Eric Avery

Eric Adam Avery (born April 25, 1965) is an American musician, most famous for his co-creation of, and for his role as the original bassist in, the band Jane's Addiction. Eric and Dave Navarro first met as students at St. Paul the Apostle Grammar School in West Los Angeles, a Catholic Parochial School founded by the Paulist Fathers. Eric and Dave were classmates together. Eric went on to Loyola High School (boys only) of Los Angeles and Dave went on to Notre Dame High School (boys only) in Sherman Oaks, California. Dave was classmates at Notre Dame with Stephen Perkins. Stephen met Eric's sister, Rebecca Avery, and they dated. It was Rebecca who suggested that Eric and Dave audition Stephen as the drummer for Jane's Addiction. After much beseeching, an audition was arranged for Stephen, who was instantly liked by Eric, Dave, and Perry Farrell. Avery has kept a fairly low profile since the demise of Jane's Addiction, participating in the Deconstruction project with Dave Navarro immediately after Jane's Addiction's breakup, but declining all invitations for Jane's reunions. The only reason Avery has ever given for his repeated rejections is that he feels the reunions are motivated purely by money. He has also recorded tracks for, toured with and briefly dated Alanis Morissette, as well as creating another side project, Polar Bear in 1994.[1] Tool's Maynard Keenan invited Eric Avery to replace bassist Paul D'Amour. Eric Avery was once suggested as the replacement bassist for Tool by former Jane's Addiction and then-current Tool manager Ted Gardner. Eric declined the invitation, saying he wanted to concentrate on his band Polar Bear. As seen in the film Some Kind of Monster, Avery also auditioned to become the bassist for Metallica, after the departure of former bassist Jason Newsted. The job didn't quite fit right for Avery; instead the band went with Ozzy Osbourne bassist Robert Trujillo. Avery toured with the band Garbage during the promotion of their 2005 Bleed Like Me album. Avery worked briefly with the revived Smashing Pumpkins, but ultimately did not join the band.[1] Avery was not paid for his work with the newly revived band, but did say the sessions were a lot of fun: "I went into [the Pumpkins] with the same mentality I took with me when I auditioned for Metallica — I expected to have a good story to tell my wife. I had no expectations. I had heard nothing but bad things about working with Billy, but I went, and I found it to be a really inspiring time." Billy Corgan ended up playing bass parts on what would become their 2007 album Zeitgeist and hired Ginger Reyes for live performances. Eric has recently announced signing with Dangerbird Records for the upcoming release of his solo album Help Wanted. After refusing to perform with Jane's Addiction several times, Avery performed alongside his former bandmates at the NME Awards in 2008. Whether or not this will lead to a more extensive reunion has not been made clear. Discography Jane's Addiction * 1987 Jane's Addiction * 1988 Nothing's Shocking * 1990 Ritual de lo Habitual * 1991 Live and Rare (Compilation of B-Sides and the Remix of "Been Caught Stealing") * 1997 Kettle Whistle (Compilation of live tracks, demos and unreleased material) * 2006 Up From the Catacombs (Greatest hits album) Deconstruction * 1994 Deconstruction Polar Bear * 1996 Self-titled 12" ice blue vinyl * 1997 Chewing Gum EP * 1999 Why Something Instead of Nothing? Solo career * 2008 Help Wanted Source: Wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Avery) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.