The 35-plus-year odyssey that is Jane’s Addiction took another unbelievable turn last night (Sept. 13) in Boston, as the group ended their show early after frontman Perry Farrell attacked guitarist Dave Navarro onstage. Farrell, 65, was restrained by crew members and bassist Eric Avery, whose participation in the band’s current tour after a 14-year hiatus has been a major selling point for fans.
Farrell’s lackluster performances at pair of outdoor New York shows earlier this week drew the ire of social media commenters, who’ve speculated as to whether he is struggling with drug or alcohol issues. During the first gig on Tuesday, he confessed, “ladies and gentlemen, I have to be honest with you. Something’s wrong with my voice. I just can’t get the notes out all of a sudden.” Later, Avery wrote on Instagram, “looking forward to getting another crack at this spectacular rooftop venue tonight. I’m optimistic we will be better.”
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At Leader Bank Pavilion last night, things were even worse, as Farrell shouted at Navarro during the ninth song of the show, “Mountain Song,” and tensions built further during the subsequent performance of “Three Days.” After that, in the middle of “Ocean Size,” Farrell walked over to Navarro, aggressively nudged him and then appeared to take a swing at him. Watch fan-shot footage of the confrontation below.
Jane’s Addiction is scheduled to perform tomorrow in Bridgeport, Ct., but have yet to address the incident or the future of the band, which have broken up and reformed on numerous occasions since their original 1991 split. Earlier today, Farrell’s wife Etty wrote on Instagram that “clearly there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members… the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit. Perry got up in Dave’s face and body checked him.”
According to her, the reason was that “Perry’s frustration had been mounting, night after night. He felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row started complaining up to Perry, cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
Etty Farrell praised Navarro for “keeping Perry at arm’s length to de-escalate the situation” but claimed Avery “put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times. Kevin, [the] crew member with long hair, pulled Eric away. Then Eric nonchalantly walked off to the front of the stage to apologize to the audience for the show ending early.”
“Dave still looked handsome and cool in the middle of a fight,” she added. “Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did break down and cried and cried. Eric, well he either didn’t understand what de-escalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
During a May 23 gig at the 400-capacity Bush Hall in London, Jane’s played with Navarro for the first time since 2021, thus completing the original lineup of Farrell, Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins. Navarro had been out of the group due to symptoms from long COVID and was replaced on the road in recent years by former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist/Pearl Jam multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer and Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen.
Jane’s have also recorded new music, with the recently released “Imminent Redemption” marking the original lineup’s first fresh track since 1990’s Ritual De Lo Habitual.
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