Jane's Addiction Members Engage in Legal Battle Following Onstage Altercation
Last year, a physical altercation erupted onstage at Boston's Leader Bank Pavilion involving members of the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, leading to legal disputes filed Wednesday in California.
Cellphone footage captured singer Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro in a heated confrontation during the concert, which ultimately resulted in the cancellation of their reunion tour and a planned album release.
Navarro, along with drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery, initiated a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking damages exceeding $10 million. They allege that Farrell's conduct throughout the tour was erratic and culminated in an assault where he punched Navarro both onstage and backstage.
"With a series of swift blows, he single-handedly destroyed the name, reputation, trademark, and viability of the Band and those who built it," the lawsuit asserts.
In a counteraction, Farrell and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, filed their own lawsuit against Navarro, Avery, and Perkins, attributing blame for the conflict to them. The Farrells claim that the trio engaged in a prolonged campaign of harassment against Farrell during performances.
"Navarro, Avery and Perkins apparently decided," their lawsuit states, "that Jane's Addiction's decades of success should be jettisoned in pursuit of a yearslong bullying campaign against Farrell involving harassing him onstage during performances."
Farrell expressed feeling "blindsided" when his bandmates unilaterally canceled the remaining 15 shows of the tour, resulting in significant financial losses for all involved.
He also contends that his bandmates defamed him by publicly suggesting he had mental health issues following the incident.
Emerging from the Los Angeles music scene in the late 1980s, Jane's Addiction blended punk, goth, and psychedelic influences to create hits like "Jane Says" and "Been Caught Stealing." They were instrumental in launching the Lollapalooza festival, headlining its inaugural tour in 1991.
Despite several reunions over the years, the 2024 tour marked the first time original members performed together since 2010. However, allegations surfaced that Farrell missed all seven rehearsals leading up to the tour, with claims of erratic behavior during early performances.
"He struggled night to night amid public concern for his well-being and apparent intoxication," states the lawsuit. "Perry forgot lyrics, lost his place in songs he had sung since the 1980s, and mumbled rants as he drank from a wine bottle onstage."
The lawsuit further claims that Farrell ignored multiple solutions to address volume issues during performances.
On September 13 at Leader Bank Pavilion, video footage shows Farrell lunging at Navarro before taking a swing at him. Navarro attempted to maintain distance while crew members intervened.
However, Farrell's lawsuit counters that "the video evidence is clear that the first altercation onstage during the Boston show was hardly one-sided." It alleges that Navarro deliberately played loudly to overshadow Farrell's vocals, leading to an inappropriate escalation of violence from Navarro and Avery.
Farrell claims that while being restrained by a crew member, Avery punched him in the kidneys and that both Avery and Navarro assaulted him and his wife backstage.
Following the incident, Farrell issued an apology to his bandmates for what he termed "inexcusable behavior."
Both lawsuits cite assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of contract among other claims. "Now," states Navarro, Perkins, and Avery's lawsuit, "the Band will never have their revival Tour to celebrate a new album and 40+ years of deep, complex, chart-topping recordings. Instead, history will remember the Band as suffering a swift and painful death at the hands of Farrell's unprovoked anger and complete lack of self-control."
