Perry Farrell assaulted Dave Navarro during JANE’S ADDICTION‘s concert earlier tonight (Friday, September 13) at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts.
The incident happened late in JANE’S ADDICTION‘s set as the band was finishing the song “Ocean Size”. Farrell, who was reportedly mumbling lyrics most of night, seemingly drunk or high, aggressively bumped shoulders with Navarro and got in the guitarist’s face and swore at him, as a confused Dave looked at him asking what was going on. Navarro eventually stopped playing and put a hand up to Farrell‘s chest. Then the singer appeared to throw a punch at Navarro before being held back by a roadie and JANE’S ADDICTION bassist Eric Avery. The latter proceeded to do his best to restrain Perry with a bear hug along with members of JANE’S ADDICTION‘s road crew who surrounded Farrell and forced the singer offstage.
After Farrell was physically removed from the stage, the rest of JANE’S ADDICTION — including drummer Stephen Perkins, who was celebrating his 57th birthday — stepped to the front to give each other a hug and show their appreciation to the crowd.
Navarro, who appeared shocked by the sudden attack, threw a pick into the crowd before leaving the stage.
Farrell‘s wife Etty later took to her Instagram to write a long post offering “a first-person account of what happened on stage” in Boston.
“Clearly there had been a lot of tension and animosity between the members.. the magic that made the band so dynamic. Well, the dynamite was lit,” Etty Lau Farrell wrote.
“Perry‘s frustration had been mounting, night after night, he felt that the stage volume had been extremely loud and his voice was being drowned out by the band. Perry had been suffering from tinnitus and a sore throat every night. But when the audience in the first row, started complaining up to Perry cussing at him that the band was planning too loud and that they couldn’t hear him, Perry lost it.”
She added: “The band started the song ‘Ocean’ before Perry was ready and did the count off. The stage volume was so loud at that point, that Perry couldn’t hear pass the boom and the vibration of the instruments and by the end of the song, he wasn’t singing, he was screaming just be to be heard.”
As for the onstage altercation, Etty wrote: “While Dave was keeping Perry at arm’s length to de-escalate the situation, [roadie] Dan rushed over to de-escalate as well by holding Perry back. Dave walked away to take his guitar off. Eric walked up to Perry, upstage, in the dark, behind Dan, put Perry in a headlock and punched him in the stomach three times. Kevin, crewmember with a long hair with long hair pulled Eric away. Then Eric nonchalant walked off to the front of the stage to apologize to audience for the show ended early.”
In the aftermath, “Dave still looked handsome and cool in the middle of a fight,” Etty added. “Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour – he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried. Eric, well he either didn’t understand what descalation meant or took advantage of the situation and got in a few cheap shots on Perry.”
