Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell has filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins, mere hours after the trio had launched their own legal action against him following last year’s infamous onstage altercation.
The duelling lawsuits stem from a volatile incident during the band’s performance at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion on 13th September 2024, when Farrell physically shoved Navarro during his guitar solo for “Ocean Size”. The confrontation required Avery and crew members to intervene and separate the pair, abruptly ending the show and flooding social media with audience-captured footage of the incident.
In his 30-page complaint obtained by Rolling Stone and filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Farrell alleges his former bandmates conducted “a years-long bullying campaign” against him. The frontman claims they would deliberately harass him onstage by playing their instruments at “high volume so that he could not hear himself sing without blasting his own in-ear monitors at an unsafe level”.
Farrell further contends that this harassment escalated dramatically at the Boston show, resulting in “physical violence” against him during the performance by both Navarro and Avery, followed by Navarro allegedly assaulting both Farrell and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, backstage after the show.
The lawsuit also claims Farrell was “blindsided” when the other members cancelled the remaining reunion tour dates and effectively disbanded without consulting him.
“Without warning or consultation and using Perry as a scapegoat, Dave Navarro and the other band members took it upon themselves to abruptly cancel the remaining tour dates — violating contracts and disregarding all professional obligations,” stated Farrell’s attorney, Miles Cooley.
The attorney added that Navarro “intentionally and publicly blamed Perry for the canceled tour dates, effectively destroying Perry’s reputation and causing him irreparable harm”.
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Earlier on the same day, Navarro, Avery, and Perkins had filed their own lawsuit against Farrell, accusing him of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
Their legal action claims the band lost more than $10 million due to the tour’s cancellation and the cessation of all band activities, including plans for what would have been the classic lineup’s first album since 1990’s ‘Ritual de lo Habitual’. The trio has also demanded that Farrell pay all outstanding bills related to the tour’s cancellation.
