The infamous onstage altercation between Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell and other members of the band, in September 2024, is far from over. It has come to light that the two parties filed separate lawsuits on Wednesday.
Farrell filed a legal complaint — not a countersuit — against former bandmates Dave Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins, just hours after the trio sued him. In a 30-page complaint, Farrell accuses the former members of orchestrating a years-long campaign of bullying and harassment aimed at undermining him. He also alleges that he had no say in canceling their tour and breaking up the band.
In it, he says the altercation was spurred by his frustration over the other bandmembers’ “playing their instruments at a high volume so that he could not hear himself sing without blasting his own in-ear monitors at an unsafe level,” and that Navarro assaulted Farrell and his wife backstage.
Navarro, Avery and Perkins issued their lawsuit on Wednesday morning against Farrell, citing the onstage altercation between Navarro and Farrell that resulted in the cancellation of their reunion tour and, apparently, the final dissolution of the long-running alt-rock band. The band members are seeking at least $10 million from Farrell, claiming in the lawsuit that the group lost that amount due to the tour’s cancellation and the suspension of all band activities.
In a statement shared with Variety, it is noted, “This harassment escalated on September 13, 2024 to physical violence by Navarro and Avery against Farrell onstage during the Boston show and the assault of both Perry and Etty Lau Farrell backstage by Navarro. These altercations precipitated the decision by Navarro, Avery and Perkins to both call off the rest of the band’s North American tour.”
