Jane’s Addiction Members File $10 Million Lawsuit Against Perry Farrell Over 2024 Stage Altercation

Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins filed a lawsuit against singer Perry Farrell Wednesday over Farrell’s infamous onstage altercation with Navarro that forced the cancellation of the band’s reunion tour.

Navarro, Avery and Perkins are seeking $10 million in damages, stating that’s how much they’d lost after the incident forced the cancellation. The band’s claims include intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract, while claims from Navarro specifically include allegations of assault and battery over the incident.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Wednesday and reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, comes almost exactly 10 months after Farrell had thrown a punch at Navarro during the middle of the band’s performance in Boston last September. The show abruptly ended, and the rest of their reunion tour was canceled as the group broke up.

“Plaintiffs Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins were forced to bring this action after defendant Peretz Bernstein p/k/a Perry Farrell assaulted Navarro onstage, mid-show, during the Jane’s Addiction 33-date North American reunion tour,” attorney Chris Frost wrote in the lawsuit Wednesday, adding that Farrell’s attack continued backstage. “The attack became a terminal inflection point for Jane’s Addiction (the Band) and each plaintiff.”

In the suit, first reported by Rolling Stone, the band claimed Farrell started off apologetic, but that “the narrative had quickly changed, however, to one of blame-shifting by both himself and his spouse Etty Lau Farrell.”

“This is yet another clear example of the group uniting to isolate and bully frontman Perry Farrell,” a representative for the singer said in a statement. “The timing of this baseless lawsuit is no coincidence—it was filed only 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. Just like when they released a defamatory and entirely unfounded statement about Perry’s mental health and unilaterally canceled 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.”

At the time of the cancellation last year, Navarro wrote on Instagram that “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.” 

Per the suit, to take part in the tour, Navarro gave up on receiving $25,000-per-month disability checks related to the longterm impacts of a Covid-19 infection. The band was also planning a new album to be distributed through Warner Music Group’s ADA, but with finishing the project now “impossible” because of Farrell’s conduct, “plaintiffs and defendant will potentially be on the hook personally for repayment of the advance to ADA.”

Now, however, the Band will never have their revival tour, to celebrate a new album and 40+ years of deep, complex, chart-topping recordings,” the lawsuit said. “Instead, history will remember the band as suffering a swift and painful death at the hands of Farrell’s unprovoked anger and complete lack of self-control.”