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Friday, Feb. 6 -
"Lollapalooza of a Business" - Perry Farrell
But
between those special shows and the routine clubs that we played,
I found myself producing events.
Lollapalooza came about as a result of the final tour for my band,
Jane’s Addiction. I was asked by William Morris to mesh ideas
together for our farewell run, and the timing was right for all the
indie, alternative groups to get together. It wasn’t started
by radio and it wasn’t started by television. They only followed
us around, so it was really started by the people.
And, when you get a movement that is started by the people, it’s
so exciting and it’s unstoppable. It gave me clues for ideas
that I formulated, that people have the ultimate power. I really believe
that; it’s no snow job. I think the majority of us are just
unorganized.
So, I started to take on public assembly as my art form. People will
ask me if I’m still doing sculpture and I’ll say, “No,
but I’m putting festivals together!” They think, I guess,
well, since they’re doing sculpture I must not be keeping up
with them, but I really see public assembly as a beautiful art form,
the petri dish.
And I know the outcome of a festival can seriously change the world.
I believe after everybody has dropped their drawers and shown their
underwear for reality shows, eventually we’re going to get into
more important ideas on television.
I think shows are going to be entertaining, and the thrills are going
to be educational, and we’re going to see the world turn over.
I think the ideas that are going to start to come now are going to
be revolutionary, because I don’t think revolution has to be
difficult. I think it can really be fun and I think that an individual
revolution in consciousness – if everybody decides, you know,
“I think I’m really going to change my mind” –
there’s nothing anyone can do about it if we all see something
clearly together.
So this is exciting to me, where we are now and what we can do with
multimedia.
I think people hunger for substance. I think that when you leave a
place and you haven’t learned anything, it’s like you’ve
been to a trendy restaurant and they haven’t served you. And
I know that first hand because that just happened to me.
And I also believe people are smarter than you think they are. Why
I think that is because they all drive cars, so if they can drive
dangerous vehicles, they’ve got to be pretty smart, right? And
heavy machinery’s pretty tough. Most people graduate high school
and that’s not easy.
But even if they’re not that smart they can follow fashion.
So a lot of times I enter into things thinking, Well, we can make
it fashionable because a lot of people, the stragglers at least, know
they better change because they’re out of fashion.
I think you can make something important fashionable. I think that’s
absolutely fashionable. What I think is fashionable in my life is
good music. I like good vibes, I like living free and I like to let
live. I like to bring great ideas to the table and work with great
men and women, and I think we can all positively affect the human
race and have a laugh at the same time.
So, I want to go back in my life now, back to a time when I would
entertain myself. And I want all of you to go back to a time in your
lives when you would entertain yourselves. Maybe when you were still
in public school, let’s say, and you were sick, but it was the
third day of your illness so you really weren’t that sick but
you still had the luxury to stay home. And your mother wasn’t
around, so you started to make believe.
So now you’re hanging off your bed and your bed is a cliff.
And you fall off the cliff and you fall down into these pillows, and
down there in these pillows is this girl you have a crush on in your
class, and she sees you falling off this cliff so she takes you into
a cave and nurses you back to health by kissing you.
Have you ever done that one? That was a good one.
This is what I’m talking about: I know that we probably don’t
hang off of our bed anymore, but we still have this spark of creativity.
We just have to be a little immature sometimes and it will come back
fast.
I know we all have our jobs and, oh my God, it can be really horrifying.
There’s so much pressure, there really is. There’s a great
pressure to perform.
But sometimes let ’em know that you’re immature and they’ll
back right off, I tell ya.
This spark of creativity, man, this thing inside of me, when I let
it go – it could be poetry or music or getting out snowboarding,
just things that are playful – this thing starts to spread for
me like a brushfire across the cultural landscape. I love culture,
I love to watch what people are doing, but what’s really exciting
is how it’s changing all the time.
I love the fact that it’s active. It doesn’t sit there.
And it comes from underneath, too. The young people, they’ll
do stuff first, and that’s really interesting to me because
that means they’re wild and they’re free.
For me, I just love to devour things. I love to devour music and I
love to devour style and I’m ravenous for new books and I love
blackberries. But not, you know, blackberries like the fruit. The
Blackberries that you keep on your hip. And I think we should get
Blackberries with cameras next year! Who votes for the Blackberry
with the camera? I need one!
And then I start thinking to myself, Oh shit, I’m gonna take
all this stuff man and .... well, anyway (laughs), it consumes my
life. My house, as a result, is a fucking mess. I’m clean, but
I’m a quick clean. I’m clean but I’m running out
the door. My house? You’re not comin’ over.
Last week, I was in Colorado. Part of the reason I tour an awful lot
is I want to see what’s going on out there. I mean, I can’t
wait for a weekend. I’ll come out and I’ll DJ; I’ll
just come out to see what’s going on in different parts of the
world.
So, last week, as I said, I was in Colorado and I can tell you what’s
going on with their radio stations and I can tell you what fills up
their clubs. A lot of you fellas and ladies out there know the jam
band thing, man! It’s really going on out there. Yeah! I liked
it.
I was a DJ and I worked with Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Ozomatli, and
I was the one-and-only, very special DJ and I knew when I left there
that they really appreciated electronic music that worked. So I started
formulating all these things and I’m watching all these kids.
And I watched their shoes, because shoes tell a lot.
And I can tell you that their scene is very healthy, the young people
they’re going out there and it’s a very honest scene;
in other words, they really believe in their musicians. The musicians
are, well, a pretty sexy band. They took me by surprise, Sound Tribe
Sector 9. Good people.
But, anyway, this kind of culture is what drives Lollapalooza to re-create
itself year to year. It’s so exciting to see what can develop
within a year’s time.
Now, I’m going to tell you, when I was asked to do this speech
for the CIC, my management thought it would be a good idea for me
to read speeches from past speakers. So, they sent me a few speeches
from men who had spoken here in the past, very well-received speakers.
One of the fellows, a fellow by the name of Tom Ross – anybody
know Tom Ross? The former head of CAA
is what I’m told.
And Robert Sillerman. Is Robert here? (laughter)
OK, good!
Robert Sillerman, if you don’t know who he is, I call him a
peacemaker because he’s brought us all so much closer together.
Ha ha ha ha.
So, Tom’s speech is from 1998. His overriding message was, “Let’s
keep Wall Street out of the music industry.” (That’s a
joke.) He also said, and he implored that it was very important, for
all of the agents from all of the different agencies to work together.
Agent love! Agent Lovefest! Let’s do it!
So, I really couldn’t expand too much on Tom’s speech.
I love the guy for trying. Great ideas, great ideas, Tom.
And, by the way, I think my speech will be equally as hilarious in
six years, so you can laugh at me now.
So, anyway, I went on to Robert Sillerman’s speech. Robert’s
speech was twice as long. I honestly didn’t read the whole thing.
Sorry.
I started thinking to myself his nickname should be Silly Putty. Why
I say that is because Silly Putty Sillerman throws himself down on
top of you, he pulls himself up with your imprint on him and he rolls
you up in a ball with everybody else’s imprint. Right?
(Applause. Farrell takes a bow)
So, this is what I did read, because it was in the big print. He said,
“I met a promoter from the Midwest and he had girlfriends around
him that were younger than his own daughter.” And so he thought
to himself, “Maybe this would be a good business to get into.”
And, you know what? I thought, from him I could start writing my speech
because the truth is my wife
is half my age, so I said, “OK, I can go with this guy’s
speech.”
But, anyway, my perspective in music promotion is unique because I’m
also a musician. What’s interest-ing about me right now is that
I’m a musician who also promotes, so I have a unique perspective.
So I want to tell all of you out there what excites me. If you want
to get my ear, I’m going to tell you what excites me about the
gig.
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