Jack Irons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jack Irons | ||
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 Jack Irons (c. 2004)
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Jack Irons | |
| Born | July 18, 1962 (age 44) Los Angeles, California, USA |
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| Genre(s) | Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Musician | |
| Instrument(s) | Drums | |
| Years active | 1980 — Present | |
| Label(s) | MCA Records EMI Capitol Records Epic Records Morgan Creek RCA Records Hollywood Records Pollen Records Breaching Whale |
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| Associated acts |
What Is This? Red Hot Chili Peppers The Latino Rockabilly War Redd Kross Eleven Raging Slab Pearl Jam |
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Jack Irons (born July 18, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA) is a drummer who has played for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Is This?, Redd Kross, Raging Slab, Joe Strummer and The Latino Rockabilly War, Pearl Jam, and Eleven.
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[edit] Career
[edit] (1980-1988) What Is This? and Red Hot Chili Peppers
Jack was a founding member of, and the original drummer for, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Jack attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, California alongside Anthony Kiedis, Michael "Flea" Balzary, Hillel Slovak, and Alain Johannes. As teenagers Irons and Alain Johannes formed the band Anthym with Michael Balzary (Flea) and Hillel Slovak; this band was soon to be renamed What Is This?. Soon thereafter Flea formed The Red Hot Chili Peppers with Anthony Kiedis, Slovak and Irons. Flea left What Is This? at this time, but Slovak and Irons remained on board and the band released the EP Squeezed. After the recording of the self-titled second What Is This? album, Slovak and Irons left to concentrate full-time on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Irons can be heard playing drums on the band's third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987), as well as on their cover of "Fire" (originally penned by Jimi Hendrix and first released on the Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road EP). When childhood friend and bandmate, Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose on June 25, 1988, Irons left the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Slovak's death was such a huge shock to Irons that he has been clinically depressed ever since.[1]
[edit] (1990-1994; 2002-2003) Eleven
While still a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack Irons contributed several tracks for the duo Walk The Moon, made up of Natasha Shneider and Irons' former bandmate Alain Johannes. When Irons left the Red Hot Chili Peppers he teamed up with Johannes and Shneider in 1990 to form Eleven. With Eleven, Irons recorded the albums Awake In A Dream (1991) and Eleven (1993). Midway through the recording of Eleven's third album, Thunk (1995), Irons departed to drum with Pearl Jam, and Matt Cameron played drums on the album's remaining four tracks. Irons returned to the band once again in 2002 prior to the recording of their fifth album, Howling Book (2003).
[edit] (1994-1998) Pearl Jam
Jack Irons was asked to join Mookie Blaylock, the band that would become Pearl Jam in 1990, when they were first forming and still looking for a singer. Although he didn't join the band at that time because he was committed to his own band, Eleven, he did pass on a cassette of their work to a singer named Eddie Vedder, a local musician in San Diego at the time, with whom Irons had formed a friendship. Vedder joined the band and they recorded their debut album Ten, and Irons had no more to do with the project for the time being. Irons became the official drummer for the band in late 1994 following the departure of Dave Abbruzzese. He drummed on the Pearl Jam/Neil Young collaboration Mirror Ball (1995) and on the subsequent Pearl Jam records No Code (1996) and Yield (1998). He toured with the band up until his semi-retirement in 1998 prior to the US Yield Tour. He brought a unique drumming style to the band, particularly in the way he played his fills and using a trash can lid as a cymbal.[2] Irons co-wrote the music for the No Code songs "Who You Are", "In My Tree", and "I'm Open". He also wrote and sang on the Pearl Jam song "Whale Song" which was on their collection of B-sides entitled Lost Dogs.
[edit] Side projects
Aside from the aforementioned bands, Irons recorded and toured as a member of Joe Strummer's backing band The Latino Rockabilly War and also toured with Redd Kross. In 1992, Raging Slab (a band notorious for having over 25 different drummers over the course of their 18 year career), complete with Jack Irons on drums, began recording the follow-up to their 1989 RCA Records self-titled debut, with producer Michael Beinhorn at the helm. The entire album was recorded, mixed, and mastered; however when RCA Records executives heard the album, it was rejected. The album, titled Freeburden, remains unreleased.
Aside from popular music, Jack has also worked as a drumming advisor and teacher for numerous US television projects. Jack has recently released his own album called Attention Dimension (2004) with Eddie Vedder singing vocals on Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
He will also be featured on the upcoming Ultra Payloaded by Perry Farrell's new band, Satellite Party. Joining him are former bandmate Flea, and John Frusciante.
[edit] Discography
[edit] References
- ^ "Chili Peppers’ Jack Irons Pays Tribute to Slovak". contactmusic.com. May 14, 2006.
- ^ Single Video Theory. Pearl Jam. Video. Epic, 1998.
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Official Website of Eleven
- All Music Guide entry for Jack Irons
- Jack Irons - Lukin.com
