Jane's Addiction bandmates sue each other over onstage fight that ended
tour
[July 17, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The members of alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction
filed dueling lawsuits Wednesday over singer Perry Farrell's onstage
scuffle with guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert last year,
prompting the cancellation of the rest of their reunion tour and a
planned album.
Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery sued Farrell in
Los Angeles Superior Court seeking at least $10 million, alleging that
Farrell's behavior on the tour had ranged from erratic to
out-of-control, culminating in the assault, where Farrell punched
Navarro both on stage 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,” their lawsuit says.
Farrell and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, sued the three bandmates in the
same court Wednesday, blaming them for the conflict and the violence.
“Navarro, Avery and Perkins apparently decided,” the lawsuit says, “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, including, among other tactics, trying to
undermine him by playing their instruments at a high volume so that he
could not hear himself sing.”
The Farrells said that Navarro and Avery actually assaulted them.
Perry Farrell said he was “blindsided” when the other members canceled
the remaining 15 shows of the tour and broke up the band without
consulting him, costing all of them a great deal of money.
And he said his bandmates defamed him by publicly saying after the fight
that he had mental health problems.
Jane's Addiction was an essential part of the Los Angeles music scene in
the late 1980s with their combination of elements of punk, goth and
psychedelic sounds and culture. They became a national phenomenon with
hits including “Jane Says” and “Been Caught Stealing,” and through their
founding of the Lollapalooza tour, whose first incarnations they
headlined in 1991.
The group broke up soon after but returned several times in various
incarnations. The 2024 tour was the first time the original members had
played together since 2010.
Farrell missed all seven of the group's rehearsals in the run-up to the
tour, his bandmate's lawsuit alleges, and his behavior during the early
shows ranged from erratic to out-of-control.
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Dave Navarro, left, and Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction perform
during KAABOO 2017 at the Del Mar Racetrack and Fairgrounds on Sept.
16, 2017, in San Diego, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP,
File)
 “He struggled night to night amid
public concern for his well-being and apparent intoxication,” their
lawsuit says. “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 says Farrell was given many solutions to the volume
problem, none of which he followed.
Then on Sept. 13 at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston in front of about
4,000 fans, videos partially captured Farrell lunging at Navarro and
bumping Navarro with his shoulder before taking a swing at the
guitarist with his right arm. Navarro is seen holding his right arm
out to keep Farrell away before Farrell is dragged away.
But Farrell's lawsuit says the “video evidence is clear that the
first altercation onstage during the Boston show was hardly
one-sided.” It says Navarro was deliberately playing loud to drown
out the singer, and "what followed was an inappropriate violent
escalation by Navarro and Avery that was disproportionate to
Farrell’s minor body check of Navarro."
Farrell alleges that when he was being restrained by a crew member,
Avery punched him in the kidneys, and that both Avery and Navarro
assaulted him and his wife backstage.
Shortly after the fight, Farrell in a statement apologized to his
bandmates, especially Navarro, for “inexcusable behavior.”
Both lawsuits allege assault and battery, intentional infliction of
emotional distress and breach of contract, among other claims.
“Now,” Navarro, Perkins and Avery's lawsuit says, “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."
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