Dave Navarro: “Suicide has been an option in my past”

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Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro reveals how the deaths of Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell affected him

Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro has revealed that he has considered suicide in the past.

Speaking to Yahoo ahead of Above Ground, an all-star benefit gig that he has organised to raise awareness for mental health struggles and suicide prevention, Navarro admitted that he has struggled with mental health issues throughout his life.

“Suicide has been a viable option in my past,” says Navarro, whose mother was murdered by her boyfriend when the guitarist was 15. “We have lost a lot of friends this year, due to mental health issues.”

Navarro was inspired to put together the Above Ground show with The Cult/Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison after the suicides of  Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington.

“Going to Chris Cornell’s funeral and seeing Chester Bennington sing a beautiful song for his friend, and then [Chester] taking his life, really had a massive impact on me,” says Navarro. “I couldn’t help but be brought back to the times when I had felt that lonely, that desperate, that suicidal. I just want to let people know that there are options out there. [Suicide] isn’t the final answer. It’s OK to reach out for help.”

Above Ground takes place at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on April 16. It will feature Courtney Love, Billy Idol, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor and other special guests performing Adam & the Ants’ Kings of the Wild Frontier and The Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico albums in their entirety.

Dave Everley
Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.