Following Friday night’s on-stage altercation that saw Perry Farrell punch Dave Navarro in the middle of a song, Jane’s Addiction announced that the remaining dates on their reunion tour have been canceled. “The band have made the difficult decision to take some time away as a group,” a statement posted on Jane’s social media accounts says. “As such, they will be cancelling the remainder of the tour.”
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In a post of their own, Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery elaborated on the situation.
“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,” they said. “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. We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can 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.”
Farrell’s lackluster performances at pair of outdoor New York shows last week drew the ire of social media commenters, who speculated as to whether he is struggling with drug or alcohol issues. During the first gig last 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.”
At Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston on Sept. 13, 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.
Jane’s Addiction, who have broken up and reformed on numerous occasions since their original 1991 split, were scheduled to perform on Saturday in Bridgeport, Ct., but canceled that show while mulling next steps.
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.”
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