Jane’s Addiction Sues Lead Singer Perry Farrell

Jane’s Addiction is suing lead singer Perry Farrell over an onstage altercation last year that they claim derailed their tour and a planned album.

Jane’s Addiction members Eric Avery, Dave Navarro, and Stephen Perkins have filed a lawsuit against lead singer Perry Farrell. Farrell’s onstage altercation with Navarro last fall, they claim, cost them a planned album and derailed their North American tour.

The band is seeking at least $10 million, which they allege is the amount they lost as a result of the tour’s cancellation and suspension of the band’s activities.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses Farrell of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract. Navarro is also suing Farrell for assault and battery following the incident in September last year, when Farrell threw a punch at the guitarist during a performance in Boston.

Following the September incident, the band cancelled the remaining dates of their reunion tour. Navarro also released a statement at the time on behalf of himself and the rest of the band sans Farrell, concluding they must discontinue the tour over their bandmate’s “continuing pattern of behavior and […] mental health difficulties.” Farrell later issued an apology to his bandmates and his fans, in which he took “full accountability” for his actions.

According to Farrell’s attorneys, the lawsuit is a “clear example of the group uniting to isolate and bully” Farrell, and was only filed “after they caught wind of legal action coming from our side.”

“It’s a transparent attempt to control the narrative and present themselves as the so-called ‘good guys’—a move that’s both typical and predictable,” Farrell’s lawyers continue.

“Just like when they released a defamatory and entirely unfounded statement about Perry’s mental health and unilaterally cancelled the remaining tour dates without his input, they’re once again scrambling to get ahead of the truth in a desperate effort to save face.”

Now, in response to his former bandmates’ lawsuit, Farrell has filed his own lawsuit, citing Navarro’s loud playing that night as part of “a longstanding pattern of harassment and bullying” he has suffered at the hands of the rest of the band. The complaint also references “the various passive aggressive, or sometimes just aggressive ‘tricks’ they would use to undermine his performances on stage.”

Firing back, an attorney for Navarro, Avery, and Perkins issued a response, calling Farrell’s account of events in September as “revisionist history.”

“If there is a question about what to believe, you can believe the video we’ve all watched,” he wrote. “You can believe Perry himself when he apologized to the band.”