition in a package deal that might get to numerous other folks and be offered with drive. But it surely wasn’t the entrance burner. Studying and England used to be the entrance burner. The again burner used to be the hair-band sleeve. MTV in England wasn’t appearing Quicker Feline and Winger movies each thirty seconds. England used to be Inspiral Carpets. Madchester. The BBC and Pete Tong and John Peel and Nick Cave. The us used to be nonetheless fearful of that. At Studying, the Pixies had been headlining an eighty-five-thousand-person pageant. Right here, they had been a membership act. You’re looking to get that tradition and that mindset over in The us, which continues to be selling Winger movies.

DAVE NAVARRO I wasn’t in reality conscious about it being a farewell excursion, simply because we had been at the verge of each display being a farewell display. I believe that’s what Perry had in thoughts, however I don’t know that he shared that with us. Even if it used to be lovely glaring to me that we weren’t going to be doing a lot after that.

PERRY FARRELL I advised Marc, “I’m out of right here after the excursion, so let’s do one thing excellent.” And he checked out me and mentioned, “Perry, you’ll do regardless of the f-ck you wish to have.” And I mentioned, “I’m going to carry you to that.”

STUART ROSS Perry known as us all in for a gathering and advised us what used to be going to occur and what his thought used to be. I commit it to memory as being Ted Gardner, Marc Geiger, Don Muller, and Peter Grosslight, who used to be some of the companions at Triad. Tom Atencio, one among Jane’s Dependancy’s managers. Invoice Vuylsteke, sometimes called Invoice V., who used to be the industry supervisor. I believe it used to be at Invoice’s place of work. And Perry sat us all down and mentioned, “Guys, I’m breaking the band up. I wish to move out on a top, excellent be aware. And for the ultimate excursion, we’ll get six different bands. We’ll get the promoters to offer loopy meals like large burritos, and we’ll do politics. We’ll get the NRA to arrange a sales space subsequent to PETA. And we’ll get loopy artwork. And I’ve were given a reputation for it, we’re going to name it Lollapalooza.”

PERRY FARRELL I do consider arising with the title. As a result of everyone all the time desires you to name a excursion. In all fact, it used to be an excessively humble second. I used to be on a filthy carpet in an condominium in Venice. It used to be a shag carpet, I believe it used to be inexperienced, it used to be more or less unpleasant, and there have been crusty issues at the carpet. I had books, like outdated secondhand books, and I picked up a dictionary. It’s more or less a rarity to have an actual dictionary, however all of us had them in the ones days. I used to love to make use of the dictionary for phrases after I would write songs, as a result of it’s possible you’ll run throughout a phrase that’s so superb that it sparks one thing. After which infrequently I might learn the dictionary only for a laugh. However I got here throughout “lollapalooza,” as a result of I used to be as much as L.

TED GARDNER Nobody may just pronounce it. Nobody may just spell it.

STUART ROSS Not anything like this were completed sooner than. There have been a couple of fairs like WOMAD, which used to be the Peter Gabriel tournament that began in Europe that traveled just a little. And I imagine there used to be one different smaller pageant . . .

DON MULLER I don’t wish to throw water on our fireplace, however there used to be a display down on the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa known as A Accumulating of the Tribes, I believe that used to be 1990. And that just about used to be a type, although no one desires to discuss it, of how one can put one thing like this in combination. It used to be the imaginative and prescient of Ian Astbury from the Cult. I used to be an enormous Cult fan, and I went and noticed the display and I believed, F-ck, that is superb. However on the other hand, residing in Southern California, it really works, proper? However no longer in Cleveland.

STUART ROSS However none people ever mentioned, “How are we gonna get those bands off and on the level? We will have to succeed in out to the Accumulating of the Tribes other folks.” I don’t assume we even known as the ones issues touring fairs on the time. They had been more or less “multi-act programs.” None of them had been regarded as operations the place shall we simply use their playbook. This used to be a far higher scope.

MARC GEIGER This used to be a presentation of this song and tradition in a layout that might get to everyone. As it wasn’t England. It wasn’t a small nation. You already had some tradition in wallet, proper? You had KXLU and KCRW and 91X and KROQ in Southern California. So the ones other folks benefited in comparison to others. You needed to take this round.

That is the place Stuart Ross and the entire staff want their credit score. The ones guys made it paintings. They had been killers. They found out how one can mobilize a military. That’s somewhat other than putting in place base camp, which is as of late’s pageant type, proper? “I’m going to construct a large village, and we’re no longer going to transport for 3 days, after which I’ll tear it down.” That’s an excessively other product, vastly. There have been lots of logistical demanding situations.

STUART ROSS We had been growing one thing that actually needed to be redone each day. None people had enjoy in striking in combination a seven-act touring live performance package deal with a ton of additional actions happening. And so we leaned at the promoters. We mentioned, “Okay, you’re going to ebook Jane’s Dependancy, and also you’re going to ebook six different opening acts, and right here’s who the acts are, and right here’s what you’re gonna pay them.” They weren’t introduced one at a time, however they had been shrunk one at a time. The promoters had been advised who the bands had been going to be and what their promises had been going to be. However there used to be no, “Oh, I don’t wanna pay that a lot for this band.” That used to be no longer an choice.

After which we mentioned, “And we’d like you in finding selection meals”—no longer simply the recent canine and hamburgers and pretzels that had been more or less prevalent as venue meals in the ones days—“and if you’ll invite any political teams that desire a desk, that may be nice.” And we were given, clearly, various effects.

T. C. CONROY (front-of-house coordinator, Lollapalooza 1991) It used to be my activity to make that box become Perry’s dream. And he used to be airy about it as a result of he’s an airy man. He used to be most definitely in reality top, too. However what they did used to be they gave me an place of work at Triad: “Right here’s your table, right here’s your phone, right here’s your criminal pad, right here’s your Yellow Pages.” And I might move into Triad each day and paintings on organizing that entrance of residence. And it used to be no longer simple as a result of no one knew what Lollapalooza used to be. I imply, it used to be a chilly name . . . the coldest of chilly calls. As a result of in the event you take into accounts it in context, even the phrase “Lollapalooza” used to be bizarre. “Lolla what? Are you able to spell that?”

MISSY WORTH (advertising advisor, Lollapalooza 1991) Perry used to be very insistent on ensuring that we represented the opposite global, each onstage and rancid. For example, I consider having a large dialogue with him, and I’m simply the use of examples, I’m no longer announcing they had been at the excursion, nevertheless it used to be, “In the event you’re gonna have the ACLU, do you even have the NRA?” Like, “You must constitute the sector, no longer simply our viewpoint.”

PERRY FARRELL I sought after to have a debate sales space the place the Republican and the Democrat and the Impartial each and every will get up there and says their factor. As a result of doesn’t that appear, like, truthful?

T. C. CONROY He requested me to get pro-lifers after which get the abortion clinics, and to get the army after which get Greenpeace. He had this idea of, “All of it is going at the box.” The liberal aspect used to be extra open to the idea that. At the different aspect, I simply consider all of them announcing no.

GARY GRAFF (song creator, Detroit Unfastened Press) In the USA we didn’t have the tradition of the halfway with the entire cubicles, whether or not it used to be traders or social reasons or no matter else. It used to be an abnormal factor.

STUART ROSS Once we talked to promoters and mentioned that we would have liked artwork, they stunning a lot all handed on that. As a result of they couldn’t determine how one can do it. So Perry discovered an artwork gallery proprietor in West Hollywood. Didn’t in reality determine neatly, however he curated it for us.

DON MULLER Stuart and I did lots of the paintings striking the real offers in combination, and it used to be actually going out and speaking to other folks and announcing, “Hello, do you imagine on this?” “Are we able to paintings this?” “Do you wish to have backing?” As a result of numerous the promoters simply didn’t have the wherewithal or the assets to do a display of this magnitude. However we would have liked them at the flooring. We would have liked them advertising. We had to hit the entire golf equipment. We had to paintings radio. There had to be cohesiveness in getting the message out. Additionally, the theory used to be as a way to play a GA [general admission] position, so the children may just come and move as they needed.

STUART ROSS We’re speaking about 1990, going into 1991, and amphitheaters had been the brand new cool factor. They’re no longer the buying groceries facilities that they’re now. And everyone sought after to play them. They had been brand-new structures they usually held eighteen thousand other folks, and there used to be a large common admission element. In order that’s the place we would have liked to play.

DON MULLER It used to be a kind of eventualities the place we had been, in a unusual method, growing promoters in several towns as we went alongside. Seth Hurwitz is one who involves thoughts. He had the 9:30 Membership in D.C., and he grew his industry off selection song and such things as Lollapalooza. We move to Toronto and there’s a man named Elliott Lefko who will get it, breathes it, understands it, and likes it. Nice Woods in Boston, similar factor. However then we had other folks like Belkin Productions in Cleveland, which, for all intents and functions, didn’t know what this used to be in any respect. I’m no longer sure if I offered that display or Geiger did, however we offered the display.

STUART ROSS Danny Zelisko, who had Compton Terrace in Phoenix, an alternate venue, used to be person who were given it. As did Andy Cirzan with Jam Productions, who had the Global Song Theatre in Chicago and Harriet Island in St. Paul, any other abnormal venue.

DANNY ZELISKO (promoter, Night Superstar Productions) Gala’s at the moment had been more or less passé—Woodstock came about 20 years previous, and it simply wasn’t one thing that used to be happening. Lollapalooza used to be a brand-new factor that we had to provide an explanation for to the marketplace and to rock audiences all over the place.

ANDY CIRZAN (promoter, Jam Productions) I’d already been running with Don and Marc, as a result of I had relationships with a lot of their bands, just like the Beastie Boys. After they began speaking about this, all I used to be announcing used to be, “I wanna be concerned. Okay? Please let me be concerned!” It wasn’t a query of, “What are you guys doing?”

STEPHEN PERKINS I believe promoters and everybody learned that this song is greater than we concept it used to be.

DON MULLER We had been additionally good about our price ticket costs. We knew we had to be life like about what we had been doing.

STUART ROSS Our tickets had been $27.50 the primary 12 months. And those had been the times sooner than Ticketmaster fees value greater than the price ticket, so there could be $2.75, $3.00 on best of it. That used to be it. In 1991, that used to be a reasonable worth.

DON MULLER A few of these promoter guys we needed to browbeat, however we had been going, regardless. In the event you sought after to be part of it, nice. In the event you didn’t, you didn’t. However we had been gonna make this factor occur.

BOB GUCCIONE JR. (editor, writer, SPIN mag) Lollapalooza got here alongside and used to be a herbal natural invention. I take a look at such a lot of of the song fairs as of late, they usually’re such overall sh-t as a result of they’re looking to re-create a blueprint from different occasions. , there’s no level in replicating Woodstock. You’ll be able to’t re-create that spontaneity or authenticity. However Lollapalooza used to be purely a manufactured from the creativeness of the folks of its time.

GARY GRAFF It used to be Courageous New Global in numerous other instructions, as a result of pageant tradition in the US in reality didn’t exist in ’91.

PERRY FARRELL It used to be early years. Have you learnt that 1991, that used to be the 12 months Michael Jordan received the NBA name? Additionally, the Global Large Internet used to be shaped that 12 months. And for mystics—in the event you talk to the sages—the rebbe, his biggest writings got here in 1991, when he used to be speaking about Mashiach and the technology of redemption, ushering it in. It used to be all in 1991. So I take a look at that length as the entire robust issues that came about at the moment. And that made Lollapalooza imaginable.