Jane's Addiction Lawsuits | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Oh, if we get to it, So we'll see if

0:02 Speaker 1: we have time today or not. But there was an

0:04 Speaker 1: interesting story in the news. If you haven't seen this,

0:06 Speaker 1: he should take a moment and google it, because when

0:09 Speaker 1: it initially happened, we talked about it on the show.

0:12 Speaker 1: You remember when Jane's Addiction on their reunion tour they

0:15 Speaker 1: 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,

0:24 Speaker 1: but on stage between Perry Ferrell and Dave Navarro or

0:29 Speaker 1: Perry was really the one fighting. Navarro was just kind

0:31 Speaker 1: of trying to defend himself and back up. And now

0:35 Speaker 1: there is a lawsuit members of Jane's Addiction suing Perry

0:40 Speaker 1: Ferrell over that, And maybe we'll talk about that later

0:44 Speaker 1: in the show, if we get to it. But it's

0:46 Speaker 1: just an interesting, interesting story. People who don't understand this,

0:52 Speaker 1: or who just don't know who might be outside the

0:54 Speaker 1: business that And I know a lot of industry people

0:56 Speaker 1: listen to the show, but people outside the business, I

0:59 Speaker 1: might not realize this once something like that happens. I mean,

1:02 Speaker 1: millions of dollars are at stake, right, so much money

1:05 Speaker 1: is lost if you're so safe for example, and not

1:09 Speaker 1: to take sides necessarily, but if you're Dave Navarro or

1:14 Speaker 1: one of the other members of Jane's Addiction, and you're

1:16 Speaker 1: on this tour or you're involved in the tour in

1:19 Speaker 1: any way on a business level, and all of a

1:22 Speaker 1: sudden the tour is canceled for whatever reason, that's a

1:26 Speaker 1: lot of money that is lost, not only an income,

1:30 Speaker 1: but it really screws things up for everybody involved, promoters

1:34 Speaker 1: and management and anybody who has any kind of fiduciary

1:40 Speaker 1: 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

1:50 Speaker 1: he's the one who wrecked everything. And again I know

1:54 Speaker 1: there's he and his wife have explanations and rationalizations for

1:59 Speaker 1: why he was being behaving the way that he was

2:01 Speaker 1: and and what what caused his anger and him to

2:05 Speaker 1: lose his temper on stage. But but you know, a

2:08 Speaker 1: lot of money gets lost. I remember right after that happened,

2:12 Speaker 1: 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.

2:18 Speaker 1: I think who I don't remember the name of his

2:22 Speaker 1: podcast either. It's funny too, because at the time I

2:24 Speaker 1: kind of made a mental note of it. I was like, geez,

2:26 Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta pay more attention to this guy

2:28 Speaker 1: because he does really good content. Now I can't even

2:30 Speaker 1: remember his name, but uh, he was there working as

2:35 Speaker 1: he was on that tour, I think working as a

2:37 Speaker 1: 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

2:41 Speaker 1: or the bass tech, and so he saw the whole

2:44 Speaker 1: thing happen. He witnessed the whole thing, so he kind

2:47 Speaker 1: of told his version of events from up close.

2:53 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that was I mean, I don't know

2:57 Speaker 3: 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

3:01 Speaker 1: we'll come back to it. But so we did reference

3:04 Speaker 1: this at the top of the show and just kind

3:05 Speaker 1: of touched on it a little bit. But to explore

3:07 Speaker 1: this further for a couple of minutes. This is from

3:10 Speaker 1: the ap Jane's Addiction bandmates sue each other over on

3:15 Speaker 1: stage fight that ended tour, and that's something that I

3:17 Speaker 1: 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

3:21 Speaker 1: Ferrell because of what happened, but Farrell apparently is countersuing

3:25 Speaker 1: and what.

3:27 Speaker 2: Yeah, So.

3:29 Speaker 1: Here's what the AP is saying. The members of alt

3:32 Speaker 1: rock band Jane's Addiction filed dueling lawsuits Wednesday. So this

3:36 Speaker 1: just happened a few days ago over singing singer Perry

3:39 Speaker 1: Ferrell's on stage scuffle with guitarist Dave Navarro at a

3:43 Speaker 1: Boston concert last year, prompting the cancelation of the rest

3:46 Speaker 1: of their reunion tour and planned album. I didn't even

3:49 Speaker 1: 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

3:56 Speaker 1: in La Superior Court, alleging that Farrell's behavior on the

3:59 Speaker 1: tour had ran changed from erratic to out of control,

4:02 Speaker 1: culminating in the assault where Ferrell punched Navarro both on

4:07 Speaker 1: stage and backstage. And of course we only got to

4:10 Speaker 1: see the video of what happened on stage, but if

4:11 Speaker 1: you haven't seen it, you can find it on YouTube

4:13 Speaker 1: very easily. The suit says the three bandmates are seeking

4:17 Speaker 1: at least ten million dollars because, as I said earlier,

4:19 Speaker 1: when we touched on it. When something like this happens,

4:22 Speaker 1: and a big tour, even a small tour. You know,

4:25 Speaker 1: everybody who has any sort of fudiciary monetary involvement on

4:31 Speaker 1: a business level. Anybody, whether it's bandmates, whether it's the crew,

4:35 Speaker 1: whether it's management, the promoters, you know, anybody. Everybody takes

4:41 Speaker 1: a loss when things go wrong. So their lawsuit says,

4:46 Speaker 1: this is the three band members who are suing Perry Ferrell.

4:49 Speaker 1: Quote with a series of swift blows, he single handedly

4:53 Speaker 1: destroyed the name, reputation, trademark, and viability of the band

4:58 Speaker 1: and those who built it. Unquote Farrell and his wife

5:02 Speaker 1: Eddie E t t Y, Eddie Lu, Eddie Law, Eddie

5:09 Speaker 1: Lao Lau, Eddie Lao Ferrel. I don't know how to

5:14 Speaker 1: suit the three bandmates. I should just say I don't

5:17 Speaker 1: know how to her name. I'm just going to refer

5:19 Speaker 1: to her as E by her first initial. Ferrell and

5:23 Speaker 1: his wife E sued the three bandmates in the same

5:26 Speaker 1: court later Wednesday, blaming them for the conflict and the violence.

5:30 Speaker 1: That's all their fault. Really, yeah, apparently the lawsuit. Here's

5:35 Speaker 1: what the lawsuit says, quote Navarro, Avery and Perkins apparently

5:40 Speaker 1: decided that Jane's Addictions decades of success should be jettisoned

5:45 Speaker 1: in pursuit of a year's long bullying campaign against Ferrell,

5:50 Speaker 1: involving harassing him on stage during performances, including, among other tactics,

5:56 Speaker 1: trying to undermine him by playing their instruments at a

5:59 Speaker 1: 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,

6:07 Speaker 1: actually there's a little more to the article. But interesting

6:08 Speaker 1: thing about that. So that podcast that I was talking

6:11 Speaker 1: about earlier, where I can't remember the name of the

6:13 Speaker 1: podcast or the guy's name, but it's one of the

6:14 Speaker 1: crew guys who worked for Jane's Addiction, He did say

6:19 Speaker 1: that that was something that Perry Ferrell had complained about,

6:23 Speaker 1: and that that seemed to be what was making him

6:25 Speaker 1: angry on stage, is that the rest of the band

6:29 Speaker 1: was too loud. But in this era of in ear

6:32 Speaker 1: monitors and everything, the guy who said who was saying

6:36 Speaker 1: that that was he didn't agree with Perry Ferrell. He

6:39 Speaker 1: said there was no reason why anything should have been

6:42 Speaker 1: too loud for him to be able to hear himself

6:45 Speaker 1: in his innear monitors and that's not really a problem.

6:48 Speaker 1: Especially you know again in twenty twenty five, everybody's got

6:51 Speaker 1: in ear monitors. You don't even need stage volume. And

6:53 Speaker 1: 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,

7:03 Speaker 1: whatever's coming out of the PA is what the what

7:06 Speaker 1: the crowd is hearing and you know you're hearing whatever

7:10 Speaker 1: 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

7:20 Speaker 1: can mix. You're can if it's a sophisticated system, which

7:23 Speaker 1: I assume they have they had on this tour. Yeah,

7:27 Speaker 1: I mean the the the sound guy, or you've got

7:29 Speaker 1: multiple sound guys in a case like this, right, and

7:31 Speaker 1: you might have one guy who's dedicated specifically to the

7:34 Speaker 1: monitor mix where he can program. This is why if

7:38 Speaker 1: you go on YouTube sometimes you can find you can

7:42 Speaker 1: actually find the monitor mixes that people have posted from

7:46 Speaker 1: different tours. For example, when the whole thing with Motley Crue, well,

7:51 Speaker 1: lots of things have gone down with Motley Crue over

7:53 Speaker 1: the years, but when when mc marr's left and uh,

7:58 Speaker 1: they're replaced him with John five, and that there were

8:00 Speaker 1: a lot of actors that mcmars was making accusations about, oh,

8:03 Speaker 1: the band doesn't really play in this and that, and

8:04 Speaker 1: 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

8:12 Speaker 1: recordings started popping up on YouTube, so you could actually

8:15 Speaker 1: hear what mc mars was hearing in his monitor. There

8:20 Speaker 1: was a recording of it, and you could hear what

8:21 Speaker 1: the mix was. Really interesting stuff if if you're someone

8:26 Speaker 1: like me who finds that stuff, I find that stuff fascinating,

8:29 Speaker 1: but not everyone does. I'm probably getting way too into

8:32 Speaker 1: the weeds for some people.

8:33 Speaker 3: I don't understand why anybody would poo pooh on anybody

8:36 Speaker 3: doing something that makes them be able to play better,

8:38 Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, and I really I

8:41 Speaker 3: 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,

8:53 Speaker 3: and he literally ruined everything.

8:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that video of what happened on stage is

8:59 Speaker 1: it's you know, it's hard to watch that and think, oh, uh,

9:03 Speaker 1: Navarro brought that on himself, you know what I mean, Like,

9:06 Speaker 1: like Farrell's clearly the aggressor.

9:09 Speaker 3: And it is important to remember how many people are

9:11 Speaker 3: 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.

9:25 Speaker 1: 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

9:31 Speaker 1: know about I don't know about Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins,

9:33 Speaker 1: 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

9:38 Speaker 3: to put up for any of this, like you know

9:39 Speaker 3: what I mean, Like yeah, are they paying their own hotels?

9:42 Speaker 3: Are they booking things outside for themselves? But they don't

9:45 Speaker 3: know how far the rabbit hole is going to go?

9:47 Speaker 3: Oh money gets long, so.

9:48 Speaker 1: Many people get affected. Yeah, absolutely, It says here the

9:52 Speaker 1: Farrells and the Farrells are claiming that Navarro and Avery

9:56 Speaker 1: actually assaulted them. Perry Ferrell said he was blinde sided

10:00 Speaker 1: when the other members canceled the remaining fifteen shows of

10:02 Speaker 1: the tour and broke up the band without consulting him,

10:06 Speaker 1: costing all of them a great deal of money. That

10:08 Speaker 1: is one thing I did wonder about when the tour

10:10 Speaker 1: was canceled. Is there not? I mean, I'm sure efforts

10:14 Speaker 1: 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

10:20 Speaker 1: of maybe not, some sort of arbitraartion issues some period?

10:26 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, maybe it was a situation where like

10:29 Speaker 3: Navarro or the others were like, forget it, I don't

10:32 Speaker 3: even want to do this anymore. It's not worth it. Yeah,

10:35 Speaker 3: I mean, because really it's not worth it.

10:38 Speaker 1: It also says here Perry Ferrell says his bandmates to

10:41 Speaker 1: fame to him by publicly saying after the fight that

10:44 Speaker 1: 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

10:50 Speaker 1: scene in the late nineteen eighties, with their contribution of

10:53 Speaker 1: elements of punk, goth and psychedelic sounds and culture. They

10:56 Speaker 1: became a national phenomenon with hits including Jane's Says, and

11:00 Speaker 1: been caught stealing and through their founding of the Lollapalooza tour,

11:04 Speaker 1: whose first incarnation they headlined in nineteen ninety one.

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

11:10 Speaker 3: of that.

11:11 Speaker 1: They started Lollapalooza. I did not know that Barry Ferrell

11:13 Speaker 1: started Lallapalooza really but not. Oh yeah, yeah he still

11:17 Speaker 1: I think he still owns it. He might have sold it,

11:19 Speaker 1: I'm not sure. The group broke up soon after, but

11:21 Speaker 1: returned several times in various incarnations. The twenty twenty four

11:25 Speaker 1: tour was the first time the original members had played

11:27 Speaker 1: together since twenty ten. Ferrell missed all seven of the

11:30 Speaker 1: group's rehearsals in the run up to the tour. His

11:32 Speaker 1: bandmate's lawsuit alleges and his behavior during the early shows

11:36 Speaker 1: range from a radicked out of control and by the way,

11:38 Speaker 1: that part the guy who did the podcast, who was

11:40 Speaker 1: 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

11:47 Speaker 1: concern for his well being and apparent intoxication, Perry forgot lyrics,

11:52 Speaker 1: lost his place in songs he had sung since the

11:54 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, and mumbled rants as he drank from a

11:56 Speaker 1: wine bottle on stage. Unquote, oh, rock and roll and

12:01 Speaker 1: on brand, but not necessarily helped. And he's a sixty

12:05 Speaker 1: five year old man. So it's like, let's chill on

12:07 Speaker 1: the partying right. The lawsuit says Ferrell was given many

12:11 Speaker 1: solutions to the volume problem, none of which he followed. Then,

12:16 Speaker 1: on September fourth, September thirteen, at Leaderbank Pavilion in Boston,

12:19 Speaker 1: in front of four thousand fans, videos partially captured Farrel

12:22 Speaker 1: lunging at Navarrow. Okay, so we all know that part.

12:25 Speaker 1: Farrell alleges that when he was being restrained by a

12:28 Speaker 1: crew member, Avery punched him in the kidneys, and that

12:30 Speaker 1: both Avery and Navarro assaulted him and his wife backstage.

12:33 Speaker 1: Shortly after the fight. Ferrell, in a statement, apologized to

12:36 Speaker 1: 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

12:43 Speaker 1: the feral lawsuit, along with e E's acknowledgment at the

12:47 Speaker 1: time and Instagram posts that her husband had clearly been

12:50 Speaker 1: the aggressor. Frost said in a statement, quote, if there

12:54 Speaker 1: is a question about what to believe, you can believe

12:55 Speaker 1: the video that we've all watched. The complaint from Paar,

13:00 Speaker 1: including his account of events backstage after the September thirteenth show,

13:03 Speaker 1: is revisionist history. It won't stand unquote. Both lawsuits allege

13:09 Speaker 1: assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and reach

13:13 Speaker 1: of contract, among other things. According to the other band

13:18 Speaker 1: members lawsuit quote now, the band will never have their

13:22 Speaker 1: revival tour to celebrate the album, the new album and

13:26 Speaker 1: forty plus years of deep, complex start topping recordings, and

13:29 Speaker 1: said history will remember the band is suffering a swift

13:31 Speaker 1: and painful death at the hands of Ferrell's unprovoked anger

13:34 Speaker 1: 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,

13:44 Speaker 1: a legendary band. But I don't I doubt there's any

13:47 Speaker 1: coming back from this. I mean, never say never, never

13:50 Speaker 1: say never.

13:50 Speaker 3: But you know, like he's got drinking issues going on,

13:53 Speaker 3: Like who wants to work with that?

13:54 Speaker 1: Like I said, he's he's a sixty five year old man.

13:58 Speaker 1: You know, when you're twenty five years old and you're

14:00 Speaker 1: already and too much and whatnot, people kind of give

14:01 Speaker 1: you a pass, you know, and if you're a rock

14:04 Speaker 1: star You might get away with it at thirty five,

14:07 Speaker 1: but when you're sixty five, it's like chill, dude, God,

14:10 Speaker 1: just you know you're in You're in an incredible position

14:13 Speaker 1: today too.

14:14 Speaker 3: People aren't into the whole drinking, drug and party and

14:18 Speaker 3: 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

14:31 Speaker 3: non alcoholic beverages that are offered, and you see places

14:33 Speaker 3: that have full on mocktail menus because the generations now don't.

14:38 Speaker 3: And I don't think that's a bad thing by any

14:40 Speaker 3: stretch of the imagination.

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