Dave Navarro

"David Navarro" redirects here. For the footballer, see David Navarro (footballer).

Dave Navarro

David Michael Navarro (born June 7, 1967) is a guitarist who has played in the rock bands Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Navarro is a member of The Panic Channel and the cover band Camp Freddy.

Personal life

Early life

Navarro was born in Santa Monica, California, to James Raul Navarro and Constance Colleen Hopkins. Navarro's paternal grandfather was from Spain. He fled persecution during the Spanish uprisings in the 1940s. His mother Constance worked as a model, appearing on the television show Let's Make a Deal. Navarro was the only person in his paternal family not to speak Spanish, as James and Constance divorced when he was 7 and he spent the majority of his time with his mother.

Connie Navarro was murdered by her boyfriend eight years after the divorce. Her killer was arrested in 1991, thanks to a viewer tip after Navarro appeared on the television series, America's Most Wanted. After his mother's death he moved in with his father.

Navarro has two half-siblings on his father's side - a brother and a sister, who are 27 and 31 years younger than him. He attended the private school Notre Dame in the San Fernando Valley, where he first met Eric Avery. He attended junior high at St. Paul the Apostle Elementary School in West Los Angeles (where Paris Hilton and Sean Astin also attended).

Relationships

Navarro has been married and divorced three times. He married his first wife, make-up artist Tania Goddard, in a pagan ceremony in 1990 and his second wife, Rhian Gittins, in a civil ceremony on October 15, 1994. Navarro married model and actress Carmen Electra, on November 22, 2003. On July 17, 2006, Navarro and Electra announced their split to Star Magazine. Navarro posted a message on his blog the following morning saying "I just want to say thanks for all of your love and support. I'm sure that you can understand that I wish to keep all personal matters private." Electra filed for divorce on August 8, 2006.

It was rumored in August 2006 that Dave was dating porn actress Jenna Jameson, but Navarro has denied this on his blog.

Drugs

Navarro has long struggled with drugs, including lengthy addictions to both heroin and cocaine that was documented in his 2001 autobiography, Don't Try This At Home, which was co-authored by Neil Strauss.

Professional career

Early career

On his Instructional Guitar DVD Navarro tells how he started playing guitar at the age 7 after hearing a Jimi Hendrix song at a skate park. He formed his first band South Dakota Railroad in junior high. In high school, he formed the band Dizaztre with Stephen Perkins on drums and Rico Quevedo on bass and vocals.

Navarro had also played a part in the modeling of the main character in the Prince of Persia series. He is credited in the manual as being an inspiration for the character design, as well as the motion capture animations for the Prince.

1986-1993

Navarro joined the band Jane's Addiction in 1986 as the lead guitarist after he was recommended to vocalist Perry Farrell by drummer Perkins. The band also featured Navarro's childhood friend Eric Avery on bass. The band became successful and was legendary in the alternative-rock music scene. Personal tensions, however, led to their breakup in 1991. The Lollapalooza festival tour was created by Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction.

In 1993, Navarro formed Deconstruction with Avery on vocals and bass and Michael Murphy on drums, and the band put out one self-titled album in 1994. Rick Rubin was involved in the production and Gibby Haynes makes a guest appearance.They did not tour due to Avery's exhaustion after Jane's Addiction. Today, the album is considered a cult masterpiece.

1993-1998

Navarro was asked to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993 after the departure of John Frusciante. Navarro made his live debut with the band at the Woodstock '94 festival, where he and the rest of the band wore giant fake lightbulbs on their heads and one-piece silver suits for part of the set. Navarro's only album with the Chili Peppers, One Hot Minute, was released in 1995 and received mixed reviews, though strong sales.

After the band completed the promotional tour in support of the album, Navarro stated that he wanted to focus on his upcoming solo project, Spread (which included the Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith), and was not interested in recording and touring. A planned EP by Spread, to be titled Rhimorse, and an album Unicorns & Rainbows: The Pelican, were rejected by Warner Bros. and after several attempts to find a record label, were left unreleased.

In 1997, Navarro reunited with Jane's Addiction for the Jane's Relapse tour, bringing along fellow Chili Pepper Flea, who replaced Avery after he refused to participate. Dave and Flea also appeared together as guests on Alanis Morissette's 1995 album Jagged Little Pill.

Navarro's tenure in the Red Hot Chili Peppers was marked by tension within the band. Some of the several sources for this tension included Navarro's vastly different outlook on life and Navarro's more traditional way of writing songs, as opposed to the Chili Peppers more jam oriented style. These and other factors eventually led to his departure due to "creative differences". One of the main reasons for his departure was an incident where Navarro arrived at a band rehearsal clearly under the influence of drugs and eventually fell backwards over his own amp.

1998-2002

In 1998, Marilyn Manson asked Navarro to play a guitar solo for Manson's song "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)", which appears on the record Mechanical Animals, to which Navarro agreed. Navarro played bass and guitar in 1999 for the band Nancy Raygun. In 1999 Navarro played guitar for Guns N' Roses in the song "Oh My God" which appeared in the Soundtrack for End of Days. Navarro also contributed work on the second album Hotel Paper from Michelle Branch, and played guitar in her first single "Are You Happy Now?". He plays guitar on Fighter, sung by Christina Aguilera on the album Stripped, which was released in 2002. Dave Navarro also made a musical guest appearance on the popular WB series Charmed in the episode titled "Size Matters".

On June 19, 2001, Navarro released his first and only solo album (as of 2007), entitled Trust No One. Much of the material was taken from the aborted Spread album. The album features Navarro on vocals as well as guitar. Navarro's numerous personal problems, such as his mother's murder and his heroin addiction, make up the bulk of the album's lyrics, and contribute greatly to the dark tone of the album.

2002-2007

In 2002, Jane's Addiction again reunited and recorded a studio album, with Chris Chaney now playing bass. Following the release of Strays in 2003, Jane's Addiction went on a massive worldwide tour, which included an American tour as part of Lollapalooza 2003, which was only moderately successful. After the tour was completed, Navarro, Chaney, and Perkins posted a message on Navarro's site announcing that Jane's Addiction had broken up yet again, saying that "Sometimes the best creative relationships are the most combustible and they aren't meant to last forever".

In 2004, Navarro contributed his guitar ability on Dead Celebrity Status' debut album, Blood Music. He played guitar on their lead single, "We Fall, We Fall." Also in 2004, Navarro contributed his guitar work to Glenn Hughes's album Soul Mover. He also performed additional guitar for "There For You" on Flyleaf's self-titled album in 2005.

In 2005, Navarro began serving as co-host of the reality TV show Rock Star: INXS, alongside Brooke Burke. During the competition to determine a new lead vocalist for INXS, the exposure and success of the show made Navarro's name much better known among mainstream music fans. Navarro returned to work on a new season of Rock Star called Rock Star: Supernova, which premiered in North America on July 5, 2006 and ended on September 13, 2006. They are forming the band Supernova which features Gilby Clarke (ex-Guns N' Roses) on guitar, Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica) on bass and Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe on drums with the lead singer, Lukas Rossi, having been selected at the end of the show's run. On the final episode, he committed to working with Rockstar: Supernova Runner-up Dilana Robichaux on her upcoming album.

In 2006, he focused his energies on his new band, The Panic Channel, which is made up of himself, Stephen Perkins and Chris Chaney of Jane's Addiction, and lead singer Steve Isaacs. He also has started an Internet radio station called Spread Radio Live, where he hosts non-FCC regulated radio via the internet along with other hosts such as Electra, Messy Stench, and the SuicideGirls' Bee Jellyfish.

On May 17, 2007, the hourlong, weekly "Spread Entertainment" debuted on Navarro's website. Navarro said he was attracted to doing a show on the Internet because of the lack of censorship. Navarro said that "I want to use the Internet to support artists and see things that are out there that other corporate structures aren't allowing us to see. It seems with satellite TV, the Internet, magazines -- there's almost so many options, and we're only seeing the same five things."

Non-musical work

In addition to his musical work, Navarro has briefly appeared in two movies, Floundering (1994) and Uptown Girls (2003). Navarro also wrote a movie review column entitled "Movies & Crap" for Bikini magazine with his cousin Johnny (although they referred to themselves as brothers in the column). He has written for Details, Nylon, Ray Gun, and Us Weekly magazines and co-written a photo book entitled Don't Try This at Home. And he also has made several appearances on the television series Celebrity Poker Showdown, playing no-limit Texas Hold 'Em in support of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Navarro appeared on Punk'd with his third wife, Carmen Electra, after they were both punk'd by Ashton Kutcher during a hit-and-run chase. In 2002, he and Electra starred in Carmen and Dave: An MTV Love Story, a reality series documenting their courtship. They returned to MTV in 2004 for another reality series, 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave, which focused on the events leading up to the couple's wedding.

In 2005 Navarro was the host of the reality TV show "Rock Star" which featured the band INXS and 15 singer/songwriters trying to win a place on the band. In 2006 the show featured Rock Star Supernova.

Navarro is currently working on a drama program involving the police with his biographer, Neil Strauss and recently appeared as one of the judges of Miss Universe 2007 held on 28 May 2007 at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, Mexico.

Navarro has just completed his directorial debut, a pornographic film entitled "Broken" starring Sasha Grey. "Broken" was released in September 2007 by Tera Patrick's production company, Teravision.

Navarro is featured in Liam Kyle Sullivan's "Kelly" Let Me Borrow That Top video, as a tattoo artist.

He has guest starred on an episode of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job as himself, where his name is heavily misspelled, even after corrections.

Dave Navarro is mentioned in the "Blue Harvest" episode of Family Guy where Obiwan uses his Jedi Mind Trick to tell the Stormtrooper Bouncer that he is a friend of Dave Navarro so they can get into the Cantina.

Equipment of choice

Dave has been using PRS Guitars since the early Janes Addiction days. His signature PRS is always his number one stage guitar. He has several models in his regular stage and studio rig.

He used a Parker Fly Deluxe for the Chili Peppers days during the live versions of "My Friends". He used it for its super clean tones that would sound almost identical to an acoustic. Dave also openly admits that "It's one of the ugliest guitars I've ever seen", as quoted from the Dave Navarro instructional DVD.

During this era, Dave went with a more treble based guitar in the Fender Stratocaster. He had several in his possession. All of them were a 3 single coil pattern but he also had a Modulus Stratocaster made.

Dave has also been seen playing Gibson Les Pauls, Kramer (Van Halen Signature) Guitars, Fender Telecasters, Takamine Acoustic 12 strings, and even a Squier Hello Kitty Stratocaster given to him by Carmen.

Dave previously used a vintage Marshall JCM800, but now plays through 2 Marshall JCM900 amplifiers which are dubbed Tanjerine and Peach. For large gigs he will also use a Marshall Mode 4 for clean tones. In the studio he is also commonly known to use a Vox AC30 for cleans and a Bogner Uberschall for dirty tones.

With effects, Dave prefers BOSS. He uses a BOSS Octave Pedal, 2 BOSS DD3 Digital Delays, a BOSS Turbo distortion for extra volume during soloing, A Dunlop Cry baby Wah Pedal, Marshall Footswitch, and several others.

Dave has also been seen playing Ibanez guitars. Specifically, in the "Stop" video he is seen playing a Blue "RG" series Ibanez.

Discography

With Jane's Addiction

• 1987 Jane's Addiction
• 1988 Nothing's Shocking
• 1990 Ritual de lo Habitual
• 1997 Kettle Whistle
• 2003 Strays
• 2006 Up From the Catacombs - The Best of

With Deconstruction

• 1994 Deconstruction

With Red Hot Chili Peppers

• 1995 One Hot Minute

Solo

• 1995 Rhimorse (Unreleased)
• 2001 Trust No One

With The Panic Channel

• 2006 (ONe)

External links

• Official site
• Dave Navarro at IMDb
• Dave Navarro is God Fan site
• Dave Navarro interview January 2008
• Dave Navarro's Spread on maniaTV.com