Perry Farrell Felt Pressure Replacing Dave Navarro On Jane's Addiction Tour

Jane's Addiction embarked on a tour with Smashing Pumpkins this fall, but they had to do it without an integral member. Just days before the tour began, Dave Navarro revealed he wouldn't be joining the band on the road because he was battling a "long bout of Covid."

"I had hoped for a full recovery by October but I am still very fatigued and will not be able to join this leg. I am personally gutted as our original bass player has returned, Eric Avery," he wrote in a statement at the time. "We wanted to bring you the original line up but that will have to wait until I am recovered."

The news meant Perry Farrell had to scramble to find a replacement, and during a recent interview with AltPress, he recalled the pressure that came with it. “At first, there was a lot of weight on my shoulders. This was our return tour right after COVID, and we didn’t have Dave," the singer admitted. "Jane’s is a unique band, and you can’t just grab any guitar player and they’ll pick it up. That’s Dave Navarro we’re talking about — those are big shoes to fill.”

Two weeks before tour, they landed on Queens of the Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen, and even with Farrell sustaining his own injury that forced Jane's to cancel a few shows, it was still an exceptional experience for the veteran frontman. “I had one of the best tours of my life," Farrell gushed. "I just love at the end of the show seeing how many happy people there were. We got to them, and that’s the best feeling in the world.”

In addition to the tour, Jane's has also been recording music this year, so 2023 is chalking up to be a big year for the band and its fans.