How Steely Dan Helped Dave Navarro Start Playing Guitar Again

Dave Navarro has explained how Steely Dan helped him return to music after he’d stopped playing guitar for over a year.

The Jane’s Addiction co-founder said there was an advantage in finding himself disillusioned from time to time. His most recent downtime came after he contracted long COVID, followed by the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins while the pair had been working on an album together.

Navarro only recently returned to Jane’s Addiction, with the band having to hire temporary replacements until he felt healthy enough to get back on stage.

READ MORE: Why Dave Navarro Didn’t Listen to Jane’s Addiction Without Him

“Once we lost [Hawkins], I put the guitar away,” Navarro said in a recent episode of Kyle Meredith With… (below). “I couldn’t touch that thing for well over a year.”

Eventually, he continued, something changed. “I started listening to Steely Dan in my house, and it was like, ‘That is some weird playing!’ I started learning Steely Dan stuff, which I never really did a deep dive into. And then I just got into playing guitar every day. Steely Dan, Steely Dan, Steely Dan. [Then I] turned into Eddie Van Halen. I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna go deep dive Eddie Van Halen.’”

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He reflected: “I think a lot of it has to do with years of loving the guitar and then getting sick to death of it, and not touching it for a year; then hearing something inspiring, and falling in love with it again… then getting sick to death of it.” He added: “I think that once you fall back in love with it, you’re like, ‘Let’s fucking go!’”

Navarro went on to argue that there was a plus-side to the love-and-hate cycle. “If I just loved it this whole time, you’d be hearing the ‘up close and personal acoustic album’ from me, where it’s like, ‘I’m gonna strip it back and get real now.’

“That’s not me… We’re a fucking rock band!”

Watch Dave Navarro on ‘Kyle Meredith With…’