Jane’s Addiction has canceled all remaining dates on its North American tour after an onstage confrontation last week between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro led to a fight involving all four band members and brought their performance in Boston to an abrupt end.
On Monday, Jane’s Addiction released a statement regarding the cancellation of the tour. In the aftermath of Friday’s onstage tussle, the alternative rock band, which reunited for a tour together for the first time in 14 years, canceled a planned Sunday night show in Connecticut.
“To all the fans, the band have [sic] made the difficult decision to take some time away as a group. As such, they will be canceling the remainder of the tour,” the statement posted on social media reads.
Jane’s Addiction — singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery — were early pioneers of the alternative rock scene in the 1990s. The band formed in 1985 and Los Angeles and has reunited with members missing and replaced since breaking up in 1991 on a tour that doubled as the inaugural Lollapalooza tour. Their 2024 tour was the band’s first with all four original members but has now ended after 22 performances.
The fight in Boston began when Farrell, seemingly agitated, walked up to Navarro as he played a solo on their song “Ocean Size” from 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking. Grunting, Farrell is seen in videos posted by fans in the audience slamming his body into Navarro, who holds up a hand to keep the frontman at a distance. Farrell can be seen throwing a punch toward the guitarist; at that point, three men took the stage to hold Farrell back. The focus escalated with Avery putting Farrell in a headlock and punching him multiple times.
Navarro also released a post-incident statement on behalf of himself, Avery and Perkins, writing on Instagram: “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 U.S. 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,” the guitarist continues. “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.”
On Monday, Farrell apologized to fans and his bandmates for his behavior on stage in Boston.
“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,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
Farrell’s wife weighed in on the fight over the weekend, posting a lengthy explanation and judgment of the situation that praised Navarro and scolded Avery on her Instagram account Saturday morning. Etty Lau Farrell wrote that her husband has been having severe mental health episodes, where the singer is, “spinning out. The most devastating health of all with him since 97.” She added that his on-stage frustration was because his vocals were drowned out.
“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,” Etty Lau Farrell wrote. “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.”
An email sent to the band’s publicist by The Hollywood Reporter asking for comment on Etty Lau Farrell’s statements online was not immediately returned on Monday. The band’s statement said refunds for the canceled tour dates will be “issued at your point of purchase — or if you purchased from a third-party resale site like StubHub, SeatGeek, etc, please reach out to them direct.”
