Jane’s Addiction have canceled the remainder of their reunion tour. The announcement follows an onstage altercation between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro at the band’s Boston gig on Friday night (September 13).
An announcement on Jane’s Addiction’s Instagram page reads: “To all the fans, The band have made the difficult decision to take some time away as a group. As such, they will be canceling the remainder of the tour.”
A separate statement, posted on the personal pages of Navarro and bandmates Eric Avery and Stephen Perkin, offers some more insight:
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.
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.
Our hearts are broken.
Dave, Eric and Stephen
Love and Rockets, who were opening the tour, wrote: “We would have loved to have completed the rest of the dates on the tour with Jane’s Addiction but unfortunately the matter is out of our hands.”
In the wake of the incident, Perry Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, 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.”
Farrel continued: “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.”
Farrel also noted that Avery “put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times … Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried. Eric, well he either didn’t understand what descalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
In a statement of his own, Perry Farrel said: “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. Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”