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This past December, former Guns n’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan was having dinner with Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell. “He was kind of bummed,” says McKagan. “He had just heard that [original Jane’s Addiction bassist] Eric Avery was leaving the band.” McKagan offered to jam with Jane’s at Farrell’s home studio and within weeks was hired for the vacant bass position. “We’re from the same musical time, the same town, the same era,” says guitarist Dave Navarro. “It was a natural fit.”

A brief history of Jane’s Addiction, in photos.

Jane’s Addiction reunited in 2008 with Avery for the first time since the band initially split in 1991, but after a recent Australian tour, the bassist exited once again. “It was a decision Eric made,” says Navarro. “He’s focused on making a solo record.” McKagan adds, “I don’t have years of history with this band. So there’s no like, ‘Oh, what happened to that chick in 1989?’ still twenty-fucking-five years later. Everything’s been great.”

The group is taking it slowly for now, spending most of its time jamming at its L.A. rehearsal space. “I’ve never been in a band I wasn’t in from the beginning,” says McKagan. “So to play songs like ‘Been Caught Stealing’ is pretty fucking kickass.” Jane’s are working on their first album since 2003’s Strays and plan to launch a world tour in 2011. For now, they are focused on writing new songs.

“That’s 97 percent of what our time is geared towards,” McKagan says. “When I first sent some songs to Perry they were the in the usual style that I write music — verse, chorus, chorus, bridge, double chorus, etc. If you listen to a great Jane’s Addiction song, though, there’s no chorus! It’s just riff, and then it goes into some psychedelic jam. I’ve had to learn to sort of adapt as a songwriter. I just have to bring in a riff. Some snarling, mean, dark and dismal riff, that’s going to be our thing.”

The new gig comes at the perfect time for McKagan since his last band, Velvet Revolver — which split with singer Scott Weiland in 2008 — is on an hiatus. “Slash is going to be touring [behind his new solo album] for at least the next year, and I can’t afford to just wait around and see if something’s going to happen,” McKagan says. “These are my years to do something. I’m probably at my peak creatively, and I want to use it. I’m blessed to be able to get that chance now.”

Despite the break, McKagan wants it known that there is no tension in the Velvet Revolver camp. “Slash just made the album I’ve known he’s wanted to make since the Use Your Illusion tour in 1993,” he says. “We play in a band together, but we’re also friends. Being friends means giving each other space to do what your heart is telling you at the moment. The thing that happened with Scott [Weiland] happened how it happened. I’m the last guy to say it was his fault or it was his fault. It doesn’t matter. We have to move on. We could have gone straight in and started looking for a new singer after Scott left, but we were all just a little beat up. It was a tough last 18 months — and not just with the band, but with management stuff, too.”

And what about the next VR record? “I don’t know, a couple years down the line or whatever,” McKagan tells RS. “Nobody knows, and I’m just doing the work that’s being put in front of me and this is what feels pretty great.”

Photo: Winter/ImageDirect (Strokes), Allan/WireImage (Libertines)

The announcement that the Libertines are reforming for U.K. gigs this summer got us thinking: is the world already nostalgic for the music of the 2000s? We realize we’re not even four months into this new decade, but the evidence seems to be there — especially when you consider that the Strokes are also returning for big shows this summer. “Should I say the truth [about why we're playing gigs?],” Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas said to ABC recently. “Money. The offers were so crazy that we had to say yes.” It’s been over four years since the Strokes released a single new song, but Brits are clearly eager to relive that magical summer of 2001 — and are shelling out the big bucks to make it happen.

Carl Barat of the Libertines has made clear their reunion is going to be an unabashedly nostalgic event. “We’re going to play songs which have been collecting dust in the garage,” he told NME. “People want to hear them, so we’re going to give them a run.” Nostalgia for the early 2000s may seem premature, but it fits in with historical trends. In 1970, just five years after their peak, the Beach Boys were struggling to fill theaters. To hippies they seemed like squares from another era, but by 1974, arenas were packed with people eager to go back to “Surf City.” The biggest tours that year were shameless 1960s nostalgia shows: Bob Dylan with the Band, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The college freshman of 1965 were now in their late 20s and ready to look back.

Who else will benefit from the burgeoning nostalgia? Will Afroman score a new hit? Might Crazy Town finally follow up “Butterfly?” Are we ready for the Darkness to return?

Photo: Clary/AFP/Getty
This morning Bob Seger called into Detroit disc jockey Dick Purtan’s final broadcast — and casually made a huge announcement. “We’re thinking about maybe a tour later this year,” Seger said. “We’re looking at some dates and trying to get some buildings, maybe October-November. We just started three days ago and we’ll see what’s available, and of course we’ll play here [Detroit]… See you at the Palace [of Auburn Hills].”

Seger last hit the road in 2007, which was his first outing in over a decade. Three days ago Walmart began selling Early Seger Vol. 1, a collection of remastered Seger songs from the early 1970s.

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Photo: Lovekin/Getty

Phil Collins is putting the finishing touches on a new Motown covers collection despite suffering severe nerve damage to his hands that has made drumming nearly impossible. “The first time I picked up the drum sticks after my neck surgery, they flew across the room because I couldn’t grip them,” he says. “When I play, I’ve had to tape the sticks to my hand. It’s like wearing a condom. It’s very strange. It really cramps your style.”

The nerve damage has made more than just drumming difficult for the 59-year-old musician. “I can’t let go of the spoon or the knife when I eat,” he tells RS. “I can’t open a car door. I won’t get gruesome with you, but there’s a lot of things I can’t do. I’m left handed. I’m having an operation soon and there’s a good chance of it improving over time.”

Chapter & Verse: photos from Genesis’ oral history.

Collins’ medical problem makes another Genesis reunion unlikely. “He has to play the drums and play some quite complicated things,” says Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks. “It’s one of the many reasons it won’t happen.” But Collins says he still hopes to one day perform again with the Peter Gabriel-lead lineup of Genesis. “My hands are way down to picking the order of that possibility,” he says. “Three years ago I didn’t know I’d be in this position and three years from now it may not be like this. I think the main thing is Peter’s schedule and the speed he works anyways.” Banks agrees, noting, “I think if it we were to do The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway there’s always multimedia stuff that makes it possible now. It would be opening a huge can of worms, not just musical but getting out and playing it.”

In the meantime, the band is overjoyed to be one of the few progressive rock bands inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Read our full report from this year’s induction ceremony.) “Whoever is deciding these things, obviously they change,” Collins says. “Now there’s obviously a couple of people there saying ‘Guys we’ve ignored all this other stuff’ which is why you’ve got Abba and the Hollies and us. Very diverse. Jimmy Cliff is somewhere in there. Much more diverse than just rock & roll I think this year. ”

Relive the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in photos.

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Information is just beginning to trickle out, but it looks like Neil Young is launching a solo acoustic American theater tour in May with Scottish folk legend Bert Jansch opening. Only five dates have been announced of what apparently is being billed as the Twisted Road tour, though many more are likely to come.

Young toured American theaters in the fall of 2007 with a half-solo-acoustic/half-full-band show. He last embarked on an entirely solo acoustic tour in 1999. His choice of opener Jansch is appropriate as Young has often cited the songwriter as one of his greatest influences. “Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi Hendrix,” Young said in 1992. “That first record of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especially taken by ‘The Needle of Death,’ such a beautiful and angry song. That guy was so good… And years later, on On the Beach, I wrote the melody of ‘Ambulance Blues’ by styling the guitar part completely on ‘Needle of Death.’ I wasn’t even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it.” In 2006 Young and Jansch played “Ambulance Blues” together at the Bridge School Benefit. Watch a very shakey video of the performance above.

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, tickets will cost $245, $125 and $85. The known tour dates are below. We’ll update when we know more:

May 26 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace Theatre
May 29 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
May 30 – Spartanburg, SC @ Spartanburg Mem Auditorium
June 1 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
June 2 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

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