Perry Farrell Punched Dave Navarro Again Backstage Says Jane’s Addiction Tech

Dan Cleary had a first-hand view of the fracas that brought ‘s reunion tour to an early end on September 13 in Boston as the tech for guitarist Dave Navarro and bassist Eric Avery. Cleary shared his account on the latest episode of his Rare Form Radio podcast with co-host Todd Newman and revealed frontman Perry Farrell took an extra shot at Navarro backstage after first punching the guitarist on stage.

Dan Cleary feels Jane’s Addiction will never perform again. “It’s safe to say the band … it is no more. I can’t imagine them … I know the fanbase wants this to be worked out … I personally just do not see that being a reality. That’s my personal opinion. No one has said ‘we are done,'” Dan Cleary said.

The longtime Jane’s employee then went in the backstory of what led to the incident. “I have always noticed that Perry Farrell, who is a brilliant songwriter and an integral part of the whole Jane’s everything, has always been very, very focused on production and how the show looks before anything else,” Cleary said. “When Eric Avery came back into the fold a couple of years ago there was a band agreement made,” Cleary continued and added, “they were going to be a democracy moving forward.” Dan and Todd confirmed the focus was put on the music with the production a secondary concern.

Perry Farrell preferred to have dancers accompany Jane’s Addiction on stage while Navarro and Avery weren’t into it. When Navarro rejoined after a bout with long COVID earlier this year for a tour of Europe, they went sans dancers despite immediate pushback from Farrell as per Cleary. The tech said Perry wanted to bring the dancers back for the U.S. tour with via footage he filmed that he wanted to display behind the band, but his bandmates voted against Farrell and his wife Etty Lau.

Dan Cleary said the issue with the footage came to a head just before the first show of the U.S. tour in Las Vegas on August 9. At one point, Perry Farrell quit the band and went back to his hotel leaving the crew scrambling hours before the tour opener according to Cleary. Etty Lau Farrell started screaming backstage in front a Live Nation rep, crew members and Perry’s bandmates saying the tour was over Cleary claimed.

Todd weighed in and said Avery, Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins wanted to move forward with the show in some form. Todd said Etty Lau again screamed at the three musicians about their lack of enthusiasm for the footage the Farrells filmed. Eventually, Perry Farrell came back and the show moved forward. “It took a lot of work” and “management earned their keep that day,” Cleary said of what went down in Las Vegas while not getting into details of what lured Perry back to the venue.

This all served as the backdrop for the 10-week tour and what went wrong in Boston. “I told people this one has felt weird from day one,” Cleary said of a run that wound up being five weeks before it ended early.

Dan Cleary pushed back on Etty Lau Farrell’s assertion the volume on stage led to the on-stage dust-up. Cleary said three shows were horrible — a concert in Tampa, the first of two nights in New York City and the performance in Boston. “I need to make this very very clear, and I don’t want to talk about people’s personal shit, but when Etty Farrell goes on social media and says this has to do with sound issues on stage, I have to say that’s fucking bullshit. Because the Tampa show, the New York show and the Boston show, I’m sorry, but Perry was fucked up,” Cleary said.

The four members of Jane’s Addiction assembled before the second night in NYC and hashed out why the previous concert went wrong. Cleary called the show one of the best he’s seen in his 19 years of working for Jane’s Addiction. However it all felt apart two days later in Boston. Dan Cleary said he knew immediately Perry Farrell was in bad shape when the band took the stage on September 13 and said the show was filled with miscues from the singer.

Dan Cleary recounted the moments before the fight as Perry Farrell is yelling lyrics at his bandmates. Cleary then shared not only his account of the “Ocean Size” dustup but audio of Farrell yelling “fuck these mother fuckers.” The tech was the first one on stage trying to stop Perry Farrell from causing any more damage. “Eric gets him in a headlock and Perry is still flailing away,” Cleary added. “Eric punches Perry … two body shots.”

The tech then revealed what went down backstage. “After the altercation that’s on video, Perry punches Dave in the face again back stage,” Cleary revealed. He played a recording of the additional melee which happened after Navarro yelled “What the fuck was that you motherfucker?” at Perry Farrell. “I’m never playing with you again you piece of shit,” the guitarist screamed at which point Perry took a swing at Navarro.

Dan Cleary and Todd Newman spent the last half hour of the episode discussing the aftermath of the incident. Watch the “Boston Beatdown” episode of Rare Form Radio below: