Seven months after Jane’s Addiction fell apart onstage in front of a live audience, lead singer Perry Farrell and the other band members have filed competing legal complaints against each other.
Guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins sued Farrell — who also founded Lollapalooza — for $10 million today in Los Angeles, alleging the frontman’s “brutal and unprovoked” on-stage attack on Navarro last year caused the band to lose millions of dollars when they had to cancel tour dates and a planned new album.
The trio reunited with Farrell last year for the original lineup’s first tour together since 2010. Avery had long eschewed a reunion after battling drug addiction (and Farrell) and fearing life on the road might again lead to relapse. He didn’t have to worry. About two-thirds of the way through the band’s 50-city tour, Farrell ended the reunion when he punched Navarro onstage mid-set at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion.
The suit contends that Farrell “ruthlessly assaulted Navarro onstage” and later “continued his unhinged barrage of punches backstage.”
It maintains the attack was “brutal and unprovoked” and “quickly forced the termination of the show and eventually the entire tour.”
Farrell later said he regretted his behavior.
“I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
Ferrell’s wife, Etty Lau, offered her own perspective in the days following the incident.
“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 playing too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
Anyone who saw the band live in the ’80s or ’90s might be puzzled by the “playing too loud” bit, given Janes Addiction earned its fans with a sometimes ear-splitting sound that defied easy categorization.
Lau continued, “We are taking a bit of time to ourselves, to reflect and to heal. Perry already has appointments with a otolaryngologist and a neurologist. If you know and love Perry well, you know there’s no need for me to address the other false narratives.”
His bandmates’ 36-page suit today claims the tour had already sold more than 100,000 tickets and was going to be a “triumphant reunion.” Avery, Navarro and Perkins are now seeking at least $10 million from Farrell.
The plaintiffs contend that Farrell was the one who actually convinced the other members to reunite for the tour, but he “was the only one who did not perform to the standards to which fans were accustomed.” In recent years, the frontman has struggled to reach the soaring, piercing wail that was his among his chief contributions at the band’s peak and on its mainstream breakthrough album Nothing’s Shocking.
The suit also cites the singer’s apparent intoxication.
“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.”
Longtime fans came to expect Farrell, wine bottle in hand, bantering and sometimes raging between songs, but his perspective was almost always incisive and entertaining.
At one ’90s show, a fan kept throwing his shoe onstage, which peeved the singer. On a live recording from that night, he’s heard to say, “There goes that same *sshhole again. I mean, this guy’s a real moron. He threw a Birkenstock. He doesn’t even understand fashion.”
The suit also accuses Farrell of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract.
A representative for Farrell denied the allegations contained in the suit.
“This is yet another clear example of the group uniting to isolate and bully frontman Perry Farrell,” reads a statement from the frontman’s camp. “The timing of this baseless lawsuit is no coincidence — it was filed only after they caught wind of legal action coming from our side. It’s a transparent attempt to control the narrative and present themselves as the so-called ‘good guys’ — a move that’s both typical and predictable. Just like when they released a defamatory and entirely unfounded statement about Perry’s mental health and unilaterally canceled the remaining tour dates without his input, they’re once again scrambling to get ahead of the truth in a desperate effort to save face.”
Deadline’s sister site Variety reported this afternoon that Farrell filed a legal complaint against his former bandmates.
City News Service contributed to this report.