The perpetually strange saga of Jane’s Addiction just got even weirder. On Wednesday, the group quietly released a new single, “True Love,” two days after canceling their North American tour in the wake of singer Perry Farrell attempting to punch guitarist Dave Navarro onstage last week in Boston. Their future remains in serious doubt.
“True Love” follows the earlier new song “Imminent Redemption,” both of which mark the first new material from the original Jane’s lineup of Farrell, Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins since 1990. Given the current state of the band, it’s unclear whether any further recordings are in the pipeline.
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The non-singing members placed blame for the tour’s collapse squarely on Farrell, who they said they hope “will find the help he needs. We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis.”
For his part, Farrell eventually apologized to his bandmates as well as Jane’s fans, saying his behavior was “inexcusable.”
Yesterday (Sept. 17), Navarro waxed philosophical on Instagram about the recent turn of events. “I was re-reading Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and it occurred to me that there is a strong parallel between his work and that of our own,” he wrote. “The leaves represent the cycle of life and death, yet he continued to work on the body of poems until his own death in 1892. Perhaps he, like us, was unable to fully understand his own work as he continuously tried to re-write, add and expand upon it, willing away his own work’s cycle of life… just as we have. 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.”
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