Jane's Addiction Lawsuits | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Oh, if we get to it, So we'll see if we have time today or not. But there was an interesting story in the news. If you haven't seen this, he should take a moment and google it, because when it initially happened, we talked about it on the show. You remember when Jane's Addiction on their reunion tour they were playing that they they're playing in Boston, I forget what.

0:18 Speaker 2: Yea what venue?

0:21 Speaker 1: And a fight A fight broke out not in the crowd, but on stage between Perry Ferrell and Dave Navarro or Perry was really the one fighting. Navarro was just kind of trying to defend himself and back up. And now there is a lawsuit members of Jane's Addiction suing Perry Ferrell over that, And maybe we'll talk about that later in the show, if we get to it. But it's just an interesting, interesting story. People who don't understand this, or who just don't know who might be outside the business that And I know a lot of industry people listen to the show, but people outside the business, I might not realize this once something like that happens.

1:01 Speaker 1: I mean, millions of dollars are at stake, right, so much money is lost if you're so safe for example, and not to take sides necessarily, but if you're Dave Navarro or one of the other members of Jane's Addiction, and you're on this tour or you're involved in the tour in any way on a business level, and all of a sudden the tour is canceled for whatever reason, that's a lot of money that is lost, not only an income, but it really screws things up for everybody involved, promoters and management and anybody who has any kind of fiduciary commitment involved here or connection with what's happening.

1:43 Speaker 2: It screws over a lot of people.

1:47 Speaker 1: So so now there's a lawsuit against Perry Ferrell because he's the one who wrecked everything. And again I know there's he and his wife have explanations and rationalizations for why he was being behaving the way that he was and and what what caused his anger and him to lose his temper on stage. But but you know, a lot of money gets lost. I remember right after that happened, right after the fight happened.

2:12 Speaker 2: I can't remember his.

2:13 Speaker 1: Name now, but there's a guy he's based in Boston. I think who I don't remember the name of his podcast either. It's funny too, because at the time I kind of made a mental note of it. I was like, geez, I gotta I gotta pay more attention to this guy because he does really good content. Now I can't even remember his name, but uh, he was there working as he was on that tour, I think working as a sound tech.

2:38 Speaker 2: And I don't think he was a sound guy.

2:40 Speaker 1: I think he was he was either the guitar tech or the bass tech, and so he saw the whole thing happen. He witnessed the whole thing, so he kind of told his version of events from up close.

2:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that was I mean, I don't know if you want to get too far into it, but.

2:59 Speaker 1: No, no, no, because we don't have time, but we'll we'll come back to it. But so we did reference this at the top of the show and just kind of touched on it a little bit. But to explore this further for a couple of minutes. This is from the ap Jane's Addiction bandmates sue each other over on stage fight that ended tour, and that's something that I missed when we were.

3:18 Speaker 2: Talking about it earlier.

3:19 Speaker 1: I was talking about how the other members suing Perry Ferrell because of what happened, but Farrell apparently is countersuing and what.

3:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, So.

3:29 Speaker 1: Here's what the AP is saying. The members of alt rock band Jane's Addiction filed dueling lawsuits Wednesday. So this just happened a few days ago over singing singer Perry Ferrell's on stage scuffle with guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert last year, prompting the cancelation of the rest of their reunion tour and planned album. I didn't even know they were planning to make an album.

3:51 Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

3:52 Speaker 1: Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins, and bassist Eric Avery sued Ferrell in La Superior Court, alleging that Farrell's behavior on the tour had ran changed from erratic to out of control, culminating in the assault where Ferrell punched Navarro both on stage and backstage. And of course we only got to see the video of what happened on stage, but if you haven't seen it, you can find it on YouTube very easily. The suit says the three bandmates are seeking at least ten million dollars because, as I said earlier, when we touched on it.

4:20 Speaker 1: When something like this happens, and a big tour, even a small tour. You know, everybody who has any sort of fudiciary monetary involvement on a business level. Anybody, whether it's bandmates, whether it's the crew, whether it's management, the promoters, you know, anybody. Everybody takes a loss when things go wrong. So their lawsuit says, this is the three band members who are suing Perry Ferrell. Quote with a series of swift blows, he single handedly destroyed the name, reputation, trademark, and viability of the band and those who built it.

4:59 Speaker 1: Unquote Farrell and his wife Eddie E t t Y, Eddie Lu, Eddie Law, Eddie Lao Lau, Eddie Lao Ferrel. I don't know how to suit the three bandmates. I should just say I don't know how to her name. I'm just going to refer to her as E by her first initial. Ferrell and his wife E sued the three bandmates in the same court later Wednesday, blaming them for the conflict and the violence. That's all their fault. Really, yeah, apparently the lawsuit. Here's what the lawsuit says, quote Navarro, Avery and Perkins apparently decided that Jane's Addictions decades of success should be jettisoned in pursuit of a year's long bullying campaign against Ferrell, involving harassing him on stage during performances, including, among other tactics, trying to undermine him by playing their instruments at a high volume so that he could not hear himself sing unquote.

6:04 Speaker 1: Interesting thing about that, and that's the whole Oh no, actually there's a little more to the article. But interesting thing about that. So that podcast that I was talking about earlier, where I can't remember the name of the podcast or the guy's name, but it's one of the crew guys who worked for Jane's Addiction, He did say that that was something that Perry Ferrell had complained about, and that that seemed to be what was making him angry on stage, is that the rest of the band was too loud. But in this era of in ear monitors and everything, the guy who said who was saying that that was he didn't agree with Perry Ferrell.

6:39 Speaker 1: He said there was no reason why anything should have been too loud for him to be able to hear himself in his innear monitors and that's not really a problem. Especially you know again in twenty twenty five, everybody's got in ear monitors. You don't even need stage volume. And this is something again people outside the industry don't know.

6:56 Speaker 2: You can.

6:57 Speaker 1: I mean, those amps can be turned down to almost well, yeah, whatever's coming out of the PA is what the what the crowd is hearing and you know you're hearing whatever is in your your monitors, your monitor mixes't.

7:13 Speaker 3: They have their own volume control?

7:14 Speaker 2: I would imagine, Oh and they're in your monitors.

7:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, you can. You know, the sound guy can mix. You're can if it's a sophisticated system, which I assume they have they had on this tour. Yeah, I mean the the the sound guy, or you've got multiple sound guys in a case like this, right, and you might have one guy who's dedicated specifically to the monitor mix where he can program. This is why if you go on YouTube sometimes you can find you can actually find the monitor mixes that people have posted from different tours. For example, when the whole thing with Motley Crue, well, lots of things have gone down with Motley Crue over the years, but when when mc marr's left and uh, they're replaced him with John five, and that there were a lot of actors that mcmars was making accusations about, oh, the band doesn't really play in this and that, and how he carried them the whole time and whatever.

8:06 Speaker 3: The thing about the click track.

8:08 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And then all these these in ear monitor recordings started popping up on YouTube, so you could actually hear what mc mars was hearing in his monitor. There was a recording of it, and you could hear what the mix was. Really interesting stuff if if you're someone like me who finds that stuff, I find that stuff fascinating, but not everyone does. I'm probably getting way too into the weeds for some people.

8:33 Speaker 3: I don't understand why anybody would poo pooh on anybody doing something that makes them be able to play better, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, and I really I feel like his lawsuits pretty forrivolous for.

8:44 Speaker 2: My Barry Ferrell's lawsuit, Yeah, I mean, I mean.

8:48 Speaker 3: Well, the video. Anybody watching the video is like, oh yeah, and he literally ruined everything.

8:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that video of what happened on stage is it's you know, it's hard to watch that and think, oh, uh, Navarro brought that on himself, you know what I mean, Like, like Farrell's clearly the aggressor.

9:09 Speaker 3: And it is important to remember how many people are losing money. It's not just the band absolutely, everybody.

9:15 Speaker 2: Absolutely, like I said, everybody involved gets.

9:17 Speaker 3: Her whole crew how to go home?

9:19 Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, all the.

9:20 Speaker 3: Griffs, everybody that sets up, everybody that tears down.

9:23 Speaker 1: And they're not rich. You know, the band is rich. You know, they can afford to cancel a tour.

9:27 Speaker 3: Maybe maybe not.

9:28 Speaker 2: I mean well, Perry.

9:29 Speaker 1: Ferrell certainly is, and Dave Navarro certainly is. I don't know about I don't know about Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins, but but but.

9:35 Speaker 2: They probably have money.

9:36 Speaker 3: How much of their own money is that they have to put up for any of this, like you know what I mean, Like yeah, are they paying their own hotels? Are they booking things outside for themselves? But they don't know how far the rabbit hole is going to go? Oh money gets long, so.

9:48 Speaker 1: Many people get affected. Yeah, absolutely, It says here the Farrells and the Farrells are claiming that Navarro and Avery actually assaulted them. Perry Ferrell said he was blinde sided when the other members canceled the remaining fifteen shows of the tour and broke up the band without consulting him, costing all of them a great deal of money. That is one thing I did wonder about when the tour was canceled. Is there not? I mean, I'm sure efforts were made, because again, so much money is on the line.

10:17 Speaker 1: Was there not an effort made to do some sort of maybe not, some sort of arbitraartion issues some period?

10:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, maybe it was a situation where like Navarro or the others were like, forget it, I don't even want to do this anymore. It's not worth it. Yeah, I mean, because really it's not worth it.

10:38 Speaker 1: It also says here Perry Ferrell says his bandmates to fame to him by publicly saying after the fight that he had mental health problems.

10:45 Speaker 2: Well, dude, stating the obvious.

10:47 Speaker 1: Jane's Addiction was an essential part of the LA music scene in the late nineteen eighties, with their contribution of elements of punk, goth and psychedelic sounds and culture. They became a national phenomenon with hits including Jane's Says, and been caught stealing and through their founding of the Lollapalooza tour, whose first incarnation they headlined in nineteen ninety one.

11:08 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, they were part of the foundation of that.

11:11 Speaker 1: They started Lollapalooza. I did not know that Barry Ferrell started Lallapalooza really but not. Oh yeah, yeah he still I think he still owns it. He might have sold it, I'm not sure. The group broke up soon after, but returned several times in various incarnations. The twenty twenty four tour was the first time the original members had played together since twenty ten. Ferrell missed all seven of the group's rehearsals in the run up to the tour. His bandmate's lawsuit alleges and his behavior during the early shows range from a radicked out of control and by the way, that part the guy who did the podcast, who was on the crew, he said all He confirmed all of that.

11:44 Speaker 1: The lawsuit says, quote he struggled night tonight amid public concern for his well being and apparent intoxication, Perry forgot lyrics, lost his place in songs he had sung since the nineteen eighties, and mumbled rants as he drank from a wine bottle on stage. Unquote, oh, rock and roll and on brand, but not necessarily helped. And he's a sixty five year old man. So it's like, let's chill on the partying right. The lawsuit says Ferrell was given many solutions to the volume problem, none of which he followed.

12:15 Speaker 1: Then, on September fourth, September thirteen, at Leaderbank Pavilion in Boston, in front of four thousand fans, videos partially captured Farrel lunging at Navarrow. Okay, so we all know that part. Farrell alleges that when he was being restrained by a crew member, Avery punched him in the kidneys, and that both Avery and Navarro assaulted him and his wife backstage. Shortly after the fight. Ferrell, in a statement, apologized to his bandmates, especially Navarrow, for an excusable behavior.

12:39 Speaker 2: The bandmates.

12:40 Speaker 1: Lawyer Christopher Frost pointed to that apology in response to the feral lawsuit, along with e E's acknowledgment at the time and Instagram posts that her husband had clearly been the aggressor. Frost said in a statement, quote, if there is a question about what to believe, you can believe the video that we've all watched. The complaint from Paar, including his account of events backstage after the September thirteenth show, is revisionist history. It won't stand unquote. Both lawsuits allege assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and reach of contract, among other things.

13:16 Speaker 1: According to the other band members lawsuit quote now, the band will never have their revival tour to celebrate the album, the new album and forty plus years of deep, complex start topping recordings, and said history will remember the band is suffering a swift and painful death at the hands of Ferrell's unprovoked anger and complete lack of self control.

13:37 Speaker 2: So there you go. Sad ending that is.

13:41 Speaker 1: That is It is a sad ending to you know, a legendary band. But I don't I doubt there's any coming back from this. I mean, never say never, never say never.

13:50 Speaker 3: But you know, like he's got drinking issues going on, Like who wants to work with that?

13:54 Speaker 1: Like I said, he's he's a sixty five year old man. You know, when you're twenty five years old and you're already and too much and whatnot, people kind of give you a pass, you know, and if you're a rock star You might get away with it at thirty five, but when you're sixty five, it's like chill, dude, God, just you know you're in You're in an incredible position today too.

14:14 Speaker 3: People aren't into the whole drinking, drug and party and thing that made up the eighties, right, the late the seventies.

14:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, the sixties, not as much, certainly.

14:24 Speaker 2: Yeah.

14:24 Speaker 1: No.

14:24 Speaker 3: In fact, today's kids drink less.

14:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, that is true.

14:28 Speaker 3: That well, that's why they're increase in the amount of non alcoholic beverages that are offered, and you see places that have full on mocktail menus because the generations now don't. And I don't think that's a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.

14:41 Speaker 2: Nope, nope, I agree. I agree.