The show ended abruptly after the fight between both band members
Jane’s Addiction’s recent tour, which marked the band’s return to its original lineup, ended abruptly in September after an altercation between the singer Perry Farrell and the guitarist Dave Navarro.
The confrontation between the two members, which was seen and recorded on stage at their show in Boston, escalated into a violent fight behind the curtain, as revealed Dan Clearywho has been the group’s guitar and bass technician for 17 years.
The man shared details of the incident in a podcast episode Rare Form Radiowhere he spoke with Todd Newmana close friend of Navarro. According to Cleary, what happened in Boston was the climax of growing tensions within the band, who had recently released their single ‘Imminent Redemption’.
After the incident in Boston, Jane’s Addiction chose to suspend all their activities and cancel their planned tour. (Photo Amy Harris/Invision/KeynoteUSA, file)
The coach recalled the scandal as “one of the craziest things I have ever been involved in in my life.” Dan also confirmed that the band’s future seemed to have ended there.
Cleary explained that Farrell had been irritable from the beginning of the Boston concert. The tension came to a head during the performance of ‘Ocean Size’when Farrell began behaving erratically.
Apparently, Navarro tried to correct the performance of one of the songs and this made Farrell explode. “What (Navarro) did is say, ‘I’m going to take my solo again, because you just sang about it a minute ago’… And Perry immediately got irritated.”
Cleary, who has worked with the band for 17 years, told more information about the conflict in the Rare Form Radio podcast (EFE/Kiko Huesca)
Seeing that the guitarist, together with the bassist Eric Avery and the drummer Stephen Perkinswere meeting to discuss how to continue the show, Farrell mistakenly assumed they were plotting against him, which fueled his paranoia.
Farrell, enraged, began to shout in the direction of his companions. “Everything went to waste”Cleary said, comparing the singer’s behavior to “the transformation of someone into a werewolf.”
The concert ended abruptly, and although the tension was evident on stage, the worst happened behind the scenes. According to Cleary, the fight between Farrell and Navarro continued in a physical manner.
In an audio recording obtained by the technician, Navarro can be heard confronting Farrell after the show, telling him: “What the hell was that, son of a bitch?”. Then sounds of physical blows are heard, Variety reports.
Eric Avery, the band’s bassist, intervened to defend Navarro and also hit Farrell, prompting criticism from Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell (Capture: X/JamBase)
“That was Perry hitting Dave,” Cleary confirmed, adding that Farrell managed to land a punch on Navarro’s face. “You can hear it, a right hand to the left side of Dave’s face.”
Dan regretted the situation. “I felt like I was watching a little kid being bullied in the schoolyard for something he didn’t do.”said.
Avery also intervened, defending Navarro during the fight. According to Cleary, the bassist punched Farrell twice in an attempt to protect his partner, something that Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrelllater described as “low blows.”
Cleary, however, rejected this claim, defending Avery’s intervention: “I’m sorry, if someone attacks my friend and I defend him, those are not hits without justification.”.
The Boston incident was not an isolated event, as several problems had arisen in Jane’s Addiction in the previous weeks. According to Clearly, Farrell had threatened to leave everything before the first concert of the North American tour in vegasbut was persuaded to stay by his managers.
The conflicts, according to the guitar technician, had arisen from creative differences and Farrell’s perception of control of the show. While the rest of the band wanted to focus on the music and keep the set simple, Farrell insisted on including visual elements, such as dancers, including his wife Etty, something the other members did not support.
After Farrell publicly apologized, the band confirmed that they would be taking an indefinite hiatus (Instagram/@janesaddiction)
Cleary also denied the version of “technical problems” as something that caused the lead vocalist to lose his role, as some have suggested. “I have to say that is complete rubbish. Perry was completely out of it. “I didn’t know what part of the songs I was in, I didn’t remember the lyrics and I sang words from other songs.”he asserted.
For now, the band decided to cancel the rest of their tour and announced an indefinite hiatus, citing Farrell’s mental health issues.
In a public apology, the singer acknowledged his “inexcusable behavior” and said he assumed ““full responsibility for how I chose to handle the situation.”. Etty Lau Farrell, for her part, added that her husband was seeking help from specialists to recover and return to music in the future.
On September 18, after revealing the indefinite hiatus of their activities, Jane’s Addiction released the single “True Love” via Spotify, a song that had been presented in an unprecedented way in London earlier this year.
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