Nine months have passed since the final gig of Jane’s Addiction’s abortive comeback and guitarist Dave Navarro has decided he’s ready to talk about what happened that evening in Boston last September.
It was the night frontman Perry Farrell physically assaulted Navarro onstage, effectively ending the band’s career together. In an interview with Guitar Player, Navarro said, not surprisingly, that it was the least favourite gig of his career.
“I have to speak in broad strokes here, because there are other individuals involved,” he says by way of a precis, “and it’s still very tender and unresolved.”
“There was an altercation onstage, and all the hard work and dedication and writing and hours in the studio, and picking up and leaving home and crisscrossing the country and Europe and trying to overcome my illness (Navarro has been suffering from Long Covid) - it all came to a screeching halt and forever destroyed the band’s life. And there's no chance for the band to ever play together again.”
The irony, according to the guitarist, is that the spirit within the Jane’s’ camp was actually good prior to that show. “I’ll just say that the experience prior to that gig, when we were in Europe and gelling, really, for the first time — because at our ages, in our 50s and 60s, everybody’s done what they’re gonna do, and we weren’t competitive with each other — we were getting along. There was no ego issue; it was just four guys making great music, just like we did in the beginning. I was just us on a stage, with people going fucking crazy.”
“And that gig, September 13th, in Boston, ended all of that. And for that reason, that is my least favourite gig that I have ever played.”
Navarro seems genuinely saddened by what happened. “I think that’s a pretty democratic way, you know, a pretty bipartisan way to go about it. You know, just the real sadness is the loss of that previous…” he says, trailing off for the moment. “The experiences are there, but the potential of having those types of experiences ended that night. And so, you know… it is what it is.”
Perry Farrell apologised for his behaviour after the incident, and has been keeping a low profile since. As for the other members, in January Billboard reported that bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins have been recording new music with Navarro. It’s not clear yet whether this will be released under the name ‘Jane’s Addiction’, another moniker or indeed if it will even be released at all.
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