Jane’s Addiction members are suing frontman Perry Farrell in the wake of the band’s infamous onstage altercation last year, and Farrell is suing right back.
The collapse of Jane’s Addiction is now a full-scale legal war.
As reported by Rolling Stone, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins have filed a lawsuit against frontman Perry Farrell. The Jane’s Addiction members accuse him of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract.
The complaint was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and stems from the now-infamous onstage altercation during a performance in Boston in September 2024, which brought the band’s long-awaited reunion tour to a chaotic halt.
In the 36-page lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege the tour’s cancellation led to the other Jane’s Addiction members losing over $10 million, and destroyed plans to finish their first album as the classic lineup since 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual. They’re now seeking damages and for Farrell to cover the band’s outstanding bills from the cancellation.
“The Band can no longer function as a result of the Defendant’s conduct,” the complaint reads. “The physical, emotional, and financial harms Defendant has wrought have deeply impacted the Plaintiffs, their families, and their loved ones, and it is time for Defendant to face the consequences of his actions.”
Farrell’s attorney, Miles Cooley, called the suit “baseless,” accusing the band of launching a “transparent attempt to control the narrative.” He also referred to it as part of a pattern, saying, “This is yet another clear example of the group uniting to isolate and bully frontman Perry Farrell.”
Hours later, Farrell hit back with a countersuit of his own, accusing his Jane’s Addiction bandmates of assault, battery, emotional distress and breach of contract. Farrell claims the Boston fight was sparked by a “years-long bullying campaign” and alleged that Navarro and Avery escalated a situation that began when Farrell lightly body-checked Navarro over excessive volume.
“Farrell did not throw any punches,” his lawsuit claims, adding that video footage shows Navarro and Avery overreacting to a “minor body check.”
While Farrell had previously apologised for his behaviour onstage, his new legal complaint claims the trio used his mental health struggles to justify cancelling the tour and shift blame away from themselves.
Navarro, who returned for the tour after battling long COVID, is described in the suit as having physically and mentally prepared for the shows, even postponing his wedding in the process and forgoing further disability payments to go on tour. “Had Navarro not terminated the disability payments, and given his condition, Navarro likely would have received the $25,000 payments for several years,” the suit states.
It also accuses Farrell of erratic behaviour, intoxication during performances, and overruling decisions of the band to “selfishly [make] everything about himself and [his wife] Etty.” In one instance, Etty reportedly told the rest of the band, “the Band was ‘not a democracy’.” The complaint also alleges that the Jane’s Addiction reunion tour launch in Las Vegas was almost derailed after they objected to Farrell’s insistence they play footage of Etty and other dancers during the show.
What’s left of the reunion is a mess of unpaid fees, shelved music, and now, competing lawsuits. Navarro, Avery and Perkins had hopes of a genuine revival, but as the attorney representing the band Christopher Frost puts it: “They did so with a fourth bandmate who was by turns unwilling or unable to perform to a reasonable standard and who repeatedly threatened to derail the tour.”
With multiple lawsuits now in motion and no plans to finish the album they started, Jane’s Addiction seems far past the point of return. As Navarro recently put it, the onstage altercation “forever destroyed the band’s life…And there’s no chance for the band to ever play together again.”
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