Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell has apologized to bandmates and fans for “inexcusable behavior,” hours after news broke that the second half of the group’s reunion tour was being canceled after a fight broke out on stage Friday.
In a short statement shared with Variety by a representative, Farrell said: “This weekend has been incredibly difficult and after having the time and space to reflect, it is only right that I apologize to my bandmates, especially Dave Navarro, fans, family and friends for my actions during Friday’s show. Unfortunately, my breaking point resulted in inexcusable behavior, and I take full accountability for how I chose to handle the situation.”
Farrell does not go into what led to his “breaking point” in Boston, although there has been considerable speculation among fans about just what went haywire before the singer assaulted Navarro on stage, leading to his being tackled and pulled off-stage by Eric Avery and two crew members.
Farrell’s apology follows an earlier statement given by Navarro on behalf of himself and the other two band members that cited the singer’s alleged “mental healthy difficulties” for leading to the on-stage fracas and subsequent tour cancellation.
The remainder of the tour was officially called off Monday morning. A statement on the group’s social media said refunds would be automatically issued, except in the case of secondary-market resellers like StubHub, for which buyers will need to initiate contact to get their money back.
Navarro posted a more detailed statement on behalf of himself and the two other members of the group, writing, “Due to a continuing pattern of behavior and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour. Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs.”
Navarro continued, “We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis. Our hearts are broken.” The statement is signed “Dave, Eric and Stephen (Perkins).”
Altogether, 15 dates are being canceled — less than a month after Live Nation announced that seven dates were being added to the end of the tour (which also featured Love & Rockets as co-headliner). The canceled shows were in Bridgeport, Toronto, Rochester Hills, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Huntsville. St. Louis, Denver, Sandy, Seattle, Portland, Reno, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The final show was to have taken place Oct. 16 at L.A.’s YouTube Theater, where the tour already touched down for one date earlier this summer.
Prior to calling it quits, the group did make it through 17 shows… or almost make it through, in the case of the fateful, aborted gig Friday at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion, which fell apart dramatically with just a few songs to go in the set.
Navarro was not the first in the Jane’s camp to suggest that Farrell was dealing with serious mental health struggles. On Saturday, that suggestion came from Farrell’s wife, Etty Lau Farrell, who wrote in a comment on her Instagram page that her husband was “spinning out” and added that his current state represented “the most devastating mental health of all” that she had seen since being with him since 1997.
In her initial Instagram post Saturday, Etty Lau Farrell was complimentary toward Navarro for his cool response to her husband’s aggression — but she had less kind words for bassist Eric Avery, who she said put Farrell in a headlock and delivered blows she described as “cheap shots” once the scuffle started. Nonetheless, Navarro and Avery seem to be of one accord, along with Jenkins, in their ultimate response to what went down.
Many observers have wondered if alcohol was the culprit behind Farrell’s aggression on stage, since at least two reviews of the group’s shows this month described the singer “chugging” from the bottle while on stage, as he has been known to. But Etty Lau Farrell downplayed that idea in her Instagram comments, writing, “Unfortunately, that bottle of wine is more of a prop nowadays. I have gotten angry at him multiple times, that he would leave a beautiful bottle of wine 3/4 full on the stage, when I would’ve loved a glass after the show.”
In the aftermath, Etty wrote, “Dave still looked handsome and cool in the middle of a fight. Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did break down and cried and cried. Eric, well, he either didn’t understand what de-(es)calation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.” At the end of her post, she added hashtags that read, in part: “A man can only be pushed so far.” “Dave took the high road.” “Cheap shot.” “Mother eagle.”
More detailed explanations for what led Farrell to his “breaking point” have yet to come. But fans who have dissected video footage from earlier in the performance said that tensions seemed to exist throughout the set, and that it seemed as if Farrell was sometimes landing at a different point in the song than other members — leading to the suspicion that maybe the singer became angry during the final number because he thought Navarro was breaking in on his vocal parts with his guitar solo.
Prior to the breakdown, the Jane’s Addiction tour — their first with the original members in 14 years — had gotten mixed reviews, with some off nights attributed to Farrell’s sometimes errant vocals… but also some gigs in which all four members were said to be firing on all cylinders, thrilling fans who thought they would never see the quarter back together and in top form. For fans in the dozen-plus cities the tour never made it to, that promise will have to be put off again.
Love & Rockets issued its own succinct statement about the co-headlining outing being scotched: “Hi all! We would have loved to have completed the rest of the dates on the tour with Jane’s Addiction but unfortunately the matter is out of our hands. Information regarding refunds will be issued shortly. With love…”
