Jane’s Addiction has abruptly called off the remainder of its reunion tour after an onstage fight between singer Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro abruptly ended a Friday show in Boston.
The “Jane Says” band unceremoniously ended the tour saying that it had “made the difficult decision to take some time away as a group,” according to a statement posted Monday on the band’s social media.
The band’s generic statement was followed by a thorny invective attributed to Farrell’s bandmates, aiming at his “mental health difficulties” after his altercation with Navarro during the Leader Bank Pavilion show. Onstage, Perry appeared to punch Navarro and a subsequent fight was broken up by the stage crew, who pulled the musicians apart.
“Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour,” guitarist Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins said in a joint statement posted on Instagram. “Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs.”
The trio said that they regret not being able to come through for their fans who bought tickets, adding that they “see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis. Our hearts are broken.”
After the cancellation announcement Monday and his bandmates’ statement, Farrell issued an apology for reaching a “breaking point” that resulted in his “inexcusable behavior.”
“This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show,” Farrell wrote on his Instagram story. “Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
The “Nothing’s Shocking” and “Ritual de lo Habitual” singers were high school friends who formed California’s pioneering pre-grunge band in 1985, coalescing each of their metal, punk, new wave and goth influences. They first announced their split in 1991 but reunited this year for the first time in 14 years, playing the YouTube Theater in Inglewood last month with the original lineup: Farrell, Navarro, Avery (who opted out of several previous reunion tours) and Perkins.
The band canceled 15 shows less than a month after Live Nation added seven dates to the tour, which also featured Love & Rockets as co-headliner. Before canceling the rest of the tour, the band initially apologized Saturday fans “for the events that unfolded” on Friday, then canceled a show in Bridgeport, Conn., that was previously scheduled for Sunday.
Jane’s Addiction was slated to next play a Wednesday show in Toronto, followed by several shows in the Midwest and Southern states before moving toward the West Coast in October. The band was set to close out the reunion tour with a second performance at the YouTube Theater on Oct. 16.
Farrell’s wife Etty Lau Farrell on Saturday posted footage of the Friday encounter on her Instagram account, addressing the “tension and animosity” and shedding light on what transpired between the two men.
“The magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit. Perry got up in Dave’s face and body checked him,” she wrote. “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.”
Lau Farrell said that the band started playing “Ocean” before Perry was ready and the stage volume was so loud that he “couldn’t hear pass the boom and the vibration of the instruments.” By the end of the song, she said, he wasn’t singing, “he was screaming just be to be heard.”
The vocalist, who wed Farrell in 2002, also claimed that Avery “won the fight.”
“While Dave was keeping Perry at arm’s length to de-escalate the situation, [crew member] Dan rushed over to de-escalate as well by holding Perry back. Dave walked away to take his guitar off. Eric walked up to Perry, upstage, in the dark, behind Dan, put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times. Kevin, crewmember with a long hair with long hair pulled Eric away. Then Eric nonchalant walked off to the front of the stage to apologize to audience for the show ended early.”
The aftermath, she wrote, included Navarro still looking “handsome and cool in the middle of a fight” and Farrell looking like “a crazed beast for the next half an hour.” She said that the singer had a breakdown “and cried and cried.” She also accused Avery of not helping deescalate and accused him of taking advantage of the situation and “[getting] in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
Following the band’s apology but before its tour cancellation, Emmy-nominated actor Walton Goggins on Sunday threw his hat in the ring with an a capella version of “Jane Says” posted on his Instagram.
“Putting myself on tape in case they’re looking for a new front man for Jane’s Addiction,” the “Justified” and “Fallout” star wrote.