Porno For Pyros hasn’t done an actual tour since 1998 when the band took a break – a break that ended up lasting 26 years, not counting a handful of one-off shows here and there.
So why not do one more tour, says guitarist Peter DiStefano, a founding member of the band in 1993 with singer Perry Farrell and drummer Stephen Perkins, both of Jane’s Addiction. He says the band agreed: Let’s do another.
“These songs are like, it’s almost like doing extreme sports,” says DiStefano, of the group that now includes Mike Watt of Minutemen and Firehose in place of founding bassist Martyn LeNoble who sat this tour out.
Add to that the days and nights on a tour bus and hotel rooms in who knows what city, and DiStefano says the band decided this Horns, Thorns En Halos tour would be it for this kind of performance.
“It’s almost like one last hurrah of touring on a tour bus,” he says. “We can still make music. Like, maybe Perry will do something with me and in film. It’s just in terms of putting the whole thing together on a bus like a traveling circus. I think this is the last traveling circus.
“We’re going to do this tour,” DiStefano says. “Then Perry and Stephen can do Jane’s Addiction. l like doing dance DJ/guitar stuff and film stuff. And then who knows? Maybe we’ll do one-offs, you know?”
Porno For Pyros has released three new singles in recent months, its first new music in 26 years. The tour kicks off Tuesday, Feb. 13 at the Observatory in Santa Ana. It plays the Observatory in San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 15, before spending the weekend at the Ventura Theater in Ventura on Saturday, Feb. 17 and the Belasco in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 18.
In an interview edited for length and clarity, DiStefano talked about the origins of Porno For Pyros, why he says it’s his fault the band broke up, how it got back together, and what it’s been like to prep for this tour.
Q: Take me back to the early ’90s when Perry and Stephen and Martyn and you got together for this. How’d it begin?
A: I was born and raised in Santa Monica, and Eric Avery, the founding bass player for Jane’s Addiction, and I went to school together. We were in a band. We never played out; we played in the garage. Then he met Perry and they started Jane’s Addiction, and I would go to Jane’s Addiction shows through Eric.
Then I went on a surfing trip to Puerto Escondido (in Oaxaca, Mexico). Perry’s roommate, this guy Greg Lampkin, who passed on now, was like, ‘Pete, I want to manage your solo stuff.’ And he played Perry a demo tape and Perry really liked it.
(On a second trip there) Perry and I shared the room with Greg, so we became like surf buddies. We came back, and he said, ‘I’m starting a thing called Porno For Pyros,’ and he wanted me to be the guitar player.
Q: Perry also asked you at one point to join Jane’s Addiction around the time Dave Navarro left, and you said no.
A: I said I’d rather just play Lollapalooza on the side stage with my brother. I’ll just do my own stuff because I don’t want the whole world to hate me, because they were at the peak, peak, peak, peak. I was like, ‘I’m going to be so judged and looked at,’ and I just didn’t think I could handle the pressure.
Q: So when Jane’s Addiction broke up, how did you and Perry reconnect for Porno For Pyros? And what was the goal musically with it?
A: We were friends before we did music. We went to Skatemaster Tate’s house. He was DJing records and I was playing over them and Perry was singing. I think that first night with him in his apartment in Hollywood, off Melrose and Martel, we wrote ‘Orgasm,’ ‘Cursed Female,’ and ‘Meija’ (which appeared on the band’s 1993 self-titled debut).
“This is different than Jane’s Addiction. We were doing more jazz because (Skatemaster Tate) was DJing like Coltrane and stuff, and we were making music over it. It’ll be more jazz chords as opposed to rock chords. And instead of blues scales, we’ll use Middle Eastern, we’ll use jazz vocabulary, and it’ll be different.
By then, I could handle the beating because I wasn’t trying to be the next Slash or Dave Navarro, you know what I mean? Somebody that does pentatonic riffs really fast and does a blues-based vocabulary, which I love, and it’s great, but I just felt like we had to do something different.
Q: Let’s jump ahead to 1998 and the last tour until this current one. What caused it to end then?
A: Stopping was my fault. I went through eight drug rehabs, cancer, you know; it was just over for me. It was me. It was the needle and the spoon. So they moved on (to reunite) Jane’s Addiction. But then, miraculously, I recovered from the cancer and I got sober. Now I’m 26-and-a-half years sober, and that’s the deal.
They said (years ago), when you get better come and join on guitar with Dave (Navarro). We’ll do Jane’s and Porno together. And I just, you know, I had to go down a different path. I needed years of work on myself. But I’m ready now.
Q: So how did it happen that Porno For Pyros actually got back together for a few shows a couple of years ago.
A: We did Lollapalooza virtual (in 2020), but it wasn’t for a crowd. It was just in a backyard with Mike Watt on bass, me, Stephen Perkins. And we filmed some songs acoustically and they put that out.
But then Jane’s Addiction was supposed to play Welcome to Rockville (in Daytona Beach, Florida in 2022) but Dave got long COVID. So they said, ‘We’ll honor the deal if you get Porno back together. They asked me and I said, ‘Yeah, I’m ready.’
Q: What did it feel like? To play those songs with these guys again?
A: It felt incredible. It felt great. And recording the new songs feels great. Everything feels really good, you know.
Q: The band has recorded and released three new songs so far. Is that something you think Porno For Pyros might continue to do even if you don’t tour again? How do you see you and the others working together in the future?
A: You know, it’s funny. Porno For Pyros works great because Perry is the bandleader. So it’s whatever Perry wants to do. It keeps it really simple. If he wants to cancel a tour and make new songs and then do this (we’ll do it).
And the whole time (the band was on hiatus), I played every single Lollapalooza with Perry. I played on every single one of his solo albums. When It’s Porno For Pyros, it is a certain way. But when it’s Perry’s stuff it’s his way.
So Perry and I will definitely continue. And Stephen, Stephen and I have been in Hellride (a Stooges tribute band) for 20 years, 25 years. That’s me and Watt and Perk. So yeah, I plan to work with everybody.
Q: You said earlier you’ve also got film music and your own EDM/guitar project that’s been going for a number of years now.
A: I got really lucky. I met this guy named Harry Gregson-Williams right when I got sober and he gave me a huge IMDb of music credits. So I played guitar on all the Shrek films. Every Tony Scott film, like ‘Man on Fire,’ Spy Game,’ all those. I was able to buy a house and pay my bills through Harry doing film stuff.
Then I did 10 solo albums, singer-songwriter albums. I just put them up on Bandcamp. And I did a thing from 2010 to 2020 called Lance Herbstrong with two DJs and me on guitar. And it was hugely successful. We played all over the world and all the festivals. I lived off that and it was just a total blast.
I’ve been able to survive as a guitar player since the 30 years that (Porno For Pyros) started. So I’m grateful.
