The Truth About Dave Navarro And Perry Farrell's Relationship

It was toward the end of Jane's Addiction's set at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston on September 13, 2024, when lead singer Perry Farrell suddenly attacked guitarist Dave Navarro. Farrell pushed and then punched Navarro in the chest before being dragged off the stage by the band's crew and bassist Eric Avery. The incident ended the reunion tour and became just one more episode in the tragic real-life story of Jane's Addiction that has included substance abuse, multiple breakups, and at least one other onstage scuffle involving Farrell and Navarro.

Jane's Addiction began its rise to fame in Los Angeles in the late 1980s and early 1990s with a unique sound that combined punk, psychedelia, hard rock, and a touch of artsy sleaze in songs like "Jane Says," "Been Caught Stealing," and "Stop." Farrell and Navarro became the two most prominent members of the band. But their relationship has had its ups and downs over the last 30-plus years they've known each other.

Perry Farrell was born Peretz Bernstein in Queens, New York in 1959. After the break up of his LA band Psi Com, he soon began playing with bassist Eric Avery, and by 1986, they were in need of a drummer and guitarist. Avery introduced Farrell to Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins at a loft party. The pair were in a metal band together, and Jane's Addiction and its unique sound quickly solidified after they joined the group.

Farrell was eight years older than Navarro, even though Ferrell's sound was rooted in punk and Navarro came from a metal background, the two clicked musically. According to "Perry Farrell: The Saga of a Hypester," the guitarist once compared the band to a sandwich, with he and Farrell being the "lettuce and tomato, mustard and mayonnaise." Farrell also felt the energy between them. "The minute [Navarro] arrived, I just had this feeling we were going to be able to do it," he told Guitar World in 2018. The group released a self-titled live album in 1987. But even before completing its first studio album, "Nothing's Shocking," internal tensions began to bubble up, made worse when Farrell pushed for more of the band's publishing rights.

During the recording of 1988's "Nothing's Shocking," the band briefly broke up over Perry Farrell's insistence on a larger percentage. "If one guy is saying that he is more important than the others, that's going to drive a wedge," Dave Navarro told Billboard in 2018. Warner Brothers had to mediate the issue, which resulted in Farrell receiving more money. Navarro was incensed enough to wear a T-shirt with "12%" written on it — his cut of the publishing deal — during one concert.

Navarro and Farrell finished recording their parts for the album without the other being present in the studio. "I remember recording my vocals without the band," Farrell told Classic Rock. "There was already a strain and a separation beginning to happen." The album eventually sold more than a million copies, helping to establish Jane's Addiction as a group on the rise. Behind the scenes, member dynamics and Navarro's and Farrell's drug use began to tear it apart.

By 1991, a year after Jane's Addiction's second studio album, "Ritual de lo Habitual," had cemented its place in the industry by going platinum, the band was imploding. A brutal touring schedule and Dave Navarro's and Perry Farrell's substance use issues had wreaked havoc on the group. Then Navarro attempted to get sober while Farrell continued using, which also drove them apart. The guitarist also started to feel like he was losing his bearings being in a huge rock band.

"There's definitely a tension and an inner struggle within the band and myself, as far as that goes," Navarro told Spin in 1991, "because as much as I love playing live and producing albums with this band, on the other side I am just as excited about having it end." Things came to a head onstage that summer. The band was performing at the first day of Lollapalooza — the traveling musical extravaganza masterminded by Farrell — in Phoenix, Arizona in July 1991. Toward the end of the show, Navarro reportedly began acting erratically and hit Farrell with his guitar before throwing it out into the crowd. He blamed his drug use and the event. "That was the opening day of Lollapalooza '91 and it was a complete catastrophe," he told The Guardian in 2003. By the fall of 1991, Jane's Addiction had stopped making music together.

In September 1991, during a Jane's Addiction show in Honolulu, Hawaii, Perry Farrell stripped naked and declared the band was breaking up. "Well, this is the end," he told the 2,000 fans in attendance (via the Austin American-Statesman). Navarro blamed the group's demise on Farrell's behavior and their drug use. "What's unusual is that we never talked about it," Navarro told Guitar World. "I know that I went home and slammed a bunch of coke and heroin, and I know those guys did too, and we never picked up a phone again." Farrell cited creative differences between himself and the other members of Jane's Addiction.

The group would reform and break up several times over the years, with the reconciliation coming in 1997, echoing Navarro and Farrell's personal relationship that continued to wax and wane. In one telling episode, Navarro's guitar tech, Dan Cleary, made a Facebook post in the mid-2000s that angered Farrell, who wanted to fire him over it. Navarro stuck up for Cleary, and Farrell threatened to kick the guitar player out of the band over the situation.

Not long before the September 2024 incident involving Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro, the guitarist discussed the volatile nature of Jane's Addiction with Louisville Public Media. "We've broken up 10 times," Navarro said. "No wonder, we're crazy." Farrell's onstage behavior in Boston left the future of Jane's Addiction once again in question along with Ferrell's relationship with Navarro. The guitarist, in a joint statement with Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins, posted on his Instagram page that Farrell's mental health issues forced the band to cancel its tour. "Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative," they wrote. "We hope that he will find the help he needs."

Farrell's wife, Etty Lau Farrell, blamed her husband's behavior on his frustration with having his vocals drowned out by the rest of the band, among other issues, that ended with him hitting Navarro. "Dave still looked handsome and cool in the middle of a fight," she wrote on Instagram. "Perry was a crazed beast for the next half an hour — he finally did not calm down, but did breakdown and cried and cried." Farrell later publicly apologized to Navarro, who seems to be contemplating the future. "Perhaps it's simpler to recognize when something is gone and learn from the magical lesson of grief rather than avoid it and remain in a consistent state of dissatisfaction," he wrote on Instagram.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.