“Tom Morello ended up flying to Seattle and doing the vocals with Layne Staley. Tom came back and was like, ‘He’s in really bad shape. It’s scary’”: Martyn LeNoble on a career spent working with alt rock icons – and the kindness of John Entwistle
Long before perfect stranger John Entwistle lent him a Trace Elliott, the Porno For Pyros founder started out with a P-Bass knockoff and a homemade amp. Now he’s all about paying tribute to late friend Mark Lanegan
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As a founding member of Porno For Pyros, Martin LeNoble helped usher in the ‘90s alt-rock revolution – but given the expanse of his resume, it’s easy to see why he struggles to say what he’s most proud of.
“But I have any regrets,” he says. “It’s all a journey. Some people will remember me fondly and some people will go, ‘Fuck that asshole – he’s gone.’ I’m good with all of it. I’m just trying to be my authentic self.”
LeNoble does admit to painful emotions regarding his disconnection with Porno For Pyros, because he has zero intention of working with Perry Farrell again – especially after the disaster the vocalist delivered on Jane’s Addiction earlier this year.
“I really do wish Perry the best,” LeNoble says. “He deserves a much more peaceful existence than what he’s put himself through … I don't have that much animosity and anger towards him. I just kind of feel bad.”
Since the death of close friend and collaborator Mark Lanegan, LeNoble has kept out of the limelight – though he plans to honor Lanegan in London on December 5, during an expansive tribute show.
“I’m in a lucky place where I get to pick what I want to do and don’t want to do,” he says. “My focus in the last few years has been on being a wilderness guide. And I’m a wildlife tracker; I’m continuing to focus on being outside in nature and taking people into the woods.”
What inspired you to pick up the bass?
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“I started in this little punk rock band. I was living in the Netherlands and a bunch of my friends had a band, but their bass player quit, so I said, ‘I’d like to step in.’ I had to scramble and find a bass.
“It was this horrible Japanese bass – a P-Bass knockoff that cost about $150. It didn’t sound very good but it was good enough to get started. My dad and I built a bass amp; so my rig was a homemade amp and a really bad Fender knockoff.”
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Did you model that homemade amp after any particular professional amp?
“We didn’t really model it! It was as cheap as possible and all solid-state. I think it had a 12-inch speaker and was made out of particle board, so it didn’t travel well. It looked kind of like a refrigerator or a laundry – it was white and unfinished!”
Was that what you brought when you moved from the Netherlands to LA?
“No – I switched to Trace Elliott amps in the Netherlands in the ’80s, and that’s what I played when I first moved to the United States. The one in the Netherlands was too much to ship, so I went to buy another at a place called The Bass Center in Los Angeles.
“I had a gig that weekend, but they said, ‘We don’t have one in stock – we can’t get you an amp for your gig.’ This gentleman walked up behind me and said, ‘You can use mine for the gig if you want.’ It was John Entwistle from The Who!”
John Entwistle offered to let you use his amp?
“Yep. He asked me for my address, and he had one of his techs bring it to my place. So the first two gigs I played here were with John Entwistle’s Trace Elliott amp. He was a complete stranger to me and I was a stranger to him.
“But he did say, ‘If you blow it up, I’m going to take the one for you that’s coming next week!’ So there was really no risk for him!”
What basses were you using then?
“I played active basses, but I always put them into passive mode. They had those big, bright pickups with a Music Man Sting Ray kind of sound. It was a brighter sound; I can still do that, but I don’t do a lot of slapping. I go for a more classic bass sound.”
Was that your rig when you joined Porno for Pyros?
“Yeah the G&L basses and Trace Elliott amps. I was really inspired by the movement that was happening at the time with Norwood from Fishbone and Flea. There was more of a funk vibe.”
Somewhere during the making of that record Scott started using again… I asked him to leave so I could work without having that around me
How did you approach the music?
“I had a lot of space in Porno for Pyros to play and change the chords. I could melodically alter them by changing the bass parts. There was just a lot of room for me to do what I was going to do then.”
Put us in the studio with Perry, Peter DiStefano, and Stephen Perkins were recording Porno for Pyros’ debut album.
“It was interesting – it was really fast. We were practicing at Stephen’s little home studio. We’d worked up a couple of ideas; and when we went in to record, I think Stephen and I did the basics in two to five days.
“We didn’t know what Perry was going to do on top of it, but we were very fast on that first record. The second record [Good God’s Urge], however, took years and years and years. It was the most unproductive process ever.
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“I think it had a lot to do with substance abuse. We were just not productive. The process had changed too – we were trying to create in the studio. At some point I stepped out.”
What was it like being in a band with Perry Farrell under those circumstances?
“It was tough. Music, to me, is always a time capsule. If I listen to records now that maybe I didn't like when I was a teenager, it brings back some kind of feeling; this sentimental thing. But Porno for Pyros never brings me good memories. It brings up a lot of painful memories.”
After Porno for Pyros, you worked with Scott Weiland, who had a similar personality and a lot of the same issues as Perry. Did you have trepidation going in?
“Yes, I did. I had to set some very clear boundaries. When we started working on that record [12 Bar Blues], Scott was not using drugs; he was clean. But somewhere during the making of that record he started using again.
How did you deal with that?
“I asked Scott and someone else in the band to leave so that I could work without having that around me. So, I actually kind of kicked Scott out of the studio for a day!”
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It seems you wanted to clear the decks when you left Porno for Pyros. Was that the case with your gear and approach?
“First of all, I lost every single piece of equipment and instrument that I had, so I had nothing. Johnny Colt from the Black Crowes gave me a bass guitar, a ‘70s Fender Jazz Bass, so I used it on Scott’s stuff.
“I started using Ampeg amps. In Porno for Pyros, I felt the bass was more in the foreground; but with Scott, and in most other projects I’ve worked on, I tried to be of service to the song. It was a little less flashy.”
How did you end up covering Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) with Tom Morello and Layne Staley for The Faculty soundtrack?
“Tom put it together and asked me and Stephen Perkins to play. We had different vocalists in mind. We talked about Wyclef Jean and Trent Reznor, but they decided not to do it. So even though I knew he was not in a good way, I said, ‘Hey, Tom, what about getting Layne Staley?’
“Tom ended up flying to Seattle and doing the vocals in a studio with Layne. I never got to see Layne again, but Tom came back and was like, ‘Yeah, it’s really bad. He’s in really bad shape. It’s scary.’ That ended up being the last thing Layne ever recorded.”
Eventually, you hooked back up with Perry in Jane’s. You recorded the bass tracks for Strays, but Chris Chaney was brought in to redo them at the last minute. What happened there?
“I still don’t really know… I was working with Jane’s. We were in the studio, writing in the studio, which I think is always a terrible idea because it’s expensive. We had Bob Ezrin producing us, and we were playing shows as well.
“We ended up going to Korea and then one show in Japan. Perry was upset during the show, and I tried to talk him down a little bit and he suddenly turned on me.
Perry was trying to blame that on me… I found myself flying back with a band I was no longer in
“He goes, ‘Everything you play sounds like shit. There’s nothing but feedback coming from your amp.’ I was like, ‘Hold on one second – I play bass! There’s no feedback!’ The only time there was feedback was when he held his microphone at arm’s length like he was Whitney Houston.
“His microphone would pick up the bass, and then it would go through his delay, so that was the feedback. He was trying to blame that on me, and I was not having it. Next morning I found myself flying back with a band I was no longer in.”
“That’s why I will put my two cents in – because it’s bullshit.”
Given what you went through, can we assume none of what recently happened with Jane’s surprises you?
“No. I don’t want to speak for others. But a few years ago, Perry asked me if I wanted to do Porno for Pyros, which he’d been asking for over a decade. I’d always immediately said, ‘Absolutely no.’
“But for some reason, this time I was like, ‘Maybe we can put a good ending to this chapter that was important to all of us at some point.’ Perry seemed different this time – but that did not last.
“I came in and did a couple of songs in the studio at his house. Then he started talking about doing a tour. I said, ‘I’ll commit to three shows; let’s see how it goes.’ So I’d committed to three shows and three songs. We managed to get three songs out, but the writing was already on the wall.
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“Promises were not being kept – the conditions under which I was to return were already not being honored. When the tour got postponed I really felt this sense of relief. It was causing me stress.
“I realized, ‘I’m much happier that I don’t have to go on that tour; it’s already not shaking out the way I wanted.’ I did not want to have background singers. I did not want to have dancers on stage. Those were my conditions, and those were broken immediately.”
I actually got teary-eyed… I texted back and said, ‘I love you too, Mark’ … that was the last time I communicated with him
“I was able to step away from the tour without any fireworks. It wasn't bad; I just said, ‘Get Mike Watt, do it, and have fun. If you guys take me, it’s not going to be fun because I’m already not enjoying this. You guys don’t deserve that kind of energy from me. Just take Mike.’”
Have you heard from Perry?
“I talked to Perry when I walked away from Porno For Pyros, but I have not talked to him since the blow-up with Jane’s. I do talk to all the other guys… I was just talking to Eric Avery last night, actually. But no, I’ve not talked to Perry since – and I’m not interested in that either.”
What’s your perspective on what’s going on with him? Is it drugs, a crisis of personality – or both?
“I don’t really want to get into it. I just don’t enjoy working with him. Let’s put it like that.”
You did enjoy working with Mark Lanegan; you collaborated with him until the end of his life.
“I’d known about Mark for a lot longer than I’d worked with him. It went in kind of a strange way. I was dating a girl who put on this record, and it was Bubblegum, one of Mark's solo records. I was blown away – I couldn’t believe I missed it when it came out.
“I said to myself, ‘Man, I would love to just play bass behind that voice once, even if it’s just one song.’ No one sounded like that. It’s almost like three layers of distortion on his vocal cords that, to my ear, created undertones instead of just a note.
“Fast-forward: there was this project called Soulsavers, and Mark was doing a record with them. I got a call when they were playing The Troubadour in Los Angeles; they’d run into a problem with their bass player and asked if I was interested in stepping in.
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“I went to see them and thought they sounded great. They ended up not firing their bass player and finishing the tour; but the next record, Broken, they asked me to play bass. So I played bass on a record with the Soulsavers and Mark Lanegan. I kept working with Mark on his own stuff. He was a dear friend, and I miss him.”
Do you remember the last time you spoke to Mark before he passed?
“I got a text from him two days before… I’m getting a little emotional; it was kind of a remarkable text. He goes, ‘I’m taking the train from Brussels to Amsterdam, and I’m just thinking about how much I love you.’
“I actually got teary-eyed… I texted him back and said, ‘I love you too, Mark.’ That was it. That was the last time I communicated with him.”
You’re paying tribute to Mark in December. With Porno For Pyros off your docket, is that the focus going forward?
“I’ve actually got very little on the books. Pornos is putting out a vinyl compilation. It’s got three new songs, some best-of stuff and a remix, I believe. That’s happening, though I have very little to do with that anymore.
Cat People (Putting Out Fire) (feat. Mark Lanegan & Dave Gahan) - YouTube
“And then we have the memorial tribute show. We’ll be playing an evening of Mark’s music and songs with a whole bunch of different singers and musicians.
“I’ll be playing bass and on stage the whole time, and the vocalists will rotate. It’s going to be special no matter what – but it’s a lot of work. We all want it to be fantastic and really honor the legacy of Mark, as our friend and as an artist. I’m really looking forward to that.”
Andrew Daly is an iced-coffee-addicted, oddball Telecaster-playing, alfredo pasta-loving journalist from Long Island, NY, who, in addition to being a contributing writer for Guitar World, scribes for Rock Candy, Bass Player, Total Guitar, and Classic Rock History. Andrew has interviewed favorites like Ace Frehley, Johnny Marr, Vito Bratta, Bruce Kulick, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Rich Robinson, and Paul Stanley, while his all-time favorite (rhythm player), Keith Richards, continues to elude him.
