Jane's Addiction has announced that it is canceling its current North American tour following an on-stage altercation between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro during their Boston show on Friday night.
A statement posted to Navarro's Instagram page was signed by him and bandmates Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins and read: “Due to singer Perry Farrell's continuing pattern of behavior and mental health issues, we have concluded that we have no choice but to cancel our current U.S. tour. Concerns for his personal health and safety, as well as our own, left us with no other choice. We hope that he finds the help he needs.”
Navarro said the band members are “deeply sorry” that they can't perform in front of their fans, but “we cannot find a solution that will ensure a safe environment onstage or consistently provide a great performance night after night. It's heartbreaking.”
Footage from the Boston show shows Pharrell shoving and punching Navarro before staff members restrain him. He is escorted offstage, and the show ends.
Pharrell's wife, Etty Lau, later posted on Instagram that Pharrell “felt like the volume on stage was so loud I was getting drowned out by the band.”
She said Pharrell was also suffering from a sore throat, after he apologised to the audience at a New York concert earlier last week, saying: “There's something wrong with my voice. All of a sudden, I can't make a sound.”
The new hiatus will disappoint fans who were looking forward to seeing Jane's Addiction's classic-era lineup reunite for the first time in decades, with Avery returning this year for the first time since 1991 and Navarro also returning after a multi-year hiatus due to the extended COVID-19 pandemic.
In a five-star review of the reunited band's London show in May, The Guardian's Stevie Chick wrote, “Tonight they're playing rock not just as a show of force but as a thing of beauty, a hallmark of their sound from the past but something that they failed to pull off on their nostalgia-driven reunion tour. But now, with the classic line-up finally back together, clearly excited to be with each other, and with new songs on the way, they haven't sounded more crisp and alive in decades.”
The band was scheduled to play 12 more concerts across the United States and Canada in the coming weeks.
Jane's Addiction formed in 1985 and their first two albums, which infused hard rock with irreverent psychedelic energy, went platinum in the US. Their 2003 comeback, Strays, was a Top 10 hit and was followed in 2011 by The Great Escape Artist.
