Jane’s Addiction Cancels Remaining Tour Dates
Jane’s Addiction has announced the cancelation of their remaining tour dates following an onstage incident where singer Perry Farrell attacked guitarist Dave Navarro.
Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins issued a joint statement via Instagram. Their statement begins, “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.”
The statement continues, “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.”
The statement concludes, “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.”
UPDATE: Perry Farrell has released a statement, which reads: “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.”
On Friday (Sept. 13) during Jane’s Addiction’s show in Boston, Farrell attacked Navarro during the band’s performance of “Ocean Size.” Crew members and bassist Eric Avery then subdued Farrell, with Avery getting a few hits on Farrell in the process.
After the incident went viral, Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, took to Instagram to share her “first person account” of the altercation.
Etty wrote, in part, “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.”
She continued, “The band started the song ‘Ocean [Size]’ before Perry was ready and did the count off. The stage volume was so loud at that point, that Perry couldn’t hear pass [sic] the boom and the vibration of the instruments and by the end of the song, he wasn’t singing, he was screaming just be to be heard.”
Etty took issue with Avery for hitting her husband and wrote, “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.”
She noted of her husband after this incident, “Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour – he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried.”
