Jane's Addiction's bassist bails

Reuters

GOODBYE: Jane's Addiction has parted ways with its latest bass player

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Rock band Jane's Addiction has parted ways with its latest bass player, former Guns N' Roses member Duff McKagan, five months after announcing his addition to the oft-vacated post.

McKagan, 46, performed a few concerts with the band, and worked on new material for its first album in seven years, but musical differences cut short his tenure.

"Hey we wanted to thank Duff for helping us write songs for our new record," the band said via email.

"We love the songs we worked on with him - and the gigs were a blast - but musically we were all headed in different directions. From here Duff is off to work on his own stuff so we wish him all the best."

Jane's Addiction has been through five bass players since it formed in 1985, while the rest of the quartet's lineup is unchanged. Original member Eric Avery has come and gone twice, most recently replaced by McKagan in March after an Australian tour.

McKagan is best known as a founding member of Guns N' Roses, contributing such songs as Paradise City and It's So Easy to one of the biggest bands of the early 1990s.

But as with some of the group's other members, drugs and alcohol got in the way, and McKagan almost died after his pancreas ruptured in 1994. He sobered up and quit the band a few years later.

After studying business at Seattle University, he joined forces with two other Guns alumni to form Velvet Revolver in 2002. The band released two albums and won a Grammy before crumbling in 2008.

McKagan last year recorded and toured with his new band, Loaded. According to a Twitter message from Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, McKagan plans to issue a follow-up album and return to the road in the fall. A spokesman for McKagan was not immediately available.

Jane's Addiction emerged from the Los Angeles rock underground in the 1980s, distinguishing itself from other post-punk groups with Farrell's sexually ambiguous stagecraft and the musicians' deft ear for melodic tunes.

They recorded just three albums and scored radio play with such songs as Been Caught Stealing and Jane Says.

- Reuters