Perry Farrell
The rock icon and dad on his newest baby: Kidzapalooza.
by Aaron Burgess
August 2, 2007
Rock historians may grant Kurt Cobain bigger headlines, but Perry Farrell is easily the most important figure to have emerged from the '90s alternative-rock explosion. First gaining fame as the singer of the genre- and gender-bending L.A. art-rock band Jane's Addiction, Farrell co-founded the Lollapalooza festival in 1991. Though his musical career has kept Farrell in the spotlight, Lollapalooza remains his chief contribution to pop culture. (How many times did "palooza' appear as a suffix before 1991?) This year's incarnation of Lollapalooza is a weekend-long event, complete with a new juniors' area, Kidzapalooza, to which all Stooges, Pearl Jam and Modest Mouse fans under ten get in free. Right before this year's festival, Farrell — who's father to three boys, Hezron Wolfgang, Izzadore Bravo and Yobel — spoke to Babble about the importance of music and family, as well as the need for some occasional peace and quiet. — Aaron Burgess
There's a lot of kids' entertainment out there, but the quality definitely varies. How do you decide on the attractions for something like Kidzapalooza?
Well, a while ago, I was invited to do a song with Deborah Harry for a kids' record [2004's A World of Happiness
]. My friend Tor Hyams, who today runs the Kidzapalooza site, was doing this record for Disney, and he was just this great young producer and songwriter who also had a heart for children. He knew that I had children, and he started to tell me about his aspirations for children's music, and how excited he was about this genre. I just found that to be unique, his interest. So when my partners and I began to build Lollapalooza in Chicago — my partners also do a festival [in Texas] called ACL, Austin City Limits, and they had this small area for kids, but it wasn't a "Wow!" kind of area. It was basically just,"It's probably one of the best reactions you could ever get from an audience, even above adults, to see a little kid just honestly digging your stuff. maybe kids would walk by, get a balloon or something; more or less a baby-sitting area. So, I said to Tor, "Look, I want to do this area for Lollapalooza that is similar to what they do with ACL, except I really want to blow it out." Because at this point — you know, Lollapalooza itself is sixteen years old, so all these people that went to the original Lollapalooza are going to come back, and I guarantee that most of them will have had children by now. And we want to have credibility; we want to have things that are compelling and intriguing for children; but we also want kids to be able to say, "I was there, and guess who my first concert was? Patti Smith." We want to bring them the real deal. When I was a kid, the real deal, to me, were people like the Stones and the Doors: I could separate them from Seals & Crofts. You can't put your finger on the real deal, but even a little kid can sense it.
You and Peter DiStefano [from Porno for Pyros] are playing together on the Kidzapalooza stage this year. Are kids a tough audience?
They are, because they're so brutally honest. If they don't like something, they're simply not going to react to it. I've had some practice with it, having kids, and I've performed at my kids' birthday parties. You get a sense of what kids like and don't like. They like a more melodic, even sound; they don't like things to be too jarring or start-and-stop. But when you see them start to move back and forth, it's probably one of the best reactions you could ever get from an audience, even above adults, to see a little kid just honestly digging your stuff. [Laughs.]
How much of the wilder stuff from your past do you share with your kids?
Well, nothing right now. I think that at this age, it really doesn't matter to them. None of my kids are teens yet, but I imagine once they get older and, you know, when teens start to trade music and collect music and talk about music amongst themselves, when it comes up that I'm their dad, I'm not sure exactly how it's going to come off. I'm hoping it's going to come off good! [Laughs.] At this point, though, they're much more interested in me just taking them swimming or taking them down to the park and running around with them.
©2007 Aaron Burgess and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Aaron Burgess lives with his wife and their three wonderful boys in Austin, Texas, where he supports his freelance-writing career with a daytime gig in the high-tech industry. He is a regular contributor to SPIN, Harp, Revolver, The Onion A.V. Club, Alternative Press and the St. Louis Riverfront Times. |
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